Apple recognized World AIDS Day Thursday with a reminder about how customers can join the fight to end AIDS. They can help through Product (Red) purchases, downloading and sharing new red Apple Watch faces and other means.
Purchases of Apple (Product) Red devices help support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a major nonprofit fighting HIV/AIDS worldwide.
World AIDS Day: Purchases of Apple PRODUCT (RED) items, new Apple Watch faces and more help raise awareness and funding
“Over the past 16 years, Apple and its customers have been part of the global fight to end AIDS,” Apple said. The (RED) partnership sends a portion of each purchase to the Global Fund, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
The huge nonprofit provides access to healthcare services to millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa, where communities are badly hit by HIV/AIDS. The work supports rural communities lacking services, as well as pregnant women and their families. And for the past three years, funding has helped reduce COVID-19’s impact on those beleaguered communities.
Apple support since 2006 by the numbers
- Since 2006, more than $250 million in Apple-supported grants have helped provide care and support for more than 11 million people.
- Over that time, over 197 million HIV tests have been distributed.
- Support has also helped more than 5 million HIV-positive mothers keep from infecting their babies with the virus.
New ways to help
“In honor of World AIDS Day, Apple is offering new ways for customers to continue to support the Global Fund, raise awareness, and learn more about the battle to end HIV/AIDS,” Apple said. It noted that (Product) Red ranges across iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone SE, and Apple Watch Series 8.
And it’s easy to add your support. You just buy the red one, and your purchase does some good.
In addition, you could purchase (Product) Red accessories, including the Silicone Case with MagSafe for iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, as well as the Apple Watch Sport Loop, Sport Band and Braided Solo Loop bands.
Buy and share new Apple Watch faces
Photo: Apple
Apple Watch users can show support through seven red Apple Watch faces that are now available. Users can download the faces from apple.com/product-red. Then feel free to share them with other Apple Watch users, Apple said.
And Apple is raising awareness of and learning about HIV/AIDS in other ways, too:
- Hundreds of Apple Store locations worldwide feature new window and product displays. That helps customers learn about (Product) Red and supporting the Global Fund.
- On the App Store, customers can learn about Preppy. It’s an app that helps people HIV more easily track PrEP therapy (or pre-exposure prophylaxis to prevent infection).
- In the U.S., Apple Books features selected books and audiobooks. It includes fiction from international sources and nonfiction about the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
- Apple TV app users can watch a collection of shows and movies on the Watch Now tab that explore the HIV/AIDS epidemic’s devastating impact on humanity.
- And Apple Music features music programming, radio episodes and more.
