Our Beneficiaries

The HUSH Foundation has selected the following organizations as beneficiaries of the "Night of Jazz and Fashion by the Sea
Benefit Concert" in our support of children with HIV/AIDS and Pediatric HIV/AIDS Research.
The Organizations We Support
One Heartland is a national non-profit organization committed to greatly
improving the lives of children, youth and their families impacted by HIV/AIDS
and other significant life challenges worldwide.
Copyright © 2008 The HUSH Foundation®. All Rights Reserved.
Founded In 1993, Camp Heartland Heartland is the
experience HIV/AIDS.  Over 75 percent of Camp
Heartland's participants live in poverty.  The company is a
national program that welcomes children from 40 different
states.

As most of the children cannot afford tuition, through the
generosity of thousands of individuals, corporations and
foundations, Camp Heartland's programs and services
are provided free of charge to all participants and
operates camps in California, New York and Minnesota
and has begun an international expansion.

Since 1994, One Heartland's Journey of Hope AIDS
Awareness Program has traveled throughout the United
States on a mission of increasing HIV awareness,
prevention, education and testing.  The speakers on the
tour are children affected by HIV, poverty and other
challenges.

One Heartland annually serves thousands of suffering
and at-risk children in the United States including those
who experience poverty, HIV/AIDS, grief, foster care,
Tourette's Syndrome, and other obstacles.

On April 1, 2008, after completing a strategic planning
process, Camp Heartland chose to expand its mission
and vision and form an umbrella organization entitled One
Heartland.  

One Heartland will operate all of the company's programs
including Camp Heartland, Birch Family Alliance, Camp
Pacific Heartland, Journey of Hope AIDS Awareness
programs, Global Heartland, the Heartland Institute and
more.

The HUSH Foundation's Founder Karen Taylor pays a
visit to One Heartland. CLICK HERE to see pictures of her
adventure!
One Heartland
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

    Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trial Unit

Children’s Hospital and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children (SCHC), currently linked through the Circle of Care, a HRSA
Pediatric AIDS Demonstration Project, formed a Philadelphia Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Unit. The two institutions will enroll
at least 50 HIV-infected children per year in phase I, phase II and phase III trials. Subjects are recruited from existing patient
populations and through community outreach efforts by culturally sensitive individuals. Obstetrical and perinatal research is
conducted at hospitals allied and/or associated with the two pediatric hospitals: Temple University Hospital with SCHC,
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with Children’s Hospital. Pregnant
women and children of minority groups, predominately African-Americans and Latinos, comprise close to 90 percent of the
patient population and hemophiliac children are included in clinical studies. The Philadelphia Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials
Unit facilitates basic as well as clinical research and provides ancillary services for HIV-infected children and their families in
addition to fulfilling its primary mission as a clinical trials unit.











The Center for Pediatric and Adolescent AIDS at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is a comprehensive,
multidisciplinary program dedicated to fighting the AIDS epidemic among young people on every front: from education to
clinical care to patient outreach to extensive basic and clinical research efforts.

The Center for Pediatric and Adolescent AIDS is at the forefront of patient care, offering the most advanced treatment
therapies currently available. Children’s Hospital cares for around two thirds of Philadelphia’s pediatric AIDS patients and
collaborates with other city institutions in providing care for many more. Center clinicians work closely with Children’s Hospital
specialists in gastroenterology, nutrition, behavioral and neuropsychology, radiology and clinical pharmacology to coordinate
comprehensive care for patients.

The center is also an educational resource, working to increase understanding of pediatric and adolescent AIDS in the
community. Because AIDS is still a uniformly fatal disease, a major focus of the Center’s efforts lies in implementing effective
prevention strategies among at-risk populations. The Center has addressed prevention needs among adolescents for more
than a decade. Its longstanding and successful “Teen Peer Education Program” is one of the first to employ teens to
educate other teens about HIV and other adolescent health risks.

Center staff are also committed to educating other healthcare professionals and community leaders, so that they can apply
the most advanced learning in their own work and help eliminate societal barriers to AIDS prevention and treatment.

The Center for Pediatric and Adolescent AIDS is a leading center for basic and clinical AIDS research. Basic research efforts
are concentrated on understanding the disease mechanisms involved in HIV/AIDS, a process which ultimately holds the
promise of a cure. The effect of HIV infection on the immune system is a major research focus. Center staff also hold key
roles in several national clinical research programs, including the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group and the Adolescent
Medicine HIV/AIDS Research Network.

