c. 2003 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ Students, religious leaders and other members of the Global AIDS Alliance urged President Bush on Monday to keep his promise to spend $15 billion over five years to fight global AIDS as they pushed for the restoration of $1 billion cut from the president’s AIDS initiative.
“This is not just a problem in Africa,” said Health Rights Action Group representative Milly Katana. “This is a problem that has far-reaching implications.”
About 50 people gathered near the Capitol to urge the president to push for the full $3 billion in AIDS funding in the fiscal 2004 budget, rather than the $2 billion he now proposes spending.
Some of the activists said they feared the 2004 budget for fighting the disease would fall short of even that.
In June, President Bush committed $15 billion over five years to fight AIDS in Africa, but in July only asked for $2 billion in funding for fiscal 2004.
“You can’t just go to Africa and hug orphans and not fix this problem,” said Paul Zeitz, executive director for the Global AIDS Alliance.
Mark Pelavin, associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said people must “raise their voices” if they want Bush to make AIDS funding a priority.
But with an $87 billion administration request for Iraq aid looming, Pelavin said, “money is tight and getting tighter.”
However, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., plans to use the Iraq request as a vehicle for getting the extra $1 billion in AIDS funding, an aide said. Durbin plans to ask the Senate to amend the Iraq funding to include the $1 billion.
Adam Taylor, director of Global Justice, a group for young adult AIDS activists, said the AIDS epidemic is “a crisis of our generation.”
“The proposed spending is exactly what we need,” Taylor said. “But we are extremely alarmed at how the president is promising one thing and doing another.”
Diana Aubourg, a representative of the Pan-African Children’s Fund, called on faith-based groups to connect with AIDS sufferers, regardless of how much the groups receive in AIDS funding next year.
Her organization has raised about $3 million since its April 2002 inception, which it gives to grassroots orphan-care projects in sub-Saharan Africa. PACF appeals to black churches, which have a “natural constituency” in Africa,” Aubourg said.
“The faith community is essential because it is largely the faith community on the ground in Africa that is caring for children,” she said. “It’s the church institutions that are responding on a community level.”
Aubourg also said religious groups have a special obligation to appeal to Bush. “With $87 billion going to Iraq, (our government) is not doing enough (to fight AIDS),” she said. “Our role in the faith community is to challenge President Bush, who talks a lot about compassion and the role of faith in his life. We challenge him as a Christian and a person of faith to commit the resources needed.”
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