Protesters Bash Obama and His Funding of HIV

Protesters, siting lack of global AIDS funding and broken promises, bashed the United States and specifically President Obama at the opening of XVIII International AIDS conference (AIDS 2010) in Vienna, Austria. HIV activists from around the world led a peaceful but spirited demonstration right outside the doors of the conference that opened on July 18th. The consistant message was that despite the President's new National HIV/AIDS Strategy the Obama Administration has failed to keep promises made during the last presidential campaign. Specifically they are asking that Obama increase the amount of money the US has committed to HIV around the world. The protesters contend that while the US is the largest contributor to HIV funding around the world, the amount the US has promised is very small in proportion to the total financial resources of the US. A US protester, Dr. Paul Zeitz of the Global AIDS Alliance sited one example. While the Obama Administration has promised $25 million to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), in Dr. Zeitz's opinion more than $125 million is needed to properly fund the program. Phil Wilson of the Black AIDS Institute summed up the protest.

"We're not making the investment we need to make and we should continue to remind the President that we need to make a bigger investment".

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_Source

_{Helm, AB.; "Protesters Open Up World AIDS Conference With Venom Towards U.S. and President Obama"; Black AIDS Institute; 19 Jul 2010.}