The Elton John AIDS Foundation has announced grants totaling nearly $1.85 million to nonprofits working to address the needs of people affected by AIDS in the Caribbean, Latin America, the American South, and elsewhere.

Two new grants and eleven renewal grants were awarded to organizations working in the areas of policy development and advocacy and to develop and disseminate treatment information, provide legal services, and support organizational development. New grants of $50,000 were awarded to the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, which works to promote the human rights of people living with and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in the courts and to educate, empower, and mobilize the community; and to the Dr. Michael Gottlieb HIV/AIDS Information Center, which provides access to HIV/AIDS education materials that promote awareness, reduce stigma and discrimination, and document the grassroots activism that helped mobilize AIDS research and treatment.

Renewal grants included $424,000 to the William J. Clinton Foundation's Clinton Health Access Initiative (formerly the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative) to expand access to high-quality HIV/AIDS care and treatment in Haiti and Jamaica; $350,000 to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation's Greater Than AIDS: PRIDE campaign to engage gay and bisexual men in the United States; and $200,000 to the Black AIDS Institute to strengthen the Black Treatment Advocates Network.

Renewal grants also were awarded to amfAR's MSM Initiative ($150,000), the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership ($75,000), Housing Works ($96,331), Aid for AIDS International ($100,000), the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America ($125,000), amfAR's syringe exchange research and advocacy initiative ($90,000), the Treatment Action Group ($125,000), and AEGiS ($10,000).

"EJAF's strategic approach allows us to respond adroitly as the global AIDS epidemic evolves, investing donor dollars where they are most needed and will have the greatest impact," said EJAF executive director Scott Campbell. "Many of these grants are requests for renewed funding for organizations EJAF has partnered with in the past, and we have been very gratified to learn about important new issues that have arisen during the course of their work, resulting in funding requests for programs that have evolved to address these issues."

For a complete list of grant recipients, visit the EJAF Web site.