World AIDS Day, 2003

Last year, we all met to commemorate World AIDS Day on the 8th floor of the State Department at an event hosted by Secretary of State Powell and Secretary of Health and Human Services Thompson.

Since last World AIDS Day, five million people have been infected with HIV. Three million more have died, leaving behind anguished loved ones, abandoned children, ravaged communities. HIV/AIDS has deepened poverty, reduced life expectancy, diverted state resources, and left a generation to grow up without the love, guidance, and support of parents and teachers. There are more than 11 million children under the age of 15 in sub-Saharan Africa who have lost at least one parent to AIDS; more than half are between the ages of 10 and 15. By 2010, there will be approximately 20 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who have lost at least one parent to AIDS.

Many children are scarred by the experience of losing their parents. Some give up school to care for their dying parents and family members. Caring for these children is causing an enormous strain on the traditional coping mechanisms of the extended family and their communities. In some cases, elderly grandparents are caring for numerous grandchildren. In other cases, the children must fend from themselves.

The loss of the social network poses many problems for these children. Often they cannot afford school fees and are left behind by their peers. Some are forced to work to support themselves and their siblings. Tragically, for some this includes sex work and therefore leaves them vulnerable to HIV infection themselves.

At last year's World AIDS Day event, Secretary Powell urged us to use our voices and positions as leaders in our countries to convince others of the urgency and gravity of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. The Secretary of State reminded us that "every nation, large or small, developed or developing, must be a leader. For every nation is vulnerable." I am pleased to say that the United States, under President Bush’s leadership, is doing its part in conjunction with the nations of Africa and the rest of the world.

Less than two months after World AIDS Day last year, in his State of the Union address, President Bush announced the largest governmental initiative ever launched against one disease internationally. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is a global program that begins in 2004 and increases over 5 years to a total of $15 billion. The plan provides for $5 billion to continue extensive U.S. Government HIV/AIDS programs in some 75 countries of the world, many of which are represented here today. It also provides for $1 billion in funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. And the plan provides for $9 billion in new resources to target 14 countries in Africa and the Caribbean. The specific goals are to prevent 7 million new infections, to treat 2 million people living with HIV/AIDS with life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, and to provide care and support for 10 million people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS. This includes AIDS orphans, the subject of discussion at the event here today.

As most of you know, in July President Bush nominated Randall Tobias to be the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. Ambassador Tobias was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and assumed his position on Monday, October 6. Two days later, he and I departed Washington for Southern Africa. On October 10, he sat with Botswana President Mogae in his office in Gaborone and in the following days he met with the health ministers, other governmental officials, non-governmental organizations (including faith-based and community-based organizations), and many others in South Africa and Namibia.

Ambassador Tobias would be here with us today but for the fact that he is visiting Africa again. He, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, and a large delegation of public and private officials are in Zambia today to commemorate World AIDS Day.

The U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator is actively working to put into place the mechanisms to implement the President's Emergency Plan and to assure that we meet the President's goals. We are in the formative stages of setting up the office and still await funding from the United States Congress. Thus, I am not in a position to provide you with our specific plans to assist orphans and vulnerable children. But I can assure you of our commitment, from President Bush and all of the U.S. Government agencies involved, to providing large-scale resources for prevention, care, and treatment programs to combat this horrible pandemic. The United States is willing to do its part, but the initiative must also come from you.

We cannot educate all of your children; build, staff, and sustain critical health infrastructure; transform the hearts and minds of your fellow citizens; or provide care to every employee or neighbor. Your leaders must be willing, in word and in action, to confront this disease. And therefore you must be willing, in word and in action, to confront it. Start by using your prominent position to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. Educate your citizens about prevention. And be sure a national policy for dealing with orphans and vulnerable children is in place.

Every step helps, and a multitude of steps across all sectors of society must be taken if we are to beat back this global scourge. The United States will continue to work with you to fight HIV/AIDS, and I commend you for spending this time today to discuss our joint fight against this deadly disease.