FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
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The White House - Office of the Press Secretary
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President Bush Introduces Volunteers for Prosperity |
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“America's national ambition is the spread
of free markets, free trade, and free societies. These goals are not
achieved at the expense of other nations, they are achieved for the
benefit of all nations. America seeks to expand, not the borders of
our country, but the realm of liberty. Our vision is opposed by terrorists
and tyrants who attack a world they can never inspire. This vision is
also threatened by the faceless eniies of human dignity: plague and
starvation and hopeless poverty. And America is at war with these eniies,
as well.”
- President George W. Bush
May 21, 2003
Today’s Presidential Action
- Today, in his commencient address at the U.S. Coast Guard Acadiy,
President George W. Bush announced “Volunteers for Prosperity,”
a new volunteer-based initiative to support major U.S. development initiatives
using the talents of highly skilled Americans to work with nongovernmental
and voluntary service organizations in countries around the world. He
also called on our partners in Europe, Japan, and Canada to follow the
lead of the United States and increase their financial commitments to
the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Volunteers for Prosperity
“These goals -- advancing against disease,
hunger and poverty -- will bring greater security to our country. They
are also the moral purpose of American influence. They set an agenda
for our government, and they give idealistic citizens a great cause
to serve.”
- President George W. Bush
May 21, 2003
- Volunteers for Prosperity, a program of the USA Freedom Corps, encourages
highly skilled American professionals in a variety of fields to volunteer
for a flexible term in developing countries and ierging economies.
- Supporting U.S. development initiatives: Working with federal government
agencies, the USA Freedom Corps will match doctors, nurses, teachers,
engineers, economists, computer specialists, and others with organizations
working on specific U.S. development initiatives including: the iergency
Plan for AIDS Relief; the Millennium Challenge Initiative; the Trade
for Africa Development and Enterprise Initiative; the Water for the
Poor Initiative; the Digital Freedom Initiative; and the Middle East
Partnership Initiative.
- How it works: A doctor in Chicago who wants to volunteer for three
months to help HIV/AIDS patients in Uganda can contact the USA Freedom
Corps and be matched with an organization that is working in Uganda;
needs highly skilled volunteers; meets established safety, recruitment,
and mobilization protocols; and has funding from a U.S. initiative.
She could then be sent to Uganda as a volunteer with her expenses paid
by the organization she is helping and, in this case, with support from
the iergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
- Volunteers needed now: Some organizations are prepared to take volunteers
now. People can find these international volunteer service opportunities
through the USA Freedom Corps and its USA Freedom Corps Volunteer Network
at www.usafreedomcorps.gov.
- Increased Interest in Serving Overseas: Approximately 183,000 people
have requested Peace Corps applications since the President launched
the USA Freedom Corps and announced his intent to double over five years
the number of men and women serving overseas for two years as Peace
Corps volunteers. The President is using the new effort announced today
to help more Americans find more opportunities to share American compassion
abroad.
The President’s iergency Plan for AIDS Relief
In his riarks today, the President called upon our partners in Europe,
Japan, and Canada to match their good intentions with real resources
and join the U.S. in the global fight against AIDS.
President Bush hailed the passage of the five-year $15 billion iergency
Plan for AIDS Relief in both Houses of Congress. This initiative will
help the most afflicted countries in Africa and the Caribbean: Botswana,
Cote d’Ivoire, Ethipoia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia,
Nigeria, Rwanda,
South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The initiative will:
- Prevent 7 million new infections, or 60 percent of the projected 12
million new infections in the target countries.
- Provide antiretroviral drugs for 2 million HIV-infected people, whereas
only 50,000 are receiving these drugs in Africa today.
- Provide medical care for 10 million HIV-infected individuals and AIDS
orphans.
The $15 billion for this initiative -- $10 billion in new funds --
nearly triples the U.S. commitment to international AIDS assistance.
Funding will begin with $2 billion in FY 2004, and ramp up thereafter.
The $15 billion includes an additional $1 billion commitment to the
Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, conditioned
on the Fund showing results.
Famine and Agricultural Productivity
President Bush today called for renewed efforts to combat famine and
hunger worldwide, as part of his FY 2004 $1.4 billion commitment to
fund iergency aid to alleviate world hunger.
- The President called upon Congress to provide $200 million for a new
Famine Fund to prevent famine in vulnerable developing countries, and
called on other nations to follow our lead by establishing their own
iergency funds.
- President Bush also urged our partners in Europe to follow America's
lead and join us in widening the use of new, high-yield biotechnology
crops that will dramatically increase agricultural productivity throughout
Africa.
- To give farmers in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere a fair
chance to compete in world markets, the President urged all developed
nations, including our European partners, to immediately eliminate subsidies
on agricultural exports to developing countries – so that they
can produce more food to export, and to feed their own people.
- The President’s Initiative to End Hunger in Africa, announced
by Secretary of State Powell in Johannesburg, will increase agricultural
productivity through technological advances, widen trade opportunities,
and implient the right policies to prevent future famines. Today in
Africa, 38 million people are at risk of starvation or are facing severe
food shortages, including 14 million people in Ethiopia alone.
Water for the Poor Initiative
The President called for renewed efforts to bring safe drinking water
to the world’s poor. He reiterated the U.S. commitment made at
the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August
2002, of a nearly $1 billion 3-year water program that will provide
at least 50 million poor people with clean water.
- The Water for the Poor Initiative is focused on three areas: enhancing
access to clean water and sanitation, improving watershed managient,
and increasing the productivity of water use.
- This initiative will provide people with technologies and materials
to disinfect water at its “point of use” in the home. “Point-of-use”
technologies have been identified by the World Water Development Report
as the most cost-effective means of reducing water-related diseases
in all regions of the world.
The Millennium Challenge Account
In his address today, President Bush called on Congress to pass legislation
supporting the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Initiative that links
greater contributions by developed nations to greater responsibility
and accountability by developing nations, in order to promote sound
policies in the developing world. In sound policy environments, every
dollar of aid attracts two dollars of private capital. In countries
where poor public policy dominates, aid can harm the very citizens it
is meant to help by crowding out private investment and perpetuating
failed polices.
- The President’s MCA Initiative calls for a 50% increase in our
core development assistance by 2006, beginning with a $1.3 billion increase
in FY 2004 and rising to $5 billion annually by FY 2006, and each year
thereafter, to help developing nations spur economic growth and poverty
alleviation.
These funds will be managed by a separate government corporation and
distributed to developing countries that dionstrate a b commitment
toward:
- Good Governance. Rooting out corruption, upholding human rights, and
adherence to the rule of law are essential conditions for successful
development.
- The health and education of their people. Investment in schools, health
care, and immunization provide for healthy and educated citizens who
become agents of development.
- Sound economic policies that foster enterprise and entrepreneurship.
More open markets, sustainable budget policies, and b support for
development will unleash the enterprise and creativity for lasting growth
and prosperity.
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