A grassroots campaign has reached its initial fundraising goal of $14,000 to create the first of four HIV/AIDS educational videos for public school students to teach prevention, awareness and compassion in grades 5 through 12. The “Redefine Positive” initiative was started by Jodie Howerton, the mother of an HIV-positive 8-year-old boy her family adopted from South Africa. Her son attends public school near Seattle. She launched the campaign after watching outdated and medically inaccurate educational videos from the 1980s at her son’s school, then failing to find appropriate replacement videos. The Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is collaborating with the campaign, which now has a goal of $40,000 to fund the second video in the series.

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