Take Action: Call to Pass PEPFAR
April 1st, 2008 at 11:20 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
One of the best tools we have to fight global poverty - PEPFAR - is up for renewal and about to face a House vote this week. As ONE members this is our moment to stand up and take action.
Please call your member of Congress and tell him or her that you want the U.S. Congress to reauthorize this critical legislation. All the information you need for your call is here.
Passed in 2004, PEPFAR - the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief - has provided $15 billion in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in developing countries. The 2008 reauthorized would put $50 billion to work fighting this epidemic from 2009 through 2013.
This new and improved PEPFAR sets expanded goals, including:
-Stopping 12 million new cases of HIV infections
-Doubling the number of people on antiretroviral treatment to three million people (including 450,000 children)
-Training 140,000 new health-care workers
-Caring for five million children who have been orphaned by AIDS
April 1st, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I am really disappointed that the ONE campaign literature on the US global AIDS reauthorization bill does not include any mention of the weaknesses in the bill with respect to funding for prevention activities. Sexual transmission is the single greatest factor in the spread of HIV infections worldwide. Women and youth are the two groups at greatest risk. The current draft bill that came out of committee prohibits funding of family planning organizations in HIV prevention, counseling and treatment unless they comply with onerous restrictions set by the Bush Administration; replaces the abstinence-until-marriage earmark with a reporting requirement that many think will be as onerous and insidious; does not support funding of reproductive health commodities for HIV positive women seeking PMTCT services despite the recommendations by WHO that this is a critical pillar of these services; and maintains highly discriminatory policies against people in sex work for survival.
The ONE campaign’s action alert on this neither informs members of these weaknesses nor of the evidence on the adverse impacts of these restrictions collected by the US Government Accountability Office nor the Institutes of Medicine, but also does not urge people to take responsibility for changing these policies. I find this troubling.
Jodi Jacobson
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:16 am
MIssion accomplished….
Thanks for posting this here in the ONE Blog and for sending the email alert around yesterday. I was wondering when they were going to come out. (smile)
Happy B-day to a very special person at ONE and thank y’all for always being there for the world’s poorest people.
ONE HEART, ONE HOPE, ONE LOVE - debbie
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:17 am
You say “PEPFAR is working”. Certainly, PEPFAR has put a lot of people on treatment who would not otherwise have had access to it, and that’s a good thing. It has done very much worse on prevention.
The reauthorisation bill drops one of the more counterproductive restrictions on the use of prevention money (the abstinence only earmark) and keeps two others: the anti-prostitution pledge and the restriction on spending money on sterile injecting equipment for drug users. A third restriction is every bit as nonsensical, but perhaps more important in 14 out of the 15 countries where PEPFAR spends most of its cash. No PEPFAR money for contraception.
If you’re going to call your member of Congress, please complain about this nonsensical provision, which serves the interests of a handful of ideologues in the United States, but is hugely damaging for African families.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Elizabeth is on the money in her response to the PEPFAR hype! By supporting PEPFAR, we are supporting George Bush’s antiquated philosophy of Abstinence only sex, a philosophy that has been proven over and over to just worsen Africa’s issues.
It is true that PEPFAR has aided Africa in providing treatment to people that would not otherwize afford it. I just returned from Tanzania two weeks ago and was happy to see that those who were on ARV’s had access to them. After touring several HIV treatment and support centers, the word was good, but it is not just PEPFAR that is putting ARV’s in peoples hands. There are many other private organizations that provide ARV’s without strings attached. We must support these organizations and promote true SAFE sex practices and testing sites in order to truly be of help to our African Brothers and Sisters.
Lets keep in mind that it is not only ARV’s that will keep people with HIV alive, proper nutrition during treatment is also essential for these people to benefit from the drugs. Let your congress person know that PEPFAR is just another Bush agenda. It’s our money after all.
Asanti San!