- "PEPFAR" - We can be thanking God for some of the initiatives President Bush articulated this past week, and pray for the meeting of the "G8" in Germany, since a good portion of their agenda has to do with strategies regarding the "developing world" in general and Africa in particular. PEPFAR, the "president's emergency plan for AIDS relief", is a US commitment to AIDS relief and prevention that pledged $15billion over 5 years (2003-2008), of which over $13billion has been applied. Its original goals were to provide antiretroviral treatment (ART) to 2 million HIV-infected people in resource-limited settings, to prevent 7 million new infections, and to support care for 10 million people (the "2-7-10 goals"). Some of the first funds allocated from that initiative were to World Vision Zambia. We will see some of the results of PEPFAR when we are in Zambia, in the RAPIDS program. (I'll let our WV hosts explain what that is all about.)
Last week Bush proposed an extension for the next 5 years, doubling the original amount to $30billion, which will result in close to 45 billion dollars having been invested by our nation in nations who can do little on their own. This is something to thank God for!
- "The Son of God is Dancing" - we have not taken time to discuss this book. Have you had a chance to read any of it? Any responses? Shoot 'em in here!
- REAL.LIFE. I invite one of the team members to make a brief report about our visit to the Medical Teams International exhibit last week.
Graig.
No comments:
Post a Comment