Collection Guide
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Healing Alternatives Foundation Records
MSS 94-55
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, San Francisco Archives & Special Collections
Title: Healing Alternatives Foundation records
Creator:
Healing Alternatives Foundation Records
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 94-55
Physical Description:
1 box
.4
Date (inclusive): 1986-1994
Abstract: Records of the Healing Alternatives Foundation, including meeting minutes, correspondence, planning documents, publicity,
newsletters, design/artwork files, funding sources and strategies.
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog:
http://www.library.ucsf.edu/ .
Language of Material: Collection materials are in English
- Finding Aid Written By:
- Robin Chandler and Josue Hurtado, 1994
- Date Completed:
- October 2007
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manager of Archives and Special Collections. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of the UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management as the owner of the physical items
and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials.
[Identification of item], Healing Alternatives Foundation Records, MSS 94-55, The UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management,
Archives and Special Collections, University of California, San Francisco.
There are no alternate forms of this collection.
Guerilla Clinic Records, MSS 90-12
The Healing Alternatives Foundation Records were donated to the UCSF Library 1994.
Arranged to the folder level.
Processed by Bill Walker, Robin Chandler, and Josue Hurtado.
Healing Alternatives Foundation (HAF) was formed as a "buyer's club" in April of 1987 in direct response to the need for access
to treatment information and products. It was founded with the belief that HIV/AIDS can be a treatable, chronic disease requiring
both early preventative measures and aggressive treatment of opportunistic infections. That philosophy is accompanied by the
conviction that people with HIV should become informed about and involved with their own program of treatment and that treatment
options should be both available and affordable.
By pooling resources, founders were able to develop direct services to people with AIDS, who join HAF in order to purchase
materials at bulk prices. By 1993, membership was around 6,000 and was growing steadily. Members come to HAF for information
about treatments, access to various low-cost products, and the opportunity to share with other members. HAF also maintains
an extensive library on HIV, human immunity, and alternative healing practices and therapeutics.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection documents both this particular organization and the phenomena of buyer's clubs, which have been a major source
of unapproved medications and other treatment modalities since the mid-1980s. Among the documents in the first folder of the
collection is one from 1986 titled "Federally Unapproved Medications for the Treatment of AIDS and ARC; How to Get Them, How
to Bring Them Home, and How to Use Them." This is an overview of how these substances were originally obtained, with a description
of how to buy drugs in Mexico and deal with border crossings ("...look as ordinary as possible; consider it a new type of
drag").
The folder titled "Photographs" contains eight snapshots of unidentified HAF members from about 1986 displaying products
recently obtained on a run to Mexico. The folder labeled "FDA and 1992 ddC Incident" contains documentation of a 1992 FDA
sampling and testing of ddC tablets purchased from HAF. These document a particular investigation and HAF's response to it,
but they also reveal the attitude and approach of the FDA and its relationship with buyer's clubs in general. The final two
folders indicate the range of products available in 1992 and how particular products were ordered.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
AIDS (Disease)--United States--History
Community Foundations
AIDS activists--United States
Healing Alternatives Foundation