As we start on Sunday to look at how we respond to HIV & AIDS as Christian health professionals in Eurasia, it is sobering to stop and note that efforts to tackle poverty (one of the main drivers and symptoms of the AIDS Pandemic) and improve access to healthcare (one of the main weapons in the war against HIV & AIDS) are falling woefully behind. As this article highlights, though there are some areas of progress, in reality the rich nations are maybe $30 billion behind target.
I remember the heady days of July 2005, the Gleneagles G8 Summit in Scotland, the 'Make Poverty History' campaign, and a real sense that change was in the air. This report is merely the latest set of figures that shows the rich are still not living up to our obligations and commitments to the poor. We are not going to make the 2010 universal access targets for HIV & AIDS treatment, care and prevention either, for similar reasons.
One of the challenges we face is not just to ask how best we can provide treatment, care and prevention, it is also to ask how we challenge the social and political systems that lock people out of these resources.
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