AIDS

Just hearing the word “budget” puts some people to sleep. But a seemingly insignificant part of the U.S. Federal Budget makes a world of difference to millions of children and families around the world: the International Affairs Budget.

Just one percent

Did you know that the International Affairs Budget makes up just a little more than one percent of the U.S. Federal Budget? This one percent funds humanitarian, economic, and diplomatic initiatives… from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to U.S. State Department activities to many other international efforts that promote global stability and poverty reduction.

There are few parts of the U.S. Federal Budget where dollars translate so directly into lives saved. Just a few of the challenges addressed through this budget include:
• global hunger
• AIDS
• malaria
• illiteracy
• disaster response
• peacebuilding
• human and religious rights protection

Did you know that the International Affairs Budget (which is just 1.4 percent of the total federal budget) provides critical, life-saving assistance to combat extreme poverty, hunger, child mortality and diseases like AIDS and malaria?

ACT NOW: These critical, life-saving funds are currently threatened in Congress! Send a message to your members of Congress. Ask them to support the president's FY 2011 budget request for the International Affairs Budget. There are few places in the U.S. federal budget where dollars translate so directly into lives saved.

“The success of the G20 can’t be measured by only economic indicators, which are meaningless unless human lives are saved and vulnerable families’ well-being improved, which in itself will increase global prosperity. In the G20 countries alone, 2.5 million children are dying each year before their fifth birthdays. That's equivalent to the entire population of Toronto, and almost 30 percent of the 8.8 million babies and children who die globally, most of preventable causes.”
- Robert Zachritz, Advocacy Director, World Vision U.S.

"The development and prosperity our leaders are striving for can’t be sustained if our children are dying and a third of those who survive can’t realize their full potential as a result of childhood malnutrition."
- Sue Mbaya, Advocacy Director, World Vision Africa

These countries are now the 21st century’s economic powerhouses, with 87 percent of the world’s GDP, yet many are still failing to address dire living conditions and lack of access to health services in their communities.

By Robert Zachritz and Shawna Templeton, World Vision

In his 1941 State of the Union address, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously articulated the "four freedoms":

Freedom of speech and expression
Freedom of religion
Freedom from want
Freedom from fear

On Independence Day, we celebrate these freedoms and recognize that we are afforded special privileges that much of the rest of the world does not know. But these freedoms also should impact how we view the rest of the world and how we live out God's calling to care for the poor. In Scripture, we are charged to:

Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. --Isaiah 1:17 (NIV)

How can we use our American citizenship to do this?

"We are called to create a modern-day Book of Acts with our lives." That is the theme we will be exploring for next year! We just launched this new booklet across the country that explains Who We Are as a network and What We Are Doing this year on our campuses, in our churches, and within our communities. Check it out -- and this preview of next year's calendar!

THE YEAR AHEAD...CREATING A MODERN-DAY BOOK OF ACTS TOGETHER
OCTOBER 1 - Day of Prayer and Action
FALL STUDY - Acts + Calling – Study of the Book of Acts
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER - ACT:S to End Malaria
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER - ACT: on AIDS – Lives are on the Line
DECEMBER 1 - World AIDS Day
JANUARY/FEBRUARY - Human Wrong Initiative to Stop Child Slavery
MARCH/APRIL - Lent Study: Sacrificial Acts of Justice
APRIL 25 - World Malaria Day
SPRING - Summit on the Hill 2011 – Washington, DC

World Vision’s policy ask to the G8 & G20 for 2010

Last year the G8 agreed to the Consensus for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.(1) It is now time to operationalize this consensus. The Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child health are far off-track and they will not be achieved under the business-as-usual approach. Despite gradual improvements in child health globally, maternal deaths have not budged and child mortality is still far too high at around 9 million children under five years of age dying each year. Cost-effective interventions that have been proven in a number of developing countries are available which will reduce child deaths by 65% and maternal deaths by 80%. What is needed now is effective coordinated action by all major players.

ACT NOW: Ask the G8 to take steps to end preventable child deaths

Such action will require the following four steps:

1. Increasing the level of funding for health to meet the MDG and G8 health commitments
There must be an increase in health funding from donors – from around $US20 billion per year in 2008 to $37.5 billion by 2012 and $42.5 billion by 2015. World Health Organization modeling indicates that this level of support is required to meet the Millennium Development Goals for health and the existing G8 commitments which cover child health, maternal health, HIV & AIDS and other major infectious diseases.(2) This level of funding can be realized through the achievement of current aid volume commitments and through greater priority for health in the aid budgets of a number of donor countries. The total aid required for health in 2012 is likely to make up no more than 23% of total aid in 2012.(3)

A new United Nations initiative designed to improve global maternal, newborn and child health is a welcome development but neglects to address some important action points.

Formally launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon June 7th at the Women Deliver conference in Washington, the new Joint Action Plan calls for all countries to revitalize efforts in further reducing preventable deaths among mothers and children worldwide. UN figures indicate that each year at least 350,000 mothers die, as do nearly 9 million babies and children under age five.

“This plan will help the global community build on progress made so far in tackling the needless deaths of mothers and children,” says World Vision International President and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Jenkins. “World Vision commends the Secretary General’s leadership in making this health catastrophe a global priority.”

Next month, President Obama will attend the G8 Summit, a meeting of leaders from the world’s most powerful and wealthy countries. The influence that these countries have on the rest of the world cannot be understated –- particularly their impact on the poorest and most vulnerable, like mothers and children living in poverty.

Will they follow through?

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, host of the 2010 summit, has confirmed that addressing child and maternal heath will be a priority at the summit. This is encouraging news for the millions of mothers and children susceptible to deadly but preventable diseases. But will G8 countries follow through?

By James Addis, Senior Editor for World Vision Magazine

Couldn't come to Urbana? We're bringing it to you! Here's a virtual tour of the brand-new ACT:S Experience, which illustrates the idea of our ACT:S network and the power of creative activism. If you want to activate your campus, become an ACT:S Mobilizer.