Jesús Aguais is a Venezuelan AIDS activist and humanitarian who founded AID FOR AIDS in 1996 to address the critical gap in HIV treatment access between developed and developing countries.

As an AIDS educator and counselor at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in New York City, Jesús observed that while antiretroviral therapy was dramatically reducing AIDS mortality in the United States, these same life-saving medications remained prohibitively expensive and inaccessible in developing nations. He began collecting unused medications from patients who changed treatment regimens, recognizing the potential to redirect these resources where they were desperately needed.

The catalyst for formalizing AID FOR AIDS came when a Venezuelan woman sought his help after selling all her possessions to travel to New York for medication for her HIV-positive family members. The antiretrovirals they required cost $1,000 monthly—an unattainable amount in South America. This encounter highlighted the thousands of people worldwide dying from lack of access to medications being discarded in wealthier countries.

Jesús established AID FOR AIDS to systematically collect and redistribute unused, unexpired HIV medication to those without access globally. Under his leadership, the organization has expanded beyond medicine recycling to encompass comprehensive education, prevention, training, and advocacy programs targeting people living with HIV in developing countries. AID FOR AIDS now operates the world’s largest HIV Medicine Recycling Program.

His work has received recognition from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Bank. Jesús continues to lead AID FOR AIDS with a focus on health equity and human rights, ensuring that people living with HIV have access to treatment and support regardless of geographic location or economic circumstances.