About

The Red Pump Project™ raises awareness about the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. Our mission is to promote HIV prevention through education, and open dialogue about the issues that surround sexual and reproductive health. We do work online and on the ground to motivate action and encourage dialogue about the effects of the disease.

Founded in March 2009 by Luvvie Ajayi and Karyn Watkins, Red Pump believes that if HIV affects one, it affects us all. We use the red shoe as a symbol of empowerment to represent the strength and courage of women infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The incorporation of fashion into the message of HIV prevention is our contribution as we hope to show that Awareness is Always in Style!™

How We Began

National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is March 10th every year, and there’s a whole lot of talking and educating happening all over the country in honor. That’s how The Red Pump Project was born… Out of our desire to get conversation started on the issue of HIV/AIDS and ask others to do the same. So we put out a call for bloggers to “Rock the Red Pump™.”

Our simple call to action started off with:

National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is Tuesday, March 10, 2009. It’s a nationwide initiative to raise awareness of the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women & girls and encourages ladies to take action. While progress has definitely been made in the areas of AIDS prevention and treatment, women still represent 27% of all new AIDS diagnoses, with African-American women accounting for 66% of that group.

In observance of this day, Karyn of The Fabulous Giver and Luvvie of Awesomely Luvvie came up with the idea of The Red Pump Project. The concept is simple: Rock the Red Pump on your blog to represent the strength and courage of women fighting HIV/AIDS or affected by the disease both directly and indirectly. We ask that on that day (March 10th), you embed the Red Pump Widget within your post with a short snippet of its significance, or you can rock the widget on your sidebar.

The goal of our initial campaign was 100 bloggers, but over 125 bloggers responded and “Rocked the Red Pump” on March 10, 2009. And, in 2010, the numbers doubled to over 250 sites.

The Red Pump Project has grown from a social media campaign to a national nonprofit working on the ground and online to ensure that women are empowered with knowledge about HIV/AIDS and the issues surrounding it.

What We Do

The Red Pump Project aims to:

• Commemorate major awareness dates with various events or campaigns online and on the ground
• Partner with organizations doing work in HIV/AIDS in their initiatives and events around the country
• Get women around the country to “Rock the Red Pump™” both online and on the ground
• Be involved in getting 1,000 people tested nationally
• Raise funds for HIV/AIDS service organizations

Read more about what we do.

The Red Pump Project is a fiscally sponsored project of Netroots Foundation, a California 501(c)3 organization.