Association François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB International) is an international organization aimed at providing support for children affected by AIDS and poverty and was founded in 1989 by Albina du Boisrouvray.
Contents |
FXB is named after a helicopter pilot François-Xavier Bagnoud who died in 1986 while participating as a transport pilot in the car rallye Dakar. He became the youngest professional Instrument Flight Related (IFR) airplane and helicopter pilot in Europe at age 23. Bagnoud was involved in over 300 rescue missions as part of Sion, Switzerland's Air Glaciers.[1]
In 1989, his mother Albina du Boisrouvray and family friends founded the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud. As a reflection of "the values of generosity and compassion that guided François’s life", the organization was created to support children affected by AIDS.[2]
The FXB-Villages are community-based, sustainable responses to the AIDS orphans crisis and extreme poverty. Each Village supports 80-100 families, comprising approximately 500 individuals, mostly children. Over a three-year period, FXB provides communities with necessary life skills in the hope that they will become physically, financially and socially independent.
The Villages’ three-year program is marked by a gradual transfer of responsibility from the FXB counselors and nurses to the participants themselves. Financially, FXB decreases its payment of educational and medical costs from 100% in the first year to 50% by the third year. At the same time, the organization collaborates with the heads of households to develop an income generating activity.
A 2007 study of Rwanda participants found by the end of the program 86% of families earned enough to boost them above that country's poverty level.[2]
FXB was awarded a grant from the United States Agency for International Development to develop 20 new FXB-Villages in Uganda and Rwanda in 2009.[3]