The plight of Aids orphans and vulnerable children has been given the prominence it deserves thanks in part to one woman's tireless campaign.

French Countess Albina du Boisrouvray, a cousin of Prince Albert of Monaco, has been a leading voice in focusing world attention on the child victims of HIV/Aids and has successfully raised the issue as a global problem.

Her boldest initiative to date was the launching of World Aids Orphans Day  on May 7, 2002. In the four years since, Albina has persuaded 271 cities - New York and Washington DC included - in 38 countries to officially proclaim May 7 as World Aids Orphans Day.

The idea behind the day is to bring attention to the need for a global solution to the problem of children orphaned by Aids and vulnerable children.

What are we to think of this aristocratic post-modern self-appointed guardian angel of Aids orphans?

In her early, days Albina du Boisrouvray was an extremely talented, militant and liberated woman of the world who became a successful writer and film producer.

She had been a freelance journalist for the Nouvel Observateur. Her journalistic scoop on the circumstances surrounding the death of the legendary revolutionary hero Che Guevara was carried by L'Express and broadcast by French and Scandinavian television channels.

In 1970 she co-founded Libre, a literary magazine that published the works of many famous Latin American writers who subsequently became literary icons, including Plinio Mendoza, Carlos Franqui, Octavio Paz, Claribel Allegria, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Carlos Fuentes.

During the same period, from 1969 to 1986, she founded a film company, Albina Productions, and produced 22 movies in 17 years, notably - "Les Zozos"(1972) by Pascal Thomas, "Police Python" (1975) by Alain Corneau, "L'important c'est d'aimer" (1975) by Andrzei Zulawski and "Fort Saganne" (1984) by Alain Corneau.

In 1985 she was made "Chevalier des Arts et Lettres" and became the first film producer to be awarded France's coveted "L' Ordre National du Merite".

Albina is a reputable businesswoman in her own right. Since 1980 she has been running her family's business empire as chairperson of SEGH, a real estate and hotel properties group.

Until then life had smiled on Albina. Wealth, success and fame had naturally attached themselves to her like second nature. But things were to change drastically.

In 1986 her life was shattered by the death of her only child, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud, from her marriage with Swiss national Bruno Bagnoud, in a flying accident during a rescue mission over Mali.

Inconsolably saddened by her loss, she could not continue living the life she used to. She sold her film production company and most of her personal assets and went away to Lebanon on a humanitarian mission with Bernard Kouchner of Medicins du Monde.

She said: "I sold three quarters of my family inheritance, jewels, paintings and real property. The proceeds came close to US$100 million [Bt3.7 billion]."

Some of the proceeds she donated to charitable causes that her late son Francois was passionate about.

The remainder, close to $60 million, was used to set up the Swiss-based Association Francois Xavier Bagnoud (AFXB) in 1989 to support programmes dedicated to helping Aids orphans around the world.

Albina extended AFXB's geographical reach into Southeast Asia in 1990.

She started with shelters and support activities for abandoned HIV-infected babies in northern Thailand, where the Aids epidemic that began in the 1980s hit hardest. With the collaboration of child rights activist Sanpasit Koompraphant of the Foundation for Children and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Albina established three rehabilitation homes and offered a programme of social, psychological and professional reintegration for young Burmese women rescued from the sex trade in Thailand.

Albina visited Thailand in late 1992 and established a project to care for abandoned HIV-infected babies and Aids orphans by setting up four FXB Houses in Chiang Mai in collaboration with the locally based Support the Children Foundation. The FXB Houses are still operating and are now fully self-supporting.

Through the good offices of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), Albina joined an ecumenical effort, in collaboration with an innovative Buddhist monk, Phra Alongkot, to start an Aids hospice in Central Thailand. Wat Prabat Namphu, in Lop Buri province, is now a famous temple of last resort for Aids victims.

The temple-hospice offers professional, compassionate attention combined with Buddhist meditation and contemplation to provide spiritual relief from the suffering of living with Aids. The hospice is now run by a local foundation.

On July 12, 2004, Albina received the prestigious Thai Komol Keemthong Foundation Award for Outstanding Personality for the year 2004. The award was given in appreciation of her great contributions to Thailand and Burma in the fields of protecting children and women's rights, education, vocational training and support of HIV/Aids-affected children and their families.

On the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Switzerland in May this year, the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangkok made a generous contribution to the FXB Thailand Foundation to support work on behalf of women, children and orphans affected by HIV/Aids and the Asian tsunami of 2004.

Countess Albina du Boisrouvray is the chairperson of AFXB International, and lives in Paris.

Jeffery Sng

Special to The Nation