Programs to Support Uganda's Fight Against HIV/AIDS

I knew a lot about this academically before I came. I'd read a great deal and I'd studied a great deal and I'd heard all the stories about there being a pandemic, a crisis, and how it was destroying families, how it was destroying cultures, but you really don't get a full appreciation of it until you see the people. Until you see the people who are stricken, until you see the little girl who has the disease -- until you see the kind of trouble that people have to go through every day to make ends meet, to still make the family work, to still find the daily bread to survive, you don't know the true appreciation of that until you've seen it on the ground, and it really helps me and the members of my party understand so much better.

I hope in some small way we'll be able to convey to President Bush when we get home some of the passion of what I've seen and the importance of what I've seen. In every country that I have visited on this tour so far, we have asked to see an HIV/AIDS program. Not just to fill out the schedule for me, but really to get an understanding of the crisis and draw attention to this crisis and then I can go back and make a case in Washington of the need for more resources.

I wanted to see it because even though there are wars in various parts of the world, even though there's a crisis in the Middle East, even though people are dying in these conflicts around the world, there is no war that is more serious, there is no war that is causing more death and destruction, there is no war on the face of the earth right now that is more serious, that is more grave, than the war we see here in sub-Saharan Africa against HIV/AIDS.

The reason we put Uganda on the schedule is because we're aware of the progress that you have made and we saw more of it in the presentation. The progress began with your President understanding the nature of the crisis he was facing and not shrinking from it, not standing back, not saying it's not here, it can't be in my country, not my culture, [inaudible].

I was asked in a television interview the other night in South Africa -- well, what else can be done besides the outside world giving money? Is there anything we can be doing here, and the answer is yes there's a lot that you can be doing here, and it's like [inaudible], it costs nothing, it does not cost one single dollar, it just requires brave people to stand up and say this is a crisis, this is something we will whip, I will be the leader.

We need not just presidents but leaders at every level of the kind we've seen here, medical leaders all pulling together to deal with this crisis. Your president clearly understood that prevention is key. The rates are going down because of prevention, but also because you are losing people all the time, people who are losing you because of the disease. And what we have to do is keep from having new infections cause that rate to go back up .

I want to tell you that America is going to help you in every way that we can. President Bush understands the nature of this war, the nature of this pandemic. President Bush has told me and my colleague in the Cabinet, Secretary of HHS (Health and Human Services) Tommy Thompson, to form a joint cabinet level task force --the two most significant I would say departments in the government working on this problem. And between Mr. Thompson's ability to direct money to research, to all the activities of the Department of HHS, and to work with the pharmaceuticals industry, I know that he'll be doing everything that he can so search for the cure, to work for vaccines, to do everything to try to find the root cause of this. And he will be visiting Africa in the very near future following up on my visit.

President Bush also was quite willing when Secretary Thompson and I went in and said let's get into this Global Health Trust Fund. Let's work with Kofi Annan who saw what happens around the world as people were trying to develop their AIDS trust fund. And it took Secretary Thompson and I about 10 minutes of conversation to persuade President Bush that this was something that America had to be behind.

So we announced the Global Health Trust Fund with an initial contribution of $200 million dollars. It's just a beginning, it's a trust fund, not a single appropriation, it's a trust fund that we hope will grow as other nations contribute, as private organizations contribute, as the corporate sector, as private individuals chip in, as wealthy individuals put in money, as people all over the world send in their nickels and dimes and dollars. You don't need to be a millionaire to afford to make a contribution to this crisis. And we hope that that trust fund will grow, that it will grow rapidly, that it will be a source of additional assistance to the people of Uganda as you fight your war here. But you are the leaders in this war, you are the front-liners, you have taken the battle to the end, the ground [inaudible]

I am pleased to announce today two new additional programs in Uganda, and for Uganda, from the United States Government. The first program will use $20 million over 5 years to take the excellent prevention and treatment practices you have evolved and replicate them in 10 districts across the country. (Applause)

The second program will provide $30 million over 5 years and work with HIV orphans and family feeding . It will be the largest of its kind in the world and will reach 60,000 people who are infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS. This community based program will be implemented by non-governmental organizations including Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, Africare and of course TASO and others. This is not enough to solve the problem. I know. But every additional increment helps.

What will solve the problem is what you have been doing with the approach Uganda has taken with this problem. We have to leadership teaching your youngster how to behave, teaching your youngsters how to protect themselves. Doing everything you can to wipe out stigmatization in your society. Because someone has HIV or someone is infected or someone is carrying the disease or someone is confronting, facing the disease, does not make them any less valuable as a human being, does not make them any less valuable in our eyes or in the eyes of God, and they have to be seen that way. Especially when they are burdened with the orphans that were left behind, and that must be a priority.

This is a multi faceted challenge as you heard from the presentations earlier and the United States is committed to working with you to deal with every facet of this problem. I want to thank you for your willingness to share stories with us this afternoon, share the hard work you've been doing with us this afternoon. I thank. Alma and I will always be touched by the memory books that we saw and we will go away from this place with a harder sense of dedication to what we have to do to help you in this war against this terrible disease, a war that we must win and will win.

Thank you very much