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The question above is the the worry of the Global Health Initiative Working Group, a coalition that includes Advocates for Youth, Partners in Health, Physicians for Human Rights, and The Foundation for AIDS Research.
In a statement released last month, the coalition points out:
"President Obama’s proposed FY ’11 budget underfunds and jeopardizes global HIV/AIDS, women’s, maternal and child health, and tuberculosis and malaria programs, and falls far short of what the experts have identified as essential investments."Ann Starrs, president of Working Group member Family Care International, adds:
“We recognize that this is a difficult budget year, but by adding relatively small amounts in some areas like maternal and child health while cutting others like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, this budget fails to live up to the promise of the Administration’s Global Health Initiative...[t]he wellbeing and security of nations is based on the health and productivity of their citizens. Failing to scale up successful health programs, which are vital to the prospects of economic and social improvement for local communities, undermines human security.”Make no mistake. Federal budget-making is not just a game for prognosticator mathematicians. Nor is it something that touches U.S. citizens alone. With the next budget cycle and its Global Health Initiative, the Obama administration can either lift up or close the door on millions of people. Putting it more starkly, the danger is this administration will allow lives to be needlessly lost. Because that's what will happen, for instance, if the U.S. cuts vital programs like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
Check out the full press release for a detailed budget numbers breakdown.
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Thanks so much for pointing this out. I have not been following the budgeting process as closely as I would like so I did not realize that global health initiatives were so lacking in funding. Is there a website for an action that we could take or could we start one here on Amplify?
# Posted By 
vanessaaishacoleman
| 3/1/10 02:58 PM
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vanessaaishacoleman
| 3/1/10 02:58 PM
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It is situations like this that show how great of a misunderstanding people have about how to solve social problems. For example: building a road will not better the community if the community isn't well enough to travel it.
# Posted By Mahayana
| 3/1/10 05:33 PM
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