Alicia Keys is urging bigger action to fight against HIV/AIDS — and she wants to talk to kids about the unpleasant subject.

Keys said she was just 8 or 9 years old when a friend of her mother’s died from AIDS. Now 34, she thinks that kids should understand more about the disease to reduce the stigma in society as well as help eradicate it, according to a People Magazine report.

She said at the time, she wasn’t old enough to understand the situation, and her mother wasn’t much help.

Keys said a visit to South Africa showed her just how devastating the disease is, and it inspired her ot create the Keep a Child Alive foundation in 2003. Now, the famous singer thinks it’s time to connect with the kids on a subject many find taboo.

Meanwhile, San Francisco is boosting funding to fight the disease, adding another $1.7 million to its Getting to Zero program to battle HIV and AIDS. City mayor Ed Lee said this past week that the funds would be targeted to the hardest to reach individuals in the city. A total of $54 million has been pledged so far this year, according to a Tech Times report.

The stated goal of this campaign is to eliminate HIV and AIDS from the city, and to reduce transmission and deaths by 90 percent by 2020, an ambitious goal to be sure. However, Lee said according to the report that he was confident that this was an achievable goal.