Africa's AIDS officials commend Bush's $15 billion pledge
Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com
and The
Black Business Journal
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Officials working with AIDS in Africa
on Wednesday January 29, 2003, welcomed President Bush's pledge of
$15 billion for assistance, but 
questioned
where the money would come from and who would get it. In his State of
the Union address, Bush asked Congress to budget $10 billion in new
money and $5 billion in already allocated assistance over five years
to provide AIDS drugs to 2 million Africans, help prevent 7 million
new infections, and care for those infected with the virus and
children orphaned by the disease.
He called the money a "work of mercy" that would save millions of
Africans. "This nation ca
n
lead the world in sparing innocent people from a plague of nature,"
Bush said in his address Tuesday, January 28.
Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, praised the announcement as a "dramatic signal" the United States is ready to confront the pandemic. "It gives leverage to activists everywhere to keep the pressure on. It transforms the response. It opens the floodgates of hope," he told a news conference in Johannesburg.
Bush's pledge should also put pressure on other developed countries to increase their contributions to AIDS, he said. Experts estimate rich nations need to spend at least $10 billion a year to fight HIV in the developing world, but spent only $2.8 billion last year.
Despite his optimism, Lewis questioned what programs the already allocated $5 billion would come from and what share of the money would go to the United Nations' global fund to fight HIV.
An estimated 29.4 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, out of 42 million worldwide infections. The virus has orphaned 11 million African children, decimated work forces across the world's poorest continent and slashed life expectancy and overwhelmed health care systems.
Only several thousand have access to advanced AIDS medicine commonly available in developed countries.
Some African officials said they needed more details of Bush's offer. "We appreciate the move and the gesture, but will be it enough? We don't even know how the money will be used and who will get what," said Najib Balala, Kenya's social services minister. "How do we all share this money."
"We suffer in Africa-; there's a lack of awareness, a lack of drugs and hospital facilities needed to treat AIDS ... these are the things that need to be put in the place," he said. "The biggest gift would be free drugs or subsidized drugs and $3 billion a year is very little money
Prega Ramsamy, executive secretary of the Southern Africa Development Community, said the money would need to go small-scale community projects to have any real effect on people's lives. "We need to make sure that it filters down to the level of people that most need it," he said.
Maimouna Dieng, national program coordinator of the Senegalese Association for the Well-being of the Family, called the pledge of money a "godsend" and hoped it would provide "an opportunity to put our programs into practice." By Ravi Nessman/AP/Wed Jan 29, 2003
USAfrica AIDS EDUCATION Project can be reached at 713-270-5500, or
713-270-6500. You may support the USAfrica outreach program: 8303 SW
Freeway, Suite 100, Houston, TX 77074. E-mail: fightaids@USAfricaonline.com
APPRECIATION These views were
stated during an interview CNN's anchor Bernard Shaw and
senior analyst Jeff Greenfield had with Mr. Nwangwu on
Saturday November 18, 2000 during a special edition of
'Inside Politics 2000.'
Africa
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This life and pain of Kgomotso Mahlangu, a
five-month-old AIDS patient (above) in a hospital in the
Kalafong township near Pretoria, South Africa, on October
26, 1999, brings a certain, frightening reality to the
sweeping and devastating destruction of human beings who
form the core of any definition of a country's future, its
national security, actual and potential economic development
and internal markets. By Chido Nwangwu
22 million Africans HIV-infected, ill
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the Best of Houston 2001 special as chosen by the editors
and readers of the Houston
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DEMOCRACY
DEBATE
CNN
International debate on Nigeria's democracy livecast on CNN.
It involved Nigeria's Information Minister Prof. Jerry
Gana, Prof. Salih Booker and USAfricaonline.com Publisher
Chido Nwangwu. Transcripts
are available on
the CNN International site.
USAfrica The
Newspaper voted the "Best Community
Newspaper"
in the 4th largest city in the U.S., Houston. It is in
the Best of Houston 2001 special as chosen by the editors
and readers of the Houston
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reflecting their poll and annual rankings.
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AFRICA
AND THE U.S. ELECTIONS
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CONTINENTAL
AGENDA
Bush's position on
Africa
is "ill-advised."
The position
stated by Republican presidential aspirant and Governor of
Texas, George Bush where he said that "Africa will not be an
area of priority" in his presidency has been
questioned by USAfricaonline.com Publisher
Chido Nwangwu. He
added that Bush's "pre-election position was neither
validated by the economic exchanges nor geo-strategic
interests of our two continents."
Nwangwu,
adviser to the Mayor of Houston (the 4th largest city in the
U.S., and immigrant home to thousands of Africans) argued
further that "the issues of the heritage interests of 35
million African-Americans in Africa, the volume and value of
oil business between between the U.S and Nigeria and the
horrendous AIDS crisis in Africa do not lend any basis for
Governor Bush's ill-advised
position which
removes Africa from fair consideration" were he to be
elected president.
By Al Johnson