PI Action alerts & updates ... 2002
Urge Congress to Support Emergency Supplemental Appropriation
for Global AIDS Fund
Last April, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced
the creation of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis,
and Malaria. This international fund is intended to help treat and
prevent HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria for those without access
to medicine, health care, and adequate prevention programs.
While the United States was asked for a $2 billion contribution
to this fund, the final appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2002
contained an inadequate $200 million. This amount lowered the bar
on donations made by other countries and funders and momentum slowed
dramatically.
Some Members of Congress, including Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA)
and Richard Durbin (D-IL) are pushing for an emergency supplemental
appropriation of $750 million for this fund, which would make the
contribution by the United States roughly $1 billion for this fiscal
year. This emergency request might be attached to an upcoming emergency
spending bill related to funding the war on terrorism, homeland
security, or relief for Afghanistan. $750 million is a tiny fraction
of the billions of dollars being considered for those programs,
and would make a strong statement that the United States intends
to play an important role in fighting the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.
You can help with this effort by encouraging the Bush Administration
and your Members of Congress to support this emergency supplemental!
How you can help:
Congress may consider this emergency request in the next couple
of weeks. Please take a few minutes to contact the Bush Administration
and your federal elected officials and urge them to support this
effort!
1. Call or email the White House with the following message:
“I urge President Bush to ask Congress for
a $750 million emergency supplemental appropriation for the Global
Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The United States
should make a meaningful contribution to this effort to prevent
infections and provide access to treatment and care to those in
need around the world”
Contact information:
(phone calls recommended over email)
Phone: 202-456-1414
Email: president@whitehouse.gov
2. Then, call or email your U.S. Representative and two U.S. Senators
with the same message. Phone calls are recommended over email. Ask
them to convey their support to members of the Appropriations Committee,
who will be the key decision-makers about this issue.
Contact information:
You can find local and DC phone numbers, along with email addresses,
for your Representative at www.house.gov. Contact information for
your Senators can be found at www.senate.gov.
3. Please read the following announcement from HealthGAP about
an upcoming rally/legislative advocacy event in Washington, DC in
support of funding for Global AIDS programs. Project Inform is an
endorser of this event and we encourage TAN members to consider
participating by (1) attending the event if possible, (2) helping
to spread the word, and (3) signing on as an individual endorser.
For more information, including updates about the rally, go to www.healthgap.org.
For more information about this Alert, contact:
Ryan Clary
Community Organizing Program Manager
415-558-8669 x224
415-558-0684 fax
Project Inform
205-13th Street #2001
San Francisco, CA 94103
tan@projectinform.org
Message from Healthgap:
Dear Colleagues-
We ask for your endorsement of the April 10 rally in Washington
DC. If you are able to do so, please respond to salynch@healthgap.org.
This rally, initiated by Health GAP, ACT UP Philadelphia, ACT UP
New York, Artists for a New South Africa, and Jubilee USA will bring
people with HIV and their loved ones, religious leaders, students,
activists and celebrities to the steps of the Capitol to act in
solidarity with people worldwide confronting the growing AIDS epidemic.
People with HIV worldwide are leading the charge to save their
communities, their families, and their nations. We can not allow
the United States to continue to deny meaningful resources to these
struggles.
At the end of this email, you will find an endorsement form, as
well as a schedule for April 10 that includes needed resources for
each of the events. Please contact us if you can assist with any
of these needs.
Join us on when we gather at the Capitol on Wednesday, April 10
from our different communities, faiths, and backgrounds to unite
in the call for our country to fulfill the ethical demand for access
to AIDS medication for all. We will demand the the United State
contribute the modest resources needed to fight the escalating global
AIDS epidemic.
Yes, modest resources. For while our nation prepares to pass a
fiscal budget in the tens of trillions of dollars, and an emergency
supplemental resolution adding billions of dollars to this year’s
budget, we are asking for just 750 million of that supplemental
resolution to be added to the crucial battle against the global
AIDS pandemic.
