Yesterday afternoon, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum came to Manchester, New Hampshire — a recently declared City of ONE — and met with the Manchester Rotary Club. ONE member Tom Leary made it out to the event and had a chance to catch up with Sen. Santorum about ONE and efforts to save millions of lives in the poorest nations on earth.
Tom thanked Sen. Santorum for serving on our ONE Vote 2010 advisory committee and told him how Sen. Elect Kelly Ayotte had recorded a video for our more than 10,000 New Hampshire ONE members. Tom went on to thank Sen. Santorum for his own work in the US Senate to help lead America’s response to the global HIV/AIDS crisis and save millions of lives around the world — a champion of the world’s poorest people!
Through my work with Journey for Change: Empowering Youth Through Global Service, a service program for at-risk youth from Brooklyn, New York, I’ve seen firsthand the tragic toll that AIDS has on families and communities both in Africa and here at home.
This summer, our group of teens from three Brooklyn neighborhoods served in the poverty-stricken South African shantytowns of Diepsloot and Soweto, helping orphaned and vulnerable children and granny-led households. While some may feel like the fight against AIDS is too big to overcome, tomorrow I plan on standing on the steps of the Brooklyn Borough Hall to turn it (RED) and help raise awareness of a very real, exciting and attainable goal in the fight against this disease: virtually eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV within five years.
To commemorate World AIDS Day, we’re launching a series of blog posts to educate, inspire and update you about the fight against HIV/AIDS. Keep an eye out for more posts like these on the ONE Blog during the week.
With World AIDS Day coming up tomorrow, ONE wanted to deliver some optimism on the fight against this worldwide epidemic. Joyce Kamwana, an ambassador with the Here I Am campaign and a great friend to ONE, joined us in the D.C. office back in September and gave her resounding endorsement of the Global Fund.
Joyce was diagnosed with HIV when she was 25. At that time, she was quickly falling prey to the disease, losing weight and watching her body turn against her. Thanks to antiretroviral therapy provided by the Global Fund, she is now 47 and a proud grandmother.
On World AIDS Day, it is imperative that we remember that the struggle against AIDS is not over yet. Cases like that of Joyce prove that coordinated and targeted international efforts can yield powerful results.
To read about the impact of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, visit our Global Fund success stories page here.
Earlier this year, my congressman, Eric Cantor of Virginia’s 7th District, asked to hear from his constituents about global poverty issues. As you can tell by the picture, the only problem we had in meeting his request was fitting everyone into his district office in Glen Allen!
Just like ONE members across the country, the 12 of us from the district came from all walks of life. Our group consisted of Rotarians, veterans, conservatives, progressives, faith and business leaders, all united to lift our voice for the voiceless in the poorest countries on earth.
We each had the opportunity to explain to the congressman why we strongly support smart US investments in global health and development. Personally, this has been a big year for me. I’m originally from the Netherlands and recently became a citizen, voting in my first US election this month.
Ben Affleck advocates for the Congo: Actor and activist, Ben Affleck, maintains that most Americans do not know that the deadliest conflict since World War II occurred in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1998 to 2003, where “some 4 million Congolese died…and nearly another 1 million have died in the lawless aftermath from starvation, conflict and preventable disease.” The U.S. has security, economic and diplomatic interests in a stable Congo, says Affleck, who argues that “to secure the peace, we must continue to support local leaders and trust their ability to manage their own destiny.”
The treatment vs. prevention debate: Efforts to treat everyone in Africa infected with AIDS are “virtually futile and public health experts should instead focus on preventing new cases,” a committee of experts reported. The number of people in Africa with HIV is expected to rise to more than 30 million by 2020 – far more than can be treated with current resources, according to the report. Focusing on treatment alone will result in “an exponential increase in deaths and orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa in just a couple of decades,” said one committee member.
Three scenarios for tackling AIDS: A new report, commissioned by the South African government, outlines in the country over the next two decades, with political will and donor funding ultimately determining which route the government will opt to take. The various options – ranging from business as usual to a large scale-up of male circumcision and a greater focus on prevention – also plan to help reduce poverty, increase education and provide voluntary HIV counseling, all of which is contingent on donor support, due to the enormous cost.
The great Congolese polio pursuit: A Polio outbreak in Congo has killed more than 170 people so far, prompting the Red Cross to assist the government in vaccinating the entire population – more than 3.6 million people in total. With immunization being the only way to effectively eradicate the deadly disease, Red Cross volunteers are currently going door-to-door to administer the vaccine and encouraging people to “pass on the message about the importance of good basic hygiene to avoid the further spread of the disease.”
Accusations in Ivory Coast: Ivory Coast’s presidential hopefuls traded accusations of voter intimidation on Sunday “in a runoff election meant to end a decade of political instability.” Though results began trickling in Sunday night, it is expected to take days before a clear trend emerges, which has led to heightened tension after a peaceful first round of voting.
Check out this great blog post from our friend Megan White Mukuria. She started Zana Africa, an NGO that focuses on empowering women through simple tools like sanitary pads. We hope this post outrages and inspires you, just like it did for us!
Immediately after Thanksgiving, Americans participate in a bizarre ritual of pulling things off shelves and standing in long lines. “Black Friday,” as it is called, tries to lull us all into a belief that Christmas is all about giving stuff, and that if we really love people, we should give them the latest iPhone or Wii game and get it on sale. But the term “black” is arguably for the stores’ benefit. It is the period that keeps them in the black, i.e. yields great profits.
Now, I want all of you to get the best prices on the things you want to buy for the people you love, but I want to talk about a thing that most girls in Kenya desperately want, need continually, is never on sale and means more to them than any other gift.
What could this miracle present be? Simply a sanitary pad. Its cost is too great for most families to bear, and so girls miss school, stay home or prostitute themselves to get pads. Such injustice makes me see red — it makes me so angry.
To commemorate World AIDS Day, we’re launching a series of blog posts to educate, inspire and update you about the fight against HIV/AIDS. In this post, Anu Gupta, director of corporate contributions at Johnson & Johnson, talks about the “transformation” of the HIV epidemic in the US and Africa.
On a trip to South Africa in early 2006, I met a young woman at a clinic with her baby boy. She was 18 years old, and throughout her pregnancy had steadfastly refused to be tested for HIV, believing that if she tested positive there was nothing she could do about it for herself or her unborn child. It wasn’t until her delivery that she had relented, and learned that she was HIV-positive. Now, she was waiting to find out whether her little boy had also been infected.
I am fortunate to be part of the last generation of American doctors to witness the transformation of HIV/AIDS in the United States. In 1995, as a medical student, I worked in an inner city AIDS ward filled to capacity with patients, where the main focus was on helping patients die with as much comfort and dignity as possible. At that time, there were few treatment options available and little hope for change.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
