Rwanda Day 1

Our first day is starting with a meeting with Ambassador Arietti, our U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda. He’s giving a good overview of the progress that has been made here since the genocide ended in 1994. It is amazing to think of the progress that this country has made, not only in education and health care, but also in healing the societal scars from the genocide.

Couple of points that the Ambassador made that should especially interest ONE members. PEPFAR — our global AIDS program — is making an enormous contribution to Rwanda. He said that the U.S. contributes around $120 million through PEPFAR to Rwanda. As a result, 50,000 people are now on HIV medicines.

The Ambassador pointed out that we have used the PEPFAR program to help build medical capacity in Rwanda. There are 441 rural clinics in this country. Many didn’t have power or water or staff. The United Stats has been a strong partner with Rwanda and, through PEPFAR funding, America has been able to improve medical services. Doctor training, nurse training, and medicines are at the core of the U.S. involvement.

Later today, we’re going to see how Rwandan products are opening doors to trade and opportunity for people (hint — think Starbucks).

-Tom Gavin, ONE’s Communications Director

PEPFAR Passes 80-16

After weeks of ONE Campaign members relentlessly writing and calling their senators, and great work by so many partner organizations, we’ve successfully unstuck billions of dollars in AIDS, TB and malaria funding tonight!

We dodged several potentially devastating amendments over the last 2 days - pieces of legislation that would have put millions of lives at risk. We did lose one amendment-fight, however, so the total funding for PEPFAR for the next five years will now be $48 billion, instead of the original $50 billion.

After tonight’s successful Senate vote, the bill will go back to the House and then onto the president to sign. We are hopeful those processes will be swift.

Given how much we had to fight to reauthorize this bill this year- this is a great victory for us. Thank you to everyone who contacted their members of Congress to pass PEPFAR. Literally, millions of lives will be saved with this funding.

Below, a quote from our Legislative Director Tom Hart:

“Even as Americans face serious concerns at home, the Senate has proved America’s commitment to providing lifesaving medicines to the world’s most vulnerable people. PEPFAR is an investment in people around the world; but it is also an example of America’s generosity and a critical piece of American diplomacy. By treating and preventing disease and saving lives, we can help to create more stable communities and a more secure future for Americans.

Senators Biden, Lugar and Reid are true heroes for their persistence and patience in passing this bill. This legislation received strong support from co-sponsoring Senators on both sides of the aisle, including both Presidential candidates.”

After the jump find all the proposed amendments, their results, and those who voted for and against this bill.

-Virginia Simmons

(more…)

PEPFAR Just Passed!!!

With a vote of 80-16.

(All but one of the amendments we were worried about failed. More on that shortly.)

Final PEPFAR Vote Now!

You can watch on C-Span2 now. We need a majority of the votes.

-Virginia Simmons

Hill Hearing on AIDS Funding

Yesterday, within the robust walls of the US Capitol, four important players in the game of private-sector organizations met to discuss the importance of public-private partnerships, as well as US federal funding, to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa. Olutosin Akinyode and I attended the forum.

Lisa Bohmer (Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation), Maurice Middleberg (Global Health Council), Jeff Richardson (Abbott Fund) and Jane Kambalame (Embassy of the Republic of Malawi) held a hearing illustrating the necessity of PEPFAR as vital to the effectiveness of each organization.

Many of these groups are funded and supported by PEPFAR and are examples of what the bill has done and can do in the future – increased support will allow them to reach more men, women and children with HIV/AIDS. The reauthorize PEPFAR bill will double the number of people on retroviral treatment to 3 million, including over 450,000 children.

All the information you need to make your call is here. (more…)

Real Stories About PEPFAR

By 2010, over 20 million children will have lost a parent to AIDS. The vast majority of these children live in developing countries, with eighty percent in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Less than one in ten of these children receive any form of external support. Without a safety net, these children are more likely to drop out of school, to be malnourished, to lose their homes, to face discrimination and abuse, and to contract HIV themselves.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR in short, offers hope to children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS. By providing key funding, PEPFAR enables its implementation partners to reach needy children and their families with life-saving treatment, prevention, and care.

Thanks to such support, Claire and her siblings in Rwanda are on the path to a brighter future. Claire’s parents died of AIDS when she was 17 years old, leaving her to care for her three younger siblings and two cousins. HIV positive herself, Claire was forced to rent their house for income and move her family into the backyard shed. In 2005, FXB International stepped in and provided the family with food, educational support, health care, HIV treatment, and grants to operate a small business. Today, Claire is a student at the Kigali Institute for Science and Technology, where she studies dietary therapy for people living with HIV. FXB continues to send her siblings and cousins to school, so that the children now enjoy a better chance of achieving their full potential.

