Bishop calls for emergency funds to fight AIDS in Africa
8/2/2000 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn.
NOTE: A photograph is available with this report.
By Dean Snyder*
WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- A movie star, a physician and a United Methodist bishop are joining with legislators, White House officials and other citizens to call for an emergency congressional allocation to fight AIDS in Africa.
Bishop Felton Edwin May, of the United Methodist Church's Washington Area, and Danny Glover, an actor serving as United Nations good will ambassador, joined Dr. Nils Daulaire, president of the Global Health Council, and other AIDS experts at a congressional briefing July 26 to discuss the U.S. response to the International AIDS Conference held in Durban, South Africa, in July.
During the briefing, sponsored by five U.S. senators, Daulaire called for $275 million in emergency funds to "jump start" prevention and care efforts in 10 African countries.
"We believe it is time to deal with this emergency the same way you would deal with a hurricane, a famine, and other natural disasters," Daulaire said. "This calls for emergency funding."
The Durban AIDS conference demonstrated that many African leaders are ready to act to prevent AIDS and care for its victims, according to Daulaire. He believes it is critical that the global community respond immediately to this new openness.
"The political commitment on the part of Africa's leaders and countries is now at the point that the ground is ripe for doing something," he said. "It is not a matter of us forcing ideas and programs on others."
Glover, who attended the Durban AIDS conference on behalf of the United Nations Development Programme, said he was impressed by the young people in Africa mobilizing to fight the disease.
"They had begun to move past denial to action," he said. Unless African youth receive support from the United States, however, he said he feared they would lose hope.
"The world looks to the U.S. for leadership not just for our movies, not just for our fashion or high tech; they want to see what we, the world's richest and most powerful nation, are prepared to do," Glover said. "Combating the global AIDS epidemic is the greatest test of our moral leadership."
Jeff Sturchio of Merck pharmaceuticals told the briefing that drug companies are committed to making HIV medicines more available in developing parts of the world, but government funding is needed to develop the health systems to assure that the medication is administered properly.
More than 34 million people in Africa have been affected by AIDS, 20 million have died, and more than 100 million are expected to die by 2007, according to Glover.
Sandra Thurman, director of the White House Office on National AIDS Policy, emphasized the need for an immediate response.
"If we had this many people killed in an armed conflict, this whole place would be in an uproar," she said. "We're at a point where we need to turn talk into action."
May, who participated in a 1999 presidential mission to study the needs of children orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, said he wholeheartedly supported the Global Health Council's proposal.
"I think that we as the United Methodist Church should double our efforts to convince our congressional leaders to provide additional monies over and above the monies presently earmarked for HIV-AIDS globally," he said. "This is a health crisis of gargantuan proportions."
"I must say I was disheartened in April 1999, when I reported to the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church about what I learned on the presidential mission, and there seemed to be only a lukewarm reception by the council," May said after the briefing. "However, Barbara Boigegrain, general secretary of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits, heard our call and immediately wrote letters to pharmaceutical houses in which we have investments."
A Merck official met with May following the briefing and told him the company was aware of United Methodist interest. The drug company representative made a commitment to "strengthen a healthier collaborative with faith groups to utilize the faith groups as part of the infrastructure to deliver goods and services to the suffering in Africa," May said.
The briefing was sponsored by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.).
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*Snyder is director of communications for the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church.
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