*EPF505 07/14/00
U.S. Grant Supports South African Children Victimized by HIV/AIDS
(Grant announcement comes at close of XIII Int'l AIDS Conference) (670)
By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Correspondent

Durban, South Africa -- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund are entering a partnership to help South African children infected with HIV/AIDS and those whose parents have been infected.

Officials announced a $5 million USAID grant to the Fund on July 14, the final day of the XIII International AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa.

At a grant-signing ceremony, Sandra Thurman, director of the White House Office on National AIDS Policy said that post-apartheid South Africa represents "the power of perseverance and possibility," which must now be applied to the "relentless pandemic" of HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS is claiming more victims in South Africa than in any other country in the world. Estimates put forth by international agencies indicate that as many as 4.2 million South Africans are infected.

The Mandela Fund's initiative will develop new ideas on how to support children affected by the epidemic, bringing greater community support systems to bear on that effort. A USAID report issued earlier in the week at the conference found that almost 1.3 million South African children are orphans, 62 percent of those as a result of AIDS. By 2010, the report projects, almost 3.6 million children will be parentless, with AIDS as the cause in 92 percent of those cases.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela participated in the ceremony, and said, "Children bear the brunt of nature's anger and man's misfortunes." He emphasized how the "frightening figures" threaten the future of the nation. "These are not cold statistics. They are human beings, warm breathing children who look to adults for answers."

The announcement comes at the end of an international conference in which an unusual degree of attention has been focused on the host nation of the meeting, and what many delegates consider an inadequate response to the AIDS epidemic by the South African government.

South African President Thabo Mbeki dismayed the international scientific community earlier this year when he expressed doubts about the widely accepted finding that HIV is the viral agent causing the immune system breakdown that characterizes AIDS. Many delegates fear that Mbeki's position could freeze progress against the disease and efforts to curtail its further transmission through education programs.

At the July 14 ceremony, Mandela took on the critics of his successor, defending the record of the African National Congress Party in passing a constitution and bringing more justice to citizens of all races than they had ever known before. "No government has ever done what this government has done during the six years it's been in power." For that reason, Mandela expressed optimism that the future of his nation is bright, despite the serious problems it faces with AIDS.

In his closing speech to the conference, Mandela said the dispute about Mbeki's views and the cause of AIDS is unintentionally distracting from the "real life and death issues we are confronted with as a country, a region, a continent and a world." He advised that "the dispute about the primacy of politics or science be put on the back burner." More important, Mandela said, are the needs of those suffering and dying.

"In the face of the grave threat posed by HIV/AIDS, we have to rise above our differences and combine our efforts to save our people," Mandela told the more than ten thousand delegates assembled for the conference.

Stefano Vella, the president of the International AIDS Society, sponsor of the conference, said that Mandela's remarks have eased the doubts that some delegates brought to this conference about whether southern African leaders are committed to fighting the battle against the pandemic.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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