Project Provides HIV Information to Women
Tonya Layman
April 13, 2007

When Dawn Averitt Bridge was diagnosed with HIV following a date rape in 1988, her doctors told her to avoid information on the disease because it was confusing, and to quietly get her affairs in order.

She was 19 and nowhere near ready to give up.

Instead, she began reading as much as possible and discovered there was little information available for patients, especially women, since most information was focused on HIV as a gay man's disease.

Eventually, she found and enrolled in a drug trial, which drastically improved her health. She began thinking about living a life with AIDS instead of preparing for death. While continuing to be amazed at the lack of access to information on HIV/AIDS and the lack of focus on women for both research and treatment, she knew other women needed the same access, so she created The Well Project Inc.

"Thank God Dawn doesn't take direction well because she has made a huge difference in the lives of thousands and thousands of women around the world," said Wendy Rhein, the Well Project's executive director. "We are the only resource for a lot of places and a lot of people."

Created in 2003, the Well Project focused on changing the pandemic of HIV/AIDS for women through research and treatment advocacy, increasing global awareness and giving women and their caretakers access to comprehensive, easy-to-understand information. Their mission was critical since female AIDS cases more than tripled from 8 percent in 1985 to 27 percent in 2005.

Research showed that 85 percent of U.S. women had e-mail and accessed the Internet more often for health-care information than men. Bringing her brother on board, they decided that an online portal provided the most cost-effective means of information distribution, and the Web site was launched by 2004.

"The fact that she took this upon herself and did this thing is amazing," said Fran Dramis, former executive vice president and chief information officer at BellSouth Corp.

With more than 140 fact sheets, data sets, downloadable presentations and slides, the Web portal is available in English and Spanish.

In addition, the Well Project advocates for new research and treatments.

It also promotes better standards of care, furthers public awareness and education about HIV disease among women and connects people in search of a trusted, supportive and protected environment, Rhein said.

Since 2004, the Well Project's portal has tracked a unique visitor rate of 63,000 per month.

The Well Project is a finalist for the Technology Innovation Award, which has presented annually by TechBridge and technology firm Accenture Ltd. since 2002.

Technology Innovation Award
The Well Project

Mission: The Well Project's mission is to change the course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic through a unique and comprehensive focus on women through education, nurturing and supporting the community of HIV-positive women, their caregivers and health-care providers.

Award use: Rapidly expand the translation of its Web portal and specific information into other languages to broaden access to millions of women around the world who have just been diagnosed and don't know where to begin; or who want to date and don't know how to have the conversation with their partner about their diagnosis; or who want to have children but don't completely understand the risks; and much more. Access to the Technology Education Series would help further educate the organization's leadership as to how it can continuously improve its use of technology to reach its target audiences.