To commemorate World Aids Day, The Stanford Daily highlighted an award-winning nonprofit founded by Stanford alumni whose educational tools have reached more than half a billion young people in 82 countries.

Piya Sorcar, PhD, was a Stanford graduate student wrestling with a hard question: How do you teach lifesaving information about HIV transmission in places where governments hesitate to speak openly about sex? Working toward her PhD in learning sciences and technology design, Sorcar set out to design a new kind of health education—one that was scientifically accurate, yet culturally respectful.

From that challenge 15 years ago grew one of the most successful public health ventures in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, TeachAids, the award-winning nonprofit whose interactive animated videos and "Prevention Begins With Me" materials have been developed in 27 languages. 

Today, Sorcar—now CEO of TeachAids and an adjunct faculty member at Stanford Health Policy—continues to collaborate with Stanford researchers, governments and organizations around the world to expand the reach of culturally attuned education. And each year she teaches a Stanford course, Reducing Health Disparities and Closing the Achievement Gap through Health Integration in Schools.

Doug Owens, MD, the chair of the Department of Health Policy who first met Sorcar when she was a PhD student and has been a TeachAids medical advisor since its inception, sees the nonprofit as a model of true multidisciplinary work. Drawing on expertise from the School of Education and the School of Medicine, he said TeachAids is “an amazing example of the impact that training at Stanford can have.”

At a 2015 Stanford University symposium, Sorcar described the challenge of delivering HIV/AIDS education that meets learners where they are. She noted that bans and restrictions on sex education in parts of India, for example, often resulted in “watered-down” or nonexistent instruction on HIV/AIDS.

Read The Stanford Daily story commemorating the 15 year Stanford-TeachAIDS collaboration.

In an accompanying Stanford Daily commentary, a recent Stanford graduate praises the global impact of TeachAids and emphasizes the importance of young people renewing their advocacy for World AIDS Day.

According to the World Health Organization, HIV remains a major global public health issue, having claimed more than 44 million lives to date. An estimated 40.8 million people were living with the human immunodeficiency virus at the end of 2024.

For the first time since 1988, the United States did not recognize World AIDS Day on Monday, with the Trump administration instructing State Department employees to refrain from promoting the observance or using government funds to support it.

“The administration’s justification, `an awareness day is not a strategy’ to save lives, is a sentiment many believe echoes the early and critical days of the epidemic,” writes Aya Aziz, who graduated from Stanford this year with a degree in human biology. “During times like these, we must also demand our peers, supported by the institutional heft of Stanford, commit to a renewed wave of advocacy.”

Paul Wise, MD, a pediatrician and Stanford Medicine professor of health policy, as well as medical advisor for TeachAIDS, told Aziz that the fight against AIDS remains urgent. He noted that the United Nations set a goal of ending AIDS by 2030, but the significant withdrawal of U.S. funding for public health programs around the world is projected to result in 2.9 million additional HIV-related deaths by then.

“The reduction in funding for global health programs is tied partly to the diversion of Western resources to military buildup,” Wise said. He also noted the U.S. shift away from multinational efforts like the WHO toward more limited bilateral partnerships.