The organization that has used the Miss Universe Pageant for the past couple of years to promote their International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Campaigns is the Global Health Council (GHC), a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to "saving lives around the world." GHC advocates on many health issues, internationally: maternal and child health, infectious diseases in the developing world, and because AIDS has become the worst plague in the history of humankind, an emphasis on this disease, channeled through the IACMC. And, because of intense and clever work, Miss Universe is the official spokesperson for the Campaign.

The GHC has been around since 1972 and it absorbed the AIDS Candlelight Memorials, which had formed twenty years ago in the AIDS-ravished communities (mostly gay) of San Francisco and New York City, in 2000. According to the Campaign Coordinator for the IACMC, Matt Matassa, twenty-seven, the organization is now active in 3,000 communities, up from the fifty or so cities the first few years of the crisis, with the major of their growth in the two years.

Matassa was the administrator who came up with the brilliant idea of involving Miss Universe as a physical and spiritual outreach. (In addition to this year's Miss Universe, Justine Pasek, he also worked with last year’s winner, Denise Quiñones, from Puerto Rico. Matassa has also helped spearhead the promotion of Panama’s struggling AIDS organization, Probisida, in building AIDS-awareness there. "What we’ve been most successful at is helping them de-stigmatize the disease in Panama. It’s been an amazing response, too, including a formal audience with their (female) President, Mireya Moscoso. Everywhere we take her, Miss Universe is usually hosted by the leaders of that country, which in turn gives our fight legitimacy in the eyes of the populace."

GHC is a policy-making organization that devotes much of its time and resources to the political end of getting governments (including an only-recently receptive USA) to recognize the global damage AIDS has inflicted. It runs a fifty-person organization with offices in White River Junction, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. According to Leslie Gianelli, Director of Public Outreach, GHC "reach[es] out to deal with the acute medical needs around the world. We have a membership base of over 2,000–individuals, NGOs, academic institutions, doctors, and people in the field. We gage public opinion in trying to focus U.S. public policy on the subject."

And if the health issues weren’t a strong enough issue unto themselves, after 9/11 they made the decision to become more involved in international affairs. Lynn Johnson Williams, Press Secretary for the group, cited Afghanistan for being responsible for an uptick in public opinion on countries overseas. "We earned quite a bit of bipartisan effort, and helped the President fulfill his promise of more aid to those countries fighting AIDS."

Nils Daulaire, a native of Norway, the current CEO of Global Health Council, was actually one of the senior advisors asked to talk to the U.S. government about AIDS. Williams asserts that "what we are doing is working, we firmly believe. Just look at how international funding over the last three-to-five years has increased." One explanation for that is that, apparently, attitudes about fighting the disease are changing; especially those the most affected: women. This newish attitude is shifting in different countries in Asia and Africa, as well as Central and South America, "because the disease is now touching people all over the world, so more and more people are aware of the social and national-security consequences. That allows governments to frame the argument [over the fight] in their own self-interest."

GHC does not work directly in the field as a feeder or provider of hands-on care. As Metassa states, "We advocate on their behalf. And the Candlelight Memorials supply basic tools for communities to use in building the skills that those who are doing the organizing need; just how do you get others involved, for instance? There’s always a need for more activity, more skill-building. We help bring them together and construct skills through advocacy and community mobilization." In the West African country of Cameroon, alone, IACMC has helped create 400-500 candlelight events. "It’s an effective way to talk to people in the communities by bringing leaders, grandparents, children, to discuss the threat in a non-threatening way."

One of the essential ways they have evolved is in helping communities gain knowledge about the personal and economic impact AIDS delivers. In another incident, they helped producer/director Robert Bilheimer promote his extraordinary documentary, A Closer Walk, about the political and social consequences of the disease and supply information on how folk can get involved: www.acloserwalk.org or www.globalhealth.org/aids.

Global Health Council amasses the horrific statistics for those who will listen: 11.8 million young people, aged 15-24, are now living with HIV/AIDS. And at least 1,600 children a day, under age sixteen, die from it. And how there is no longer a luxury of hiding from those statistics— accepting that AIDS is now a hideous worldwide problem. Matassa shakes his head in acknowledging that "there is this huge road ahead of us and education is the key to success. In Africa, entire communities are being obliterated; we expect to see 20 million dead there by end of this decade. AIDS is the public health issue of our time."

An imperative question is: Are they finding the same resistance overseas that activists found in the U.S. at the beginning of our fight? "There has been major progress on Capitol Hill and all across America," Johnson. And the Candlelight Memorials are helping to reach out to new peoples, such as in China. "Often, there is no real political way to talk about AIDS, but holding a candlelight vigil transcends words. We tie prevention in with the memorials, first by emphasizing that real people have died, and secondly, that they can use the Memorials as a call to action. We may set up a Memorial on a Sunday, but for a week before we use country fairs, rock concerts and so on, to lead up to it."

During the United Nations session on AIDS in 2001, Global Health Council presented an international declaration on the subject, signed by over 70,000 people world wide, who had participated in a Candlelight Memorial. Each year, they come up with a new theme for the various Memorials. Last year’s was "Share Your Vision for a Brighter Tomorrow." This year's is "Remember the Cause—Renewing Our Commitment." As a result of this advanced-style of marketing their Memorials, they have doubled the number every year, now up to 3,000.

GHC now produces the largest grassroots international AIDS events in the world and continues to grow, in part, by using the various Miss Universes as their spokespersons. Because the reigning Miss Universe travels all round the world, with the IACMC logo prominently displayed, they have positioned themselves as a charitable-alliance-to-be-reckoned-with. Every new Miss U is sent on a study tour, using PSAs (Public Service Announcements) to launch the Candlelight Memorial campaigns. Long may they reign.

Dale Reynolds is formerly West Coast Editor of A&U. He is currently a freelance writer on entertainment themes, and can usually be spotted at www.zap2it.com.