Albina du Boisrouvray

Albina du Boisrouvray (born 1941 in Paris) is a former journalist and film producer who has become a global philanthropist and social entrepreneur working with AIDS orphans and vulnerable children around the world.^[1]

She is a grandchild of the Bolivian King of Tin, Simón Patiño, who was one of the wealthiest men in the world at the time of her birth. She founded the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) in 1989, in memory of her son who had died in 1986.^[2] She is godmother to Charlotte Casiraghi, daughter of Princess Caroline of Monaco.

Family

Albina du Boisrouvray was the daughter of Luz Mila Patiño Rodríguez, wife of Guy comte du Boisrouvray (died 1980). She was married twice, first to Swiss aviator Bruno Bagnoud and second to French film producer Georges Casati. She had one son by Bruno Bagnoud: François-Xavier Bagnoud, who was killed in 1986 at the age of 24 when the helicopter he was flying crashed in Mali.

Early career

After working variously as a model, actress, and freelance journalist, she established a film production company in 1969 and is credited with producing eleven movies. These include Fort Saganne (1984), directed by Alain Corneau and starring Gérard Depardieu.^[3]

Philanthropy

In financing the establishment of the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud in 1989, she sold a large part of her assets. These included a jewelry collection auctioned by Sotheby's in New York for $31.2 million, an art collection of $20 million, and a substantial part of her family real-estate business which fetched $50 million.^[4]

As part of the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud, Albina du Boisrouvray developed FXB International. The mission of FXB International is to fight poverty and AIDS, and support orphans and vulnerable children left in the wake of the AIDS pandemic. FXB International offers comprehensive support to the families and communities that care for these children, and advocates for their fundamental rights.^[5] Today, FXB International leads over 100 programs in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and has a staff of over 450.^[6]

In 1991, Albina du Boisrouvray funded the Global AIDS Policy Coalition at the Harvard School of Public Health. A year later, the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud announced that it was giving $20 million, its largest gift ever, to establish the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health and to pay for construction of the François-Xavier Bagnoud building on Huntington Avenue in Boston's Longwood Medical Area, and the François-Xavier Bagnoud Professorship in Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health.^[7]

Albina du Boisrouvray also started the FXB Center at the School of Nursing at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which "reaches across traditional boundaries to link research and practice through education". The Center provides clinical care, education, and technical assistance in the United States and globally to support capacity building to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic.^[8]

In 2002, Albina du Boisrouvray and FXB International founded World AIDS Orphans Day, "a grassroots campaign to draw attention to and advocate on behalf of the over 15 million children orphaned by AIDS".^[9]^[10]

Awards

On 11 June 2009, Albina du Boisrouvray received the BNP Paribas Jury's Special Prize.
On 8 April 2009, the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, presented Albina du Boisrouvray with the insignia of Officer in l'Ordre National du Mérite. The President honored Albina and her work, saying "Your NGO is a model throughout the world. You are a woman involved. Your solidarity is exemplary and that is why the Republic will distinguish you." She is the first film producer to be awarded L'Ordre National du Mérite.^[11]
In 2007, the French Fédération nationale des Clubs Convergences gave her an award for her activities on behalf of orphans and vulnerable children affected by AIDS in the world.
On 12 July 2004, Albina du Boisrouvray, received the Thai Komol Keemthong Foundation Award of Outstanding Personality for the Year 2004.
In November 2003, Albina du Boisrouvray received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the 4th International Conference on AIDS in India, in recognition for the projects that she initiated in the 35 States and Territories of India.
She was awarded the 2002 North-South Prize by the Council of Europe
An asteroid has been named after her, 8005 Albinadubois.
Her philanthropy and humanitarian efforts earned her a knighthood of the Légion d'Honneur in 2001.
In 2001, Harvard students presented her with the "Harvard Project for International Health and Development Award".
She received a Special Recognition Award for "Responding to the HIV/AIDS Orphan crisis" at the second conference on Global Strategies for the prevention of HIV transmission from mothers to infants in Montreal, in September 1999.
She was made a "John Harvard Fellow" by Harvard University in 1996.
In 1993, the University of Michigan conferred upon her a "Doctor of Humane Letters Degree".
She was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 1985.
Because of the innovative cost-effective projects that she formulated and directed within FXB, she was selected a member of the Social Entrepreneurs Group of the Schwab Foundation.

Albina du Boisrouvray

Family

Early career

Philanthropy

Awards

Notes

Sources