Much of the Center’s clinical research is focused on developing appropriate drug therapies for infants, children and
adolescents. Clinical research also investigates the psycho-social effects of living with HIV infection and the disease’s impact
on the healthcare delivery system.  
                                                       

                                                       
                                                                  Vaccines and Immunotherapies
                                                         
                                                                       Researchers harnessed the protective powers of the immune
                                                                        system for medicinal purposes with the development of modern
                                                                        vaccines more than a half-century ago. Nevertheless, diseases
                                                                        remain the leading cause of death for children around the
                                                                        world, and researchers are exploring new ways to use vaccine
                                                                        technology to eliminate this threat.

The immune system sometimes continues its attack long after it eliminates the invading disease. Immune system dysfunction
is involved in autoimmune disorders as varied as asthma, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis. While
autoimmune disorders often develop during childhood, they are debilitating chronic illnesses that last a lifetime. As
discoveries in the laboratory shed light on the healing potential of the immune system, vaccines will be developed to correct
autoimmune disorders by halting the immune system’s mistaken attack on the body itself.

New vaccines also are being developed to help the immune system recognize and eliminate cancer. Unlike infectious
diseases against which the immune system is prepared to defend, cancer evades detection. Unfortunately, traditional
treatments designed to kill cancer also destroy healthy cells, leaving the immune system weak and the body defenseless.

Because numerous diseases involve a component of immune system dysfunction, the Vaccines and Immunotherapies
Affinity Group – including researchers from such different fields as cancer research, gene therapy, immunology, infectious
disease, rheumatology and vaccine development – is applying shared knowledge toward a better understanding of the
immune system and its powers to protect and heal.

Infectious disease research at the Hospital is focused on developing a safe and effective vaccine against rotavirus, the most
common cause of diarrhea and dehydration in children. One product of this research is a newly developed oral vaccine
delivery system that could one day eliminate the need for needles, making vaccines easier and more cost effective to
administer, especially in the developing world.

In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved RotaTeq®, the rotavirus vaccine developed at Children’s Hospital
and The Wistar Institute and further developed by Merck & Co. The federal government’s Advisory Committee on
Immunization Practices now recommends that the vaccine become part of the routine infant immunization schedule.

Another infectious disease with global impact is HIV. Standard vaccines for HIV have so far proven ineffective because the
virus has evolved to include sophisticated methods for evading detection by the immune system. Hospital researchers are
working to understand how HIV invades cells and evades detection by the immune system and designing compounds and
delivery systems that target the cells that HIV invades.

For example, investigators are supported by NIH-funded program project, translational research, and biotechnology grants
to develop new therapeutics and vaccines against HIV. Clinical trials of pediatric AIDS treatments in development are
conducted through the Philadelphia International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) Unit,
located collaboratively at the Children’s Hospital and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Refining treatments for neuroblastoma, the most common and deadly form of solid-tumor cancer in children, is another focus
of this research affinity group. Until recently, the standard of care for children with neuroblastoma – a combination of
surgery, chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation – achieved survival rates of only 35 percent. Investigators are focused
on new ways to boost the natural immune response of patients during recovery from stem cell transplantation, a time when
patients are extremely vulnerable to life-threatening infections or
relapse of cancer.

In addition, Children’s Hospital researchers are developing a better understanding of autoimmune disorders, the role of
genetics and the ways in which infectious diseases alter immune system functioning. Investigators are working to develop
immune therapies for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, dermatomyositis and lupus using an immune therapy designed
for treating lymphoma. Researchers are also investigating the high vaccine failure in children with certain genetic disorders
causing immunodeficiency and autoimmunity, and are developing strategies for enhancing vaccine delivery.

Links:

Integrated Preclinical Clinical Program on Neurokinin1-R Antagonists for HIV Therapy

Vaccines and Immunotherapies Research Affinity Group

Novel Prophylactic HIV VaccinesBased on rAAV Vectors

Vaccine Education Center

Suicide of HIV-1 Infected Cells by TAT-inducible Expression of shRNA
Clinical Research Core Facilities Links
Center Leader: Terri Finkel, MD, PhD; Co-leaders:
   Steven Douglas, MD; with Paul Offit, MD
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