Fortørnelse over, at ca. 2,8 mia. kr. fra USA’s globale hiv/aids-bekæmpelsesprogram tilbageholdes. PEPFAR-programmet var præsident George W. Bush håndsrækning til Afrika, men mange penge kommer ikke videre, selv om behovene er enorme.
NAIROBI, 25 April 2012 (PlusNews): More than 400 Kenyan AIDS activists have demonstrated in the capital, Nairobi, demanding that the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief release some 500 million US dollar (ca. 2,8 milliarder DKR) for HIV programmes in Kenya that is stuck in the pipeline.
The US government recently revealed that close to 1,5 billion dollar has been in the global PEPFAR pipeline for more than 18 months. The allocation to Kenya is the largest.
“We are protesting the US government’s withholding of crucial funding for HIV programmes in the country. Last year, [special programmes minister] Esther Murugi pledged that the government would put one million Kenyans on HIV treatment by 2015 – without this funding, that goal cannot be achieved,” said Rose Kaberia, director of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) in Eastern Africa.
The protestors presented a memorandum listing their demands to US Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration, head of PEPFAR-Kenya Katherine Perry, Kenya’s Director of Public Health, Shahnaz Sharif, and other senior Ministry of Health Officials.
The unspent money has led US President Barack Obama’s government to request a 550 million dollar cut in PEPFAR’s global funding under the 2013 budget. Activists have expressed concern that a slow-down in global HIV funding could put lives at risk.
Kenya expected a 44 percent cut in PEPFAR funding for national programmes, so the PEPFAR country operational plan for 2013 keeps enrolment on HIV treatment at the 2011 figure of 100.000 new initiations (nye i behandling) annually.
In the past year, several NGOs have raised the alarm over dwindling funds for HIV programmes around the country, with some having to shut down clinics and offices providing HIV treatment.
“We have ARV [antiretroviral] shortages… (mangel på livsforlængende medicin) the worst part is that it disrupts people’s HIV treatment regimens, yet treatment for HIV is only effective when it is consistent,” a nurse at Kisumu District Hospital in western Kenya told IRIN/PlusNews.
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