is a candidate education and voter education project working to make sure that candidates for public office know what it takes to end AIDS and that voters who care about ending AIDS know where the candidates stand on our issues.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

The Denver Principles

Thank you for all that participated in today’s C2EA National Outreach call with the National Associate of People Living With AIDS (NAPWA). The discussion on The Denver Principles proved to be thought provoking and help reignite the flame of passion to advocate for greater change. Since 1983, our nation has experienced major progress in development and access to care and treatment; yet, people continue to die from the lack of access as evidenced in places like South Carolina. Nationally, the oppressive funding stream has tamed service providers and forced them to play more restrictive and passive roles that often leave them in fear to engage in cause advocacy. As the affected population, we are a stakeholder and need to be guaranteed inclusion and fair representation in all aspects of the decision making process. Failing to educate us, the affected population, in the culture and language of the decision making process only increases the difficulty for us to collectively to achieve common goals. Greater discussion of The Denver Principles will help empower people living with HIV/AIDS to overcome the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS that prevents them from identifying and accessing resources to help them achieve greater health and happiness. Society… (more)

Puerto Rico’s AIDS Care in Disarray Over Funds

Puerto Rico’s AIDS Care in Disarray Over Funds(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/health/05puerto.html?hp) SAN JUAN, P.R. — His emaciated body advertises the damage wreaked by the AIDS virus. But over the last year, Rolando Warren González, 41, a former steel band member, has faced an extra challenge to his survival. From the shelter where he lives in Loiza in Puerto Rico’s impoverished northeast, Mr. González travels an hour and a half by bus to reach the government clinic where he receives his “cocktail” of antiviral drugs. “But sometimes I go, and they just don’t have the medicines,” he said.Six times in the last year, he said, he has suffered two-week periods with no drugs, undercutting the life-prolonging benefits of modern therapies against H.I.V., the AIDS virus. Accounts like his — and worse — are repeated across this tropical territory of the United States, where hundreds of H.I.V. and AIDS patients are not receiving vital medical care, say a host of doctors, community groups and patients. The disarray in treatment reflects a stew of problems. An overstretched health care budget is accentuated by rivalries between the commonwealth and the… (more)

Monday, June 04, 2007

PEPFAR Blog-o-mania! How bad is Bush?

How bad is the loved-in-the-media Bush PEPFAR plan? Check out these expert opinions and find out for yourself: SGAC/Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-kavanagh/bush-on-aids-smoke-and-m_b_50618.html bottom line: “this week’s headlines should have read, ‘Bush asks Congress to stop increasing AIDS funding so quickly.’” Physicians for Human Rights http://www.phrweekofaction.org/?p=104 bottom line: breaks promises, reduces priority of HIV prevention Reproductive Health Reality Check http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2007/05/30/leaving-women-and-girls-behind-bush-s-global-aids-policy bottom line: leaves women and girls behind, smoke-and-mirrors to avoid scrutiny of proven-ineffective abstinence only prevention efforts Housing Works http://www.hwupdate.org/update/2007/06/pepfar_from_enough_1.html bottom line: 1.5 million who were promised treatment won’t get it; no health care workers; bogus ab-only wastes over $2B Edwards can be smarter http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/6/4/111352/0600#3 bottom line: John Edwards—and other Presidential candidates—can and should do better than Bush. Add more links in comments!

Bush Global AIDS Plan Weak on HIV prevention, too (surprise, surprise)

visit http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2007/05/30/leaving-women-and-girls-behind-bush-s-global-aids-policy for more critique of Bush’s weak Global AIDS plan—and details on how to tell Congress to get rid of the harmful and destructive abstinence-only earmark!

Press Edwards to speak out on Bush’s PEPFAR smoke and mirrors

visit http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/6/4/111352/0600#3 and add a comment or a thumbs up to encourage John Edwards—and all Presidential candidates—to speak out on the weak Bush Global AIDS plan.

GREAT STORY on Bush’s PEPFAR Smoke and Mirrors

from Matt Kavanagh in today’s Huffington Post: Bush On AIDS: Smoke and Mirrors, and Broken Promises “Bush Seeks to Double Spending for AIDS Program” blared the headlines this week. “President Bush should be commended,” trumpeted one development organization, for his “vital leadership.” Great… except that Bush’s plan ISN’T going to double funding and his press conference was essentially called to spin major broken promises into looking like leadership. Too bad so many took the bait. In 2003, after a major campaign by activists across the US and around the world, Bush took a historic step in announcing the $15 billion, 5 year President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR. The US went from spending a few hundred million dollars to putting up billions. And those billions have leveraged billions--countries around the world increased their funding for AIDS along with the US and we made a big leap toward truly addressing the pandemic. Those billions matter--with literally millions of people who will live because of the treatment, prevention, and care that has been mobilized by the global focus on turning the tide against AIDS. But this week showed that when we aren’t pushing them hard, the… (more)