Bono announces Aids-funding programme

Rock star and activist Bono today unveiled a new push to fight HIV and Aids in Africa, unveiling a partnership with several companies to offer red-themed products, proceeds of which will go toward funding anti-Aids programmes.

Dressed in a denim jacket and sporting his trademark wraparound sunglasses, tinted magenta, he said the programme would help the global fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria by raising more money for its programmes.

“So, here we are fat cats in the snow and I say that as one,” the songwriter and member of DATA, or Debt, Aids and Trade in Africa, said, to laughs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“It is a great place to do business and we have some business we want to talk to you about.”

‘Red’ includes offerings of red-themed products from American Express, Converse, Gap and Giorgio Armani, among others.

The venture will include an American Express card, shoes, t-shirts and sunglasses and is a long-term method of raising private income for the group, said Richard Feachem, executive director of the global fund.