Battling Hunger And Disease
More than half of the world’s food assistance that goes to people coping with humanitarian crises comes from the U.S.
The United States, says President George W. Bush, is helping people who are trying to cope with humanitarian crises. Today, he says, more than half of the world’s food assistance comes from the United States: “We send emergency food stocks to starving people from camps in Sudan to slums around the world. I've proposed an innovative initiative to alleviate hunger under which America would purchase the crops of local farmers in Africa and elsewhere, rather than shipping in food from the developed world. This would help build up local agriculture and break the cycle of famine in the developing world -- and I urge our United States Congress to support this initiative.” The United States, says Mr. Bush, is also committed to fighting AIDS: “Five years ago, in Sub-Saharan Africa, an AIDS diagnosis was widely considered a death sentence, and fewer than fifty thousand people infected with the virus were receiving treatment. The world responded by creating the Global Fund, which is working with governments and the private sector to fight the disease around the world. The United States decided to take these steps a little further by launching the fifteen-billion-dollar Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Since 2003, this effort has helped bring cutting-edge medicines to more than a million people in sub-Saharan Africa. It's a good start. So earlier this year, I proposed to double our initial commitment to thirty billion dollars. By coming together, the world can turn the tide against HIV/AIDS -- once and for all.” Mr. Bush says the United States is also on the front-lines of the battle against another deadly disease – malaria: “In some countries, malaria takes as many lives as HIV/AIDS -- the vast majority of them children under the age of five years old. Every one of these deaths is unnecessary, because the disease is preventable and treatable. The world knows what it takes to stop malaria -- bed nets and indoor spraying and medicine to treat the disease. Two years ago, America launched a one-point-two-billion dollar malaria initiative. Other nations and the private sector are making vital contributions, as well. I call on every member state to maintain its focus, find new ways to join this cause, and bring us closer to the day when malaria deaths are no more.” “When millions of children starve to death or perish from a mosquito bite,” says President Bush, “we're not doing our duty in the world.”