27 May 2001

Powell Places Priority on War Against HIV/AIDS in Africa

By Charles W. Corey
Washington File Staff Correspondent

Kampala, Uganda -- Speaking in the Ugandan capital May 27, Secretary of State Colin Powell emphasized the seriousness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, saying "there is no war on the face of the earth right now that is more serious, that is more grave than the war we see here in sub-Saharan Africa against HIV/AIDS."

Powell made that point in a speech at the TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) Aids Center at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, where he also announced two new anti-HIV/AIDS initiatives for Uganda. He spoke following a tour of the facility, which provides comprehensive counseling and treatment for those suffering from the deadly virus.

The first initiative -- known as the Model District Program -- will use $20 million over five years to take what Powell called the excellent treatment and prevention practices developed at TASO and replicate them in ten of Uganda's 56 districts across the country. The program is co-funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

A second program will provide $30 million in food assistance over five years for HIV/AIDS orphans and affected families. Powell said it will be the largest program of its kind in the world and will reach 60,000 people.

Powell told his audience that he made Uganda the final stop on his four-nation Africa tour -- which included Mali, South Africa and Kenya -- because of the progress all Ugandans have made in fighting the deadly disease.

"The progress began with your president understanding the nature of the crisis he was facing -- not shrinking from it, not standing back and not saying it is not here ... but doing the right thing in stepping forward and being a leader."

Powell reminded everyone that fighting HIV/AIDS requires leadership. "It costs nothing. It does not cost one single dollar. It just requires brave people to stand and say 'This is a crisis. This is something we will win. I will be a leader.'"

Leaders against the disease, he told his audience, are needed at every level -- from the presidential leader to community leaders to leaders in the medical community.

Above everything else, however, he added, prevention is the key to stopping the disease in its tracks.

Powell pledged to his audience "America will help you in every way we can."

President Bush, Powell told his audience, "understands the nature of this war, the nature of this pandemic." President Bush will be visiting Africa in the near future to follow up on what has been done on his trip, he added.

Speaking directly to his African audience, which included health experts and HIV/AIDS sufferers, Powell said, "You are the leaders of this war. You are on the front line of it and you have taken the battle to the enemy!"

Also speaking at the clinic ceremony was Andrew Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Natsios warned that food security is now threatened and malnutrition is rising throughout sub-Saharan Africa because of the spread of HIV/AIDS. "What is happening now is that as farmers are dying, as spouses are dying," there is no one left to tend the crops.

For that reason, he said, part of the U.S. response to HIV/AIDS in Africa is not just treatment and prevention but also caring for the children that survive. "There are many grandmothers in Uganda," he said, "who are 65 years old who are caring for 20 to 30 grandchildren. Their husbands have died. All of their children have died and only their grandchildren are alive."

Natsios said the United States is spending vast sums of money on fighting the disease but warned that the HIV/AIDS virus is a new disease, having only been discovered in the 1920s -- as opposed to other viruses, which are thousands of years old.

Researchers know more about it now than they did ten years ago, he said, but much more needs to be done. "The country in Africa that has shown us what to do and how to do it is this country," Natsios said, through the efforts led by President Yoweri Museveni.

This year alone, according to Natsios, the United States is spending $2,000 million on HIV/AIDS research alone and $500 million through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and USAID in anti-HIV/AIDS programs.

Additionally, he said, President Bush has recently announced a $200 million contribution to the Global Trust Fund for AIDS.

Natsios warned however, "All of these budgets don't work unless there is leadership at the local and community levels -- in the church, in the mosque and leaders at the national level."

Powell and Administrator Natsios spoke following what Powell termed a "deeply moving" event in which they were briefed on the operations at the TASO facility.

TASO has served a total of 65,000 clients who are HIV/AIDS positive, with 65 per cent of its clients females.

During the event, Powell and his delegation also heard testimonials from HIV/AIDS sufferers.

A TASO Drama Group made up of HIV/AIDS sufferers that uses music and drama to teach people anti-HIV/AIDS education, sang a song, "Imagine," that has as its refrain "AIDS is an ending that needs no friend."

An additional testimonial came from Agnes Nyamayare, who spoke about the death of her husband and child from HIV/AIDS.

"As a mother, instead of giving my children life, I gave them HIV," she told Powell and his delegation, who looked over memory books full of pictures that chronicled her family's tragic experience with HIV/AIDS.

The TASO Drama Group closed the event by singing the song "United Against AIDS," which brought Powell, his entire delegation and the audience to their feet -- moving in rhythm back and forth to the singing and beating drums.

Also in attendance was Professor Omaswa, Director General at the Ugandan Ministry of Health, who thanked the United States for helping Uganda in its fight against HIV/AIDS. "The entire country has been mobilized to fight HIV/AIDS," he said. He also expressed hope, that someday in the future, out of the HIV/AIDS pandemic might sprout a new Africa and a new Uganda.

Uganda was one of the first African countries to recognize the impact of the HIV/AIDS virus and to develop a coordinated, multi-sectoral response. In 1986, President Yoweri Museveni formed the first HIV/AIDS control program in Africa. At the same time, he created an atmosphere of openness and demonstrated a strong political will and leadership.

In Uganda, rates of HIV infection soared in the late 1980s and peaked in 1992, when more than 30 percent of the country's pregnant women were infected. Today, rates have dropped to less than 10 percent.

Currently, there are an estimated one million Ugandans living with HIV/AIDS -- out of a total population of about 23 million -- and the country has more than one million orphans under the age of 15.

Powell leaves Africa May 28 for meetings in Europe before returning to Washington.