AIDchain.org

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2011-05-03T18:54:00.001+12:00

Welcome to AIDchain.

Historically aid gets given, and then the process ends. This site explains a method to enable aid to be more effectively propagated, within our societies, using a human chain.

The 3 step AIDchain process

Give aid to the recipient of your choice.
Give them a small memento to act as a reminder of the AIDchain process.
Ask them to repeat the 3 step AIDchain process.

Notes:

It is keeping the chain alive that is important, not the value of the gift. If a person receives medical treatment to get their sight back, and passes on only a flower, the recipient of the flower might end up giving blood, and thereby saving a life.

Please feel free to start an AIDchain by giving some aid.

To publish your personal story, go to the 'personal stories' page.

To discover how the idea came about, go to the 'how it all began' page.

This method was designed by Roger Bays.

Personal stories

2011-05-03T18:12:00.003+12:00

To write a story click on the word 'comments' below (apologies for tiny text).

Story suggestions
Maybe you want to write about how you have:

started an AIDchain
been helped by an AIDchain
kept an AIDchain alive

How it all began

2011-05-03T16:59:00.008+12:00

The idea came about some time after I gave money to the Fred Hollows Foundation. The Fred Hollows Foundation restores sight to people who need an eye operation, but cannot afford it. I realised that the traditional process of giving helped people once, but only once. I contemplated that the recipient of a gift might be willing to pass on some form of aid to somebody else, if only asked. And in so doing would start an AIDchain.

I realised that the biggest obstacle to keeping an AIDchain alive was human forgetfulness. To overcome this I came up with the idea of using a memento, to jog people's memory. I further realised that a memento would also act as a useful tool to encourage conversations about the AIDchain concept, giving, reciprocity, and aid in general. And these conversations might result in additional aid being given.

Shortly after developing the idea a friend pointed out that it had all been done before. A little research uncovered that he was correct. However, AIDchain is different in that it utilises a memento as part of the process.

A little history
The essence of the idea was mentioned by Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Webb in a letter dated April 22, 1784. The letter is published at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_it_forward. Later, the term 'pay it forward' was popularised, and maybe coined, by Robert A. Heinlein in his novel Between Planets, published in 1951. The concept being that a loan is paid forward to somebody else who is in need, rather than being paid back to the original giver, who is probably not in need. Heinlein preached and practiced this philosophy in real life. After his death his wife Virginia Heinlein founded the Heinleim society http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinlein_Society.

Sociologists term the concept of paying forward 'generalised reciprocity' or 'generalised exchange.'