A few days ago, I posted on the ONE campaign's plea for everyone to contact their Senators and urge them to approve the Sanatorium-Durbin. The phone lines on Capitol Hill were flooded with over 23,000 calls and on Tuesday, the Senate voted $100 million more for the life saving efforts of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. Read the update on the ONE blog.
The Sanatorium-Durbin provides that the US will contribute a total of $600 million to the Global Fund next year. In the weeks ahead, the amendment needs to pass the House of Representatives. The US also encourages international participation in the Global Fund, requiring that every US dollar contributed to the fund, be matched by $2.00 from international contributors. Additionally, the Global Fund has instituted a system of checks and balances to fight potential corruption and ensure that the funds received are disbursed properly and that funding reaches those most in need.
The Global Fund uses the funds in some of the following ways:
In Nigeria, tens of millions of doses of a newly, highly effective malaria medication will be distributed, whereas just two years ago only 10,000 doses were available in all of Africa. In Mozambique, more than 55,000 people will receive life-saving AIDS treatment, which will help them remain healthy and alive long enough to raise their children, tend their farms, raise crops and build businesses and communities.
In Kenya, the Global Fund supports the The Kenya Network of Women with HIV/AIDS (KENWA). KENWA is a community-based organization formed and run by women living with HIV/AIDS. It is currently reaching about 470,000 people through a country-wide membership of 2,430 women.
With its US$ 220’875 share of the US$ 137 million approved over two years by the Global Fund to finance HIV/AIDS activities in Kenya, KENWA offers counseling, home-based care and psycho-social support in some of the most deprived slum areas of Nairobi.
KENWA runs six drop-in centers which serve as information, dissemination and walk-in counseling centers for the general public and cater mainly to HIV-infected women as well as orphaned and vulnerable children.
Thanks to everyone who made phone call, just thought you might want to know how it turned out and where the funding goes.
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