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Christianity Today, February, 2010

Less Aid for AIDS?

Groups fear impact of Obama administration's PEPFAR stance.

Bobby Ross Jr. | posted 2/16/2010 09:15AM

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Leaders of Christian organizations that fight AIDS in Africa are expressing fears that the U.S. government is slowing its fight against the disease. The Obama administration is shifting its global health emphasis from putting more people on AIDS drugs to combating less-costly diseases.

"There seems to be an AIDS funding fatigue developing on many levels," said Nelis du Toit, director of the Christian AIDS Bureau for Southern Africa.

The 2010 federal budget allocates $5.7 billion for programs like the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. That represents a 3.6 percent, or $200 million, increase over 2009.

"Technically, it is not flatlining, but given the very considerable growth over the past five years, the AIDS advocates are considering this flatlining," said Ray Martin, executive director of Christian Connections for International Health.

The World Health Organization estimates that faith-based organizations deliver 30 to 70 percent of health care in developing countries. They account for roughly a quarter of groups that have received PEPFAR grants.

"If antiretroviral medicines become unavailable due to funding shortfalls, then the children who depend on them will die. It is that simple," said immunologist Scott Todd, senior ministry adviser at Compassion International. (The ministry doesn't accept federal grants but supports 1,600 HIV-positive children who benefit from PEPFAR.) "The U.S. government acted honorably and compassionately through PEPFAR, and many lives have been saved. But in saving them, we took up a moral obligation not to end their lives when the wind changes in Washington."

Kay Warren, founder of the HIV/AIDS Initiative at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, is urging Obama and Congress to keep funding increases high. But she said churches "are in this for the long haul," regardless of the federal budget. "Our responsibility to the sick isn't tied to congressional funding."

Related Elsewhere:

Christianity Today has more coverage of HIV/AIDS, including:

Talk and Walk | Getting our body in sync with our message. By Kay Warren (June 6, 2008)

Bono's American Prayer | The world's biggest rock star tours the heartland, talking more openly about his faith as he recruits Christians in the fight against AIDS in Africa. (March 1, 2003)

Killing a Pandemic | The church may be best equipped to deal HIV/AIDS a crippling blow. A Christianity Today editorial (June 29, 2002)

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February 2010, Vol. 54, No. 2

Comments (11)

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Displaying 1–5 of 11 comments

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std girl

March 02, 2010 2:44am

We need HIV/AIDS education. It's very important!! CDC has granted CSU $1.9M for HIV/AIDS education. The number of members on the largest HIV dating&support site == Positivefish.com (if I spell the site correctly) has reached 500,000 members OMG! Why so many guys and girls on the site are very sexy? Why so many people are infected by HIV? There is no doubt that we need SEX-ED

Chicago MD

February 23, 2010 9:29am

I had an interesting talk with a Franciscan Brother last night who told me they wanted to open a hospice for AIDS patients in the 80s in Wheaton IL. It didn't happen and do you know why? Because the conservative evangelicals did not want those people coming to their town.

Basil

February 22, 2010 10:37am

I remember when AIDS became and issue here in the U.S. in the late 80s and into the 90s. Telethons, TV spots admonishing people to use condoms, notices about celebrities who had succumbed to the virus as well as updates about the race for a cure were commonplace. Unless I am not paying enough attention I don't seem to hear much about this issue as it relates to AIDS in the U.S..

Kaisen

February 17, 2010 7:34pm

Hey Chicago63! Fundamentalist Christians (among others) care about AIDS, they just don't get all gushy about it just because the emotions for the moment (politically correct driven) would want everyone to drop what they're doing, this moment, and throw all their attention and resources into it.

Dan

February 17, 2010 12:00pm

"...when did fundamentalist Christians care about AIDS? When this epidemic was emerging in the 1980s, they grandstanded and called it the judgment of God." All fundamentalists? Everywhere? Really? ALL! I had no idea ALL fundies everywhere did this. WOW! That must have been a lot of grandstanding. And btw Rick Warren and his church are not fundamentalists - they are conservative evangelicals. Also, I am an evangelical and was working for a hospital in the '80's when gay men started arriving with HIV infection. I don't think I ever once even thought (let alone said to them) this was God's judgment on them. They were truly ill and we cared for them. Gotta watch that painting groups with a broad brush.

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