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SPARE OUR DRUMS: BUSH TOUCHES DOWN AMIDST WAILING NOT
DANCING

Today, July 11, 2003 President Bush, leader of the United
States of America the wealthiest nation in the world, steps
foot at Entebbe International Airport. On this day when
President Bush arrives, 18,000 people are estimated to die
from AIDS in Africa alone.

In African tradition an important visitor is welcomed with
drums, dancing and singing. However President Bush, arrival
will be received with mothers wailing for the loss of their
children: adults and infants to AIDS and toddlers to
Malaria.

Hence, President Bush's visit is the only opportunity
through which USA has to deliver on the AIDS Emergency Plan
which is now over 6 months old and no single life is known
to have been saved by it.

We call upon President Museveni to take his counterpart to
some graveyards of children who have died of AIDS. These
have died because we are so poor to give them life saving
drugs, which cost less than $1 per day. No cover up this
time. President Bush has come to see for himself the
disaster a preventable terror has caused to Uganda, a
country with the largest number of AIDS orphans in the
whole world.

We also request President Museveni to use this opportunity
to indeed lead the way by advising President Bush that the
struggle against AIDS is a concerted, one which calls for
all tools to be drawn at the same time, not only abstinence
as it portrayed as the cause of the so called Uganda's
success story.

With his tears rolling, President Bush should leave Africa
with the $3 billion cheque for 2004 to fight AIDS signed,
with an immediate plan to put more money into the Kofi
Annan Global Fund. The Fund now lacks only $600 million to
meet the financing obligation of an estimated 100 programs
from about 60 countries from all over the world to respond
to AIDS, TB and malaria.. Nothing is beyond the authority
of President Bush in the world.

The President by a phone call can ask Congress for even a
billion dollars for the Global Fund in emergency funding.
The Global Fund has proved itself to be the most economical
and demand driven process of getting hope to the lives of
individuals and families who have been rendered helpless by
diseases.

Using the WHO estimates, 3 million of the 42 million people
living with HIV/AIDS in the world need treatment in the
next three years. In Uganda, with an estimated 1.5m people
living with HIV/AIDS, approximately 105,000 Ugandans living
with HIV/AIDS will need treatment in the next 3-4 years.

Using the offer of CIPLA Company of an annual cost of $600
for treating one person, President Museveni needs $63
million per year to treat his nationals living with
HIV/AIDS and save them from preventable deaths. Therefore,
if President Museveni got a cheque, or a firm promissory
note of $315 million, he would be able to disable the
"mustard seed" that is just ready to grow into another
"beautiful green" AIDS epidemic in a country that is
celebrated for having conquered AIDS.

This is not a visit of looking good, but displaying the
evil disease has caused to Uganda and Africa in general. It
is a visit of acting good and bringing smiles to the cheeks
of youngsters whose lives will be spared from AIDS through
sustainable prevention and educational efforts. It is visit
of bringing hope to the aging who will look forward to
their children to put them to rest not vice versa. To
frontline workers, it is a visit for transforming the AIDS
response in Africa.

Milly Katana
Lobbying and Advocacy Officer (HAG)
Health Rights Action Group, Uganda

Forwarded by:
Asia Russell
Health GAP
Email: [email protected]