Saving Lives - How RESULTS advocates help fund the Global Fund

Why I Support The Global Fund

By Gina Olivieri, RESULTS' Grassroots Engagement Manager

Over the past few weeks, RESULTS grassroots volunteers all over Australia have been writing to their MPs and asking that Australia give $US 375 million to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria for 2014-2016. Next week we will go to Canberra to meet with several MPs and Senators, sharing our vision of a world free of these deadly diseases, and our reasons for believing this should be a priority for Australia. In this blog post, I share my reasons for supporting The Global Fund.

1. The 15 year old students I met in Umlazi who planted a vegetable garden at their school, so they could provide free, nutritious food to all the orphans at school.
2. The boy of 15 I met on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal who could not do his homework until 10pm, by candle light, because he had to take care of his younger brother, clean the house, and cook dinner first.
3. The homeless girl of about 14 I saw sitting in the front seat of a tow truck, being leered at by the driver.
4. The girl of about 13 with a piece of tape marked ‘134’ on her hand to indicate her place in the queue at a clinic in Umlazi.

A generation of orphans who have lost their parents to AIDS are vulnerable to exploitation, hunger and disadvantage. Child headed households abound, impacting on educational opportunities and putting girls especially at risk of HIV infection if they take an older boyfriend or ‘sugar daddy’ for financial security. Queues at HIV/AIDS clinics snake around the building and struggle to keep up with demand – despite the fact that many HIV+ people stay away for fear of stigmatisation.

What a lot of people don’t realise about The Global Fund is that it does much more than just pay for medicines. Grants from The Global Fund are used to strengthen, integrate and resource a variety of public health activities by government and non-government organisations to better educate the public about HIV risk, run support groups for HIV+ people, train community leaders, medical and support staff, and provide support for orphans and other vulnerable children, to name but a few.

These kids are my reason – what’s yours?

Global Fund announces new board chair… and she’s from the Asia Pacific!

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria has announced a new chair of the Board. Dr. Nafsiah Mboi, the Indonesian Minister of Health and previous secretary of Indonesia’s National AIDS Commission, will take over the role of chair from Simon Bland of the UK from June this year. Guided by a founding principle of partnership, the Global Fund alternates the chair of the Board each two year term between members of donor countries and members of implementer countries.

While the Chair of the Board represents the interests of the Global Fund, rather than those of their country in particular, Dr Mboi’s experiences will undoubtedly be brought to the table. Dr Nafsiah Mboi trained as a paediatrician and has further training in Public Health. She has served as Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and also as Director of the Department of Gender and Women's Health at the World Health Organization in Geneva.

In their congratulatory statement at the announcement of Dr Nafsiah Mboi’s appointment as Minister of Health last year, The Pacific Friends of the Global Fund commended Dr Nafsiah Mboi for always understanding “the critical role of empowering women and girls in achieving better health outcomes for the entire community”.

We’re excited that the new chair is from the Asia Pacific, and along with her interest in child health and women and girls, Dr Nafsiah Mboi can offer much needed insight and an increased profile for our region. Approximately 60% of the world’s TB cases are found in the Asia Pacific and the Global Fund has been key to the response in our region. This year, 100% of TB programs in Laos will be funded by the Global Fund, 94% of TB programs in Timor Leste, and 92% of TB programs in Dr Nafsiah Mboi’s home country, Indonesia.

On RESULTS National Conference call tonight, Wednesday March 27, we will be discussing the historic opportunity the world now has to defeat AIDS, TB and Malaria. Make sure you join the call to hear why it is so important for Australia to increase their support for the Global Fund this year.