To do so would begin to address the drastic gap in funding needed
by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria …
To do so would begin to close the shameful worldwide gap that exists
in access to life-saving therapies that have improved and extended
the lives of people with HIV in the United States …
To do so would firmly acknowledge that our nation has a vital role
to play in stemming this epidemic, which is stripping this planet
of young and working people, parents and children, and leaving nations
vulnerable to destabilization, violence, and even greater poverty
and hunger …
As we planned this event, we considered periodically ringing a
bell to mark each death from AIDS during the time of our rally.
Then we did the math. 8,000 people die from AIDS each day. One
death every 11 seconds. That is not a periodic ringing. It is a
metronome of overwhelming and absolutely unnecessary suffering and
loss from a treatable illness.
We can allow the bell to toll, or we can demand change.
Please join us, through your endorsements, your presence on April
10, and through your contributions to this struggle.
Day of Hope: Fight AIDS in Africa and Worldwide
April 10, 2002
Demand the U.S. Congress and Bush Administration:
Donate the Dollars
Treat the People
and Drop the Debt to fight AIDS worldwide
In the midst of a global health disaster, our nation’s leaders
have failed to commit the modest resources needed to stop the decimation
of impoverished nations.
On April 10, join Danny Glover & other celebrities, religious
and political leaders, people with AIDS and their supporters at
a rally and lobby day to stop global AIDS now.
Free buses leave Philadelphia from Broad and Walnut Streets at
8:30am. Meals provided. Contact actup@critpath.org to reserve seats
or to find out transportation information from other regions.
Info: 215-731-1844
email: actup@critpath.org * www.healthgap.org
For information on making donations, please see end of message.
Schedule of events
1. Rally and protest
Time: 12:30–2pm
Location: West Capitol Steps
More than 1,000 people with AIDS and their allies demanding life-saving
action on global AIDS from Congress and the Administration converge
on the Capitol for a spirited, powerful rally.
Needs:
People to participate in the rally.
Powerful sound system.
Assistance printing and making signs, banners, and other materials.
Financial support for transportation for low-income activists
Financial support for lunch for low-income activists
Medic volunteers
2. Activists, celebrities, & health experts educate Congress
about global AIDS crisis
Time: 2:30–4:30pm
Location: Congressional Office Buildings
Hundreds of AIDS activists and other experts will move from the
demonstration to Congressional office buildings to demand legislators
take the action needed to save lives. These post-rally lobby visits
will be an opportunity to show our power and breadth to key Members;
they will not be long, technical meetings.
Needs:
People to participate in education visits
People to coordinate education teams and their visits.
Printing and preparation of materials like packets to leave behind
for members of Congress.
3. Post-rally dinner for out-of-towners
Time: 5:00–6:00 PM
Location: TBA
Dinner for exhausted activists!
Needs:
Donation of space and food for dinner for 500 people.
Clean up and set up assistance.
I / We endorse the April 10 Rally for Global AIDS
Name:
Organization:
Email:
Address:
Phone:
Fax
Endorsement is
( ) Individual
( ) Organizational
( ) Both
I / my organization can assist with the following needs:
( ) Will attend / bring others
( ) Will assist with rally by:
( ) Will assist with Congressional education by:
( ) Will make financial contribution (see below)
Donations sought for expenses of rally, especially transportation
and food needs of low-income participants. For example, it costs
$35 for bus fee, food and local transportation for one person living
with HIV from Philadelphia to participate in the rally.
Tax-deductible donations can be mailed to:
Mobilization Against AIDS,
584 Castro Street, # 416,
San Francisco, CA 94114
Please make checks out to Mobilization Against AIDS. In the memo
line, write “Health GAP April 10.” Thank you.
Paul Davis
pdavis@critpath.org
Health GAP Coalition
ACT UP Philadelphia