In urban slums in South Africa, students like Nomthandazo are benefiting from HIV prevention and school support programs. In her early teens, Nomthandazo’s father passed away and her mother later died from AIDS. Although Nomthandazo’s aunt helped ensure that her basic needs (food shelter, medicine) were met, Nomthandazo had no one to teach her about sex, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted infections.

Fortunately, Nomthandazo’s teachers recognized her need for guidance and support. Nomthandazo was enrolled in an after-school program operated by FXB International. Through the program, Nomthandazo was able to learn important health and life skills including HIV/AIDS education and received counseling to help her cope with her grief and growing pains. She is now confident that she has the knowledge to make informed and safe choices in life.

Stories such as Claire’s and Nomthandazo’s demonstrate the need for HIV prevention, treatment, and care in resource-poor settings. Success stories like theirs can be repeated on a larger scale with full funding from Congress for PEPFAR, including orphans and vulnerable children programming.

-Kathleen Letchford, FXB USA

*Names and/or photos have been changed to protect privacy.

PEPFAR’s Senate Progress

Yesterday, two amendments which would have limited the scope of PEPFAR Re authorization were overwhelmingly defeated.

The first, sponsored by Senator DeMint would have limited the countries to which PEPFAR assistance could be distributed:

The Senate voted, 70-24, to table, or kill, the amendment from Jim DeMint , R-S.C., to limit the five-year, $50 billion bill to 15 poor countries where it already operates.

The second, sponsored by Senator Bunning, was defeated even more resoundingly:

Sen. Jim Bunning’s (R-Ky.) amendment to reauthorize the program for five years at $15 billion also failed by a vote of 16-80.

Senators Sam Brownback, and Hillary Clinton were among the Senate champions taking the floor yesterday in support of PEPFAR reauthorization and in opposition to the failed amendments. Senators Joe Biden and Dick Lugar have been shepherding the bill through the Senate.

The $50 billion PEPFAR re-authorization bill keeps the core intent of the universally acclaimed President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and expands the amount of funding and breadth of distribution. By providing over 2.1 Million with life-saving retroviral treatment, PEPFAR has been responsible for giving an entire generation a second chance at life, and saved millions of children from the challenges of living without parents.

ONE members nationwide have been calling in to their Senators’ offices in overwhelming numbers to declare their support of PEPFAR Re authorization at the $50 billion level and to declare their opposition to any proceedural measures which could derail this critical, life-saving bill.

No one can be certain about how any bill will fare in the US Senate, but if yesterday’s proceedings are an indication there’s good reason to be optimistic.

Click here, to register your phone calls and keep up the pressure. Things look promising, but there’s a long way to go.

Call With Reid on PEPFAR

I just finished a conference call regarding PEPFAR with Senator Harry Reid and a few fellow ONE volunteers. Senator Reid wanted to touch base with some of his NV constituents who have been following the progress of PEPFAR and actively pushing for passage this year, and share with us his gratitude for helping to move this important legislation forward.

Senator Reid mentioned that he had hoped to pass PEPFAR before the G8 summit and was disappointed that it didn’t, but was very pleased to announce that after the bill had been blocked for weeks by only a few senators, he was finally able to bring PEPFAR to Senate floor for a vote. Senator Reid said, “It is critical that we pass this important legislation. Diseases like AIDS, Malaria and TB are ravaging the developing world. In Africa alone AIDS kills 8,000 Africans every day, it takes no weekends off.”

ONE volunteers, Amber McIntosh, Adam Bellamy, Renee Meyocks, Karen Frost-Arnold, and Emily Miller were all eager for the opportunity to represent the 13,000 ONE members in Nevada, and we thanked Senator Reid for his leadership and commitment to pass PEPFAR.

Amber was able to ask Senator Reid how he envisioned the process will move forward, Senator Reid responded that he hopes the bill will pass tomorrow.

Karen was able to tell Senator Reid about her trip to Zambia, and how grateful she is to know that this legislation will commit resources to people just like those she met in Zambia who were suffering in their fight against AIDS every day.

We are almost there! If you haven’t already, call your senators and ask them to vote to pass this critical bill.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a day to celebrate.

-Matt Higginson, Nevada

Take Action: Call Now for Global AIDS Funding

The Senate continues to debate PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) today and will be holding a series of critical votes. We need you to call your senators right now and tell them to vote to pass this bill.

There is a chance that an individual senator could raise something called a “budget point of order,” in which case we’d need 60 votes to bypass this additional obstacle or else the entire bill will be defeated.

We believe that there is strong, bipartisan support to pass PEPFAR, but we’re not out of the woods yet. This is the moment we need you most. Please call now and ask your senators to support this bill for $50 billion dollars in critical global AIDS, TB and malaria over the next five years.

All the information you need to make your call is here.

-Virginia Simmons

PEPFAR Debate Live

The Senate is debating PEPFAR (The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) on the floor now.

You can watch live on C-Span.org now. (And on TV on C-Span2)

-Virginia Simmons