Over the last two weeks, US Am­bas­sador Beat­rice W Wel­ters has pre­sent­ed more than US$25,000 in grants to sev­er­al or­gan­i­sa­tions which aim to in­crease aware­ness on and stem the spread of HIV/Aids. PEP­FAR (The US Pres­i­dent's Emer­gency Plan for Aids Re­lief) grants of US$2,355 were giv­en to the Es­i­ma­je Foun­da­tion, US$5,000 to the To­ba­go chap­ter of Sorop­ti­mists In­ter­na­tion­al, and US$8,000 to Arts In­sight. The US Em­bassy al­so gave a US$10,000 grant to the Caribbean HIV and Aids Al­liance. The Es­i­ma­je foun­da­tion is ini­ti­at­ing a project, Liv­ing with and Re­lat­ing to Per­sons Liv­ing with HIV and Aids. It plans to host a se­ries of work­shops and sem­i­nars for in­di­vid­u­als and their part­ners who have to cope with the virus. Arts In­sight's project Through Art There is Re­al­i­sa­tion will in­clude a num­ber of paint­ing and sculpt­ing work­shops held at com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres for in­fect­ed youths 15-30 and their fam­i­lies and friends. The work­shops will be fa­cil­i­tat­ed by promi­nent artists and trained coun­selors. The Caribbean HIV and Aids Al­liance's project, HAP­PI, is aimed at in­creas­ing aware­ness of the dan­gers of risky be­hav­iour among in­mates as well as a peer sup­port group for HIV-pos­i­tive pris­on­ers. The PEP­FAR ini­tia­tive is the US gov­ern­ment's lead­ing ini­tia­tive to help those suf­fer­ing from HIV and Aids around the world. This his­toric com­mit­ment is the largest by any na­tion to com­bat a sin­gle dis­ease in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.