where were you when AIDS activists begged for your support?
when millions of lives were on the line.
did you stand side-by-side your comrades?
did you take a minute of your time to sign a petition that MoveOn has been kind enough to organize?
did you (take an extra step) and call Senator Reid's office?
or did you ignore us?
(photo of Lesotho Positive Action members. Source: the Treatment Action Campaign)
this is so urgent because in early-July there is a G8 meeting in Japan, and the US needs to leverage additional commitments from the G8 (especially Japan).
please TAKE ACTION on PEPFAR reauthorization (S. 2731). (The reauthorization bill is actually called the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.)
On-line:
sign the MoveOn petition, asking Sen. Reid to urgently schedule a vote on the global AIDS, TB, and malaria bill.
By telephone:
Call your Senators and ask them to ask Sen Reid (D) or Sen McConnell (R) to urgently schedule a vote to approve the PEPFAR reauthorization bill (S. 2731). Call Sen. Reid too.
A few minutes of your time, when multiplied across the country, will help change the world.
(this photo also from TAC, taken in South Africa)
keep reading for more detailed information on the bill and for information on another bill called the Jubilee Act, which would help us drop the debts of the world's poorest countries
ABOUT PEPFAR REAUTHORIZATION
For the first 5 years (2004-2008) the program was funded at some $19 billion total. The reauthorization bill passed by the House (and which has bipartisan support in the Senate) calls for $50 billion over the next 5 years, with $5 billion to fight malaria and $4 billion to TB (both of which are major increases in funding as well). An initiative to train new health care workers will also be launched, and the international community will hopefully announce similar efforts at the upcoming G8 meeting. The problem, though, is that 7 Republican Senators placed a hold on the vote. The leader of this blockade, Sen. Tom Coburn (OK), was blasted for his stance by Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for W. [Coburn defends himself here. Update: the 6 other Republicans are Jim DeMint (SC) , Jeff Sessions (AL), Saxby Chambliss (GA), David Vitter (LA), Jim Bunning (KY) and Richard Burr (NC).] Even more telling, on Thursday May 22nd, a Dear Colleague letter was sent to the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, and in it, 14 Republican Senators called for "floor time for the consideration of S. 2731" so that "the President can take this commitment to the G-8 meeting in Japan in early July and to use it to leverage additional commitments from our international partners." [The endorsers were John Sununu (NH), Thad Cochran (MS), Norm Coleman (MN), Susan Collins (ME), Bob Corker (TN), Elizabeth Dole (NC), Chuck Hagel (NE), Orrin Hatch (UT), Dick Lugar (IN), Mel Martinez (FL), Gordon Smith (OR), Olympia Snowe (ME), Arlen Specter (PA) and John Warner (VA). Note: this letter has not been reported in the media, and the press release from Sen. Lugar's office said to contact Andy Fisher for comment.]
Also, here are a couple of resources about some of the problems that remain in PEPFAR 2, from a progressive perspective. (Note: an understanding of these issues from a progressive perspective--or a non-ideological and science-based perspective--is not needed before taking the above actions.)
suggested legislation changes developed by Health GAP, which MoveOn called "one of the main organizations working on this"
and http://pepfarwatch.org/ (from the Center for Health and Gender Equity)
ABOUT THE 2008 JUBILEE ACT (S. 2166)
Dropping the debt of the poorest countries will allow them to invest much more of their own money on their own people.
Jubilee USA has organized an email action to ask our Senators to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act. [Here's a temporary link for the 25 bipartisan co-sponsors. CT, IL, ME, MN, NY and OR are all on-board as co-sponsors]
[More info available at Jubilee USA and from the One Campaign]
Rev. Desmond Tutu recently wrote an op-ed in The Baltimore Sun (that was republished in some newspapers). Tutu said,
In April, the U.S. House showed leadership in the fight against global poverty by passing the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2008, which would extend lifesaving debt cancellation to more poor nations around the globe...As the Senate now considers the Jubilee Act, it can do its part to help ensure that Africans and Asians are able to use their own resources for their own development. When success comes on expanded debt cancellation, as it did with an end to apartheid, this victory will not be ours alone but will belong to the whole world.
Tutu spoke about the small country of Lesotho, as an example
When I think of the crisis of international debt, I think of my African neighbor, Lesotho. Many of Lesotho’s people cannot afford basic nourishment...Lesotho has only six pediatricians looking after its 800,000 children.
One-third of Lesotho’s children are not in school. Meanwhile, Lesotho’s debt repayments equal its entire education budget. Instead of investing in its people, health and development, Lesotho — a nation of 2 million people with external debt of $647 million — sends debt payments to the developed world.
Millions of the world’s poorest people suffer hunger and illness as desperately needed resources flow out of their countries in the form of debt payments. Yet many countries, like Lesotho, are not eligible for debt relief because current initiatives are not based on a country’s level of poverty or need.
Also, as Rev. Tutu said last week in front of the World Health Assembly
Much disease and heartbreak is preventable if governments had the political will – the 15% Now Campaign seeks to urge African Heads of State to honour their pledges and so prevent unnecessary deaths of 8 million of their citizens.
So it bears repeating that, if the U.S. Senate takes action on the Jubilee Act, we can "help ensure that Africans and Asians are able to use their own resources for their own development," and civil society in Africa will be better able to hold their own governments accountable to their previous pledges (made in Abuja in 2001) to allocate 15% of their own budgets to public health.
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Here are just a few of the US advocacy organizations, who have recently been involved in global health advocacy: AIDS Action, The AIDS Institute, American Medical Student Association, Americans for Informed Democracy, Global Action for Children, Global AIDS Alliance, Health GAP, Housing Works, Physicians for Human Rights, RESULTS and Student Global AIDS Campaign.