News from the Mission
U.S. Embassy Marks World AIDS Day with Giant Red Ribbon
Pretoria, November 30, 2007 -- The United States Embassy, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the Pretoria Diplomatic Association co-sponsored an HIV/AIDS awareness and testing event to demonstrate the power of partnerships and the fight against AIDS. The diplomatic community, government officials, and the press set an example by being tested for HIV/AIDS. The U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission, Mr. Don Teitelbaum, and Mr. Kamal Arifi, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Moroccan Embassy and Chairman of the Pretoria Diplomatic Association, spoke at the ceremony. Other participants included two members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus: Representative Barbara Lee (Democrat from California) and Representative Donna Christensen (Democrat from the U.S. Virgin Islands). PEPFAR NGO partner Right To Care provided free HIV/AIDS counseling and testing.
U.S. Represenative Barbara Lee stated, "HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic; sub-Saharan Africa (and South Africa in particular) is the epicenter. I am very proud of the work being done in South Africa supported by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). My colleague, Representative Christensen, and I have now recommitted ourselves to return to the U.S. as advocates for more resources for these efforts. We will not stop until HIV is stamped out."
In 2007, the United States’ commitment to South Africa was 2.9 billion Rand ($397.8 million), rising from nearly 643 million Rand ($89.3 million) in 2003 before PEPFAR began. In 2008, PEPFAR intends to invest almost 4.3 billion Rand ($600 million) into the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa. PEPFAR has helped achieve striking results in South Africa -- it has funded over 600 partners, mostly South African; assisted in training more than 20,000 clinical, community, and managerial health care workers; and is working in more than 850 sites to provide anti-retroviral treatment. Currently, 329,000 South Africans are receiving anti-retroviral treatment through PEPFAR.