WINE FOR LIFE is an initiative of the Community of Sant’Egidio, forging a stable link between high-quality Italian wines and the struggle to save Africa where almost 30 million people are living with HIV/AIDS - usually without the medicines needed to treat the disease - and where more than 12 million children are AIDS orphans.

WINE FOR LIFE has made DREAM possible. DREAM is the program initiated by the Community of Sant’Egidio to offer real treatment - with the full “triple cocktail” of anti-AIDS drugs provided in the context of a global and innovative approach - to women, men and children with AIDS in Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, Angola and Guinea Bissau.

With DREAM and WINE FOR LIFE, the Community of Sant’Egidio today offers the most effective program in sub-Saharan Africa for treating AIDS: 97 percent of babies born to HIV-positive mothers in the program are born without the virus; and more than 9 out of every 10 adults in the program survive and return to living a normal life. The results are so impressive that the World Health Organization has made DREAM the subject of a case study and the Community of Sant’Egidio was awarded the 2004 Balzan Peace Prize.

WINE FOR LIFE involves placing stickers on bottles of important wines. The winemakers buy the stickers for 50 euro cents each. With 100 stickers, a baby can be born healthy to an HIV-positive mother. With 1,000 stickers an adult with AIDS can live a year and care for his or her family, breaking the dramatic spiral which creates new orphans even among babies born healthy.

In your favourite wine shop or restaurant, when you choose a fine wine with the WINE FOR LIFE sticker on it, you know that 50 cents already has been donated to the fight against AIDS in Africa.

This, too, is a way to make a dream a reality.