MEXICO CITY- On Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 12pm, student activists from the Student Global AIDS Campaign, a US-based national student campaign mobilizing to end AIDS, joined with global allies to highlight the failing policies in PEPFAR. Wednesday, July 30th, President Bush signed legislation that authorizes $48 billion to continue US foreign assistance to combat AIDS. While activists recognize this as a monumental piece of legislation, they are nonetheless dismayed that the new law will continue to promote failed prevention policies worldwide. Current legislation continues to ignore recommendations made in a report by the Government Accountability Office in 2006, which recommended an end to both abstinence-only funding and the stigmatizing sex worker loyalty oath.

Activists gathered outside the International AIDS Conference Media Center and invited delegates from around the world to voice their comments and concerns about the newest US legislation, the largest global AIDS bill to date. Leaving the Media Center, students marched to the ‘US Government Response to HIV/AIDS Booth’, where they held an open forum. Individuals read their comments aloud and presented the U.S. Representatives with a giant comment box. According to Caiti Schroering of Student Global AIDS Campaign: “If the US is serious about pursuing a concerted fight against the AIDS pandemic, then our policies must reflect this goal. The current ideology-based prevention policies, including abstinence-only-until-marriage education, inhibit the fight against this disease.” Read More

Most GJers came of age during the Bush years. Our political consciousness has been forged in opposition the apex of the conservative counter-revolution. Eight years of myopic focus on limited government, tax breaks for those who need them least, an aggressive neo-conservative foreign agenda, tightening strictures on civil liberties, deeply sexist, homophobic and racist law makers, disastrous public health initiatives backed by Christian conservatives, and the triumph of neo-liberal free-market radicalism. We are children of the very Bush Administration that has radicalized us—which is why it can be a little confusing when he does something we like—such as giving billions of dollars to fight HIV/AIDS.

When I first leaned about The President’s Emergency Plan For AIDs Relief (PEPFAR), I was fairly impressed. After all, as our good friends at Wikipedia remind me, it is “the largest international health initiative ever initiated by one nation to address a single disease.” Few can deny that if any disease needs to be seriously addressed by the most powerful nation-state on the planet it is the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the accompanying scourges of malaria and tuberculosis. PEPFAR 1’s original $15 billion earmark devoted to the disease left much to be desired (After all the Presidents Pet Misadventure in Iraq (PPMI) is costing, according to that bastion of radicalism MSNBC, around $1.7 billion dollars a week. ) But when news came that Bush was looking to buoy his flagging legacy by doubling the money to $30 billion, and then, that the Congressional Democrats were increasing the budget to $50 billion, well, you’d have to try awfully hard to misspend that much money. Read More

As a committed SGACer and activist, the experience of going to the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City proved to be an amazing, draining, energizing and exhausting experience all wrapped up together. Getting on the 5:45 am shuttle from the hotel to the conference and not returning again via cab until after midnight is certainly tiring. I know that I definitely consumed a significant quantity of coffee just to be able to maintain some semblance of coherency and alertness—we all did! From speakers and sessions to the twice daily activist meetings, multiple protests a day, and meetings with people, we were kept pretty busy running around. However, my energy increased as the week progressed, in large part because of the passion from the people around me, and the realization that while much work has been done in the area of HIV/AIDS, there is still an enormous amount left to be done.

The list of incredible people there included every one of the activists, and many other people too, including Stephen Lewis (former Special UN Envoy to AIDS in Africa) and Jim Kim (former Director of the WHO’s HIV/AIDS unit). SGAC has worked with both of these people who are powerful voices in the fight against this pandemic. And then of course there were people like Mark Dybul, the present US Global AIDS Coordinator who has, in my opinion (and that of many HIV/AIDS activists) not been the greatest champion of effective HIV prevention policies. Of course, that is part of what made this such an interesting opportunity: to see and hear the main voices who work on HIV/AIDS, especially the ones that I think have flawed policies. In fact, this is where the activist’s role comes in: our job at the IAC was to make the people with the power to give us what we want—comprehensive sex education, universal access to life-saving medication and more healthcare workers to name a few. We accomplished this through a busy schedule of actions. Read More

Steering Committee elections for the 2008-2009 school year are now open! Nominate yourself by Monday, April 14th at 11:59pm EST. See below for details. Read More

Students, doctors, people living with HIV/AIDS deliver giant keys to Congress; demand comprehensive global HIV prevention and treatment

WASHINGTON, DC - Using giant keys to symbolize their demands, students, health care professionals, and people living with HIV/AIDS descended on Capitol Hill today, demanding Congress to “unlock the solution to the global AIDS crisis.”

Activists urged Congress to support a bill that would train and retain doctors and nurses in sub-Saharan Africa, avoid stigmatizing sex workers, support 4 million people on treatment, and provide unrestricted, science-based sexual education.
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Below is a piece from University of Chicago-SGAC about their campaign to hold Senator Barack Obama accountable for his statements on needle exchange:

One of the things the University of Chicago chapter did this quarter was to write an open letter to Senator Barack Obama about lifting the federal ban on needle exchange program funding. For many, many years now, activists have worked to lift this ban. Top scientists both internationally and domestically, have shown that needle exchange programs are an effective way to prevent significant HIV/AIDS transmission. Although, knowledgeable and dedicated leaders like Jose Serrano are working for change, lifting the ban seems far off since the stigma and controversy surrounding needle exchange is still strong.
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