Dear Editor,
On September 8, 2014, I read a letter to the editor from activist Maurice Tomlinson entitled, 'Who will fund the anti-HIV response?' Among other things, Tomlinson stated: "The Lawyers Christian Fellowship (LCF) must be joking if they expect Caribbean governments to continue financing CHART, after LCF had effectively doomed CHART [Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Programme] by insisting that someone who does not share the organisation's values be retained as its head. The Government must take action and put a stop to these selfish fundamentalists who are threatening our entire society."
We wish to respond.
News broke last week of the US Health Department's Policy Shift in AIDS and HIV funding, which has resulted in the discontinuation of funds for CHART and other health training partnerships. This development was anticipated from late last year when the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief asked countries around the world to submit their Country Operation Plans to the office of the Global AIDS Coordinator for review. Consequent on this review, funding has been cut for programmes around the world, including programmes managed by the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Alliance in the Eastern Caribbean, the University of the West Indies CHART programme, as well as programmes in the United States and elsewhere. In fact, the Eastern Caribbean was advised about a month ago that funding would end in September.
There has even been a policy shift within the domestic US AIDS programme. The upshot is that more money is to be made available for the direct care and treatment of men who have sex with men and sex workers. In its new iteration, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Suriname are to be treated as high priority.
I trust this information is helpful to your readers. I resisted the impulse to score political points in the LGBT debate at the expense of unfortunate persons afflicted and affected by HIV/AIDS. Respectfully, I recommend that others do the same.
Helene Coley-Nicholson
President, Lawyers' Christian Fellowship
helenecoley@yahoo.com
AIDS funding shift long time coming
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On September 8, 2014, I read a letter to the editor from activist Maurice Tomlinson entitled, 'Who will fund the anti-HIV response?' Among other things, Tomlinson stated: "The Lawyers Christian Fellowship (LCF) must be joking if they expect Caribbean governments to continue financing CHART, after LCF had effectively doomed CHART [Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Programme] by insisting that someone who does not share the organisation's values be retained as its head. The Government must take action and put a stop to these selfish fundamentalists who are threatening our entire society."
We wish to respond.
News broke last week of the US Health Department's Policy Shift in AIDS and HIV funding, which has resulted in the discontinuation of funds for CHART and other health training partnerships. This development was anticipated from late last year when the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief asked countries around the world to submit their Country Operation Plans to the office of the Global AIDS Coordinator for review. Consequent on this review, funding has been cut for programmes around the world, including programmes managed by the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Alliance in the Eastern Caribbean, the University of the West Indies CHART programme, as well as programmes in the United States and elsewhere. In fact, the Eastern Caribbean was advised about a month ago that funding would end in September.
There has even been a policy shift within the domestic US AIDS programme. The upshot is that more money is to be made available for the direct care and treatment of men who have sex with men and sex workers. In its new iteration, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Suriname are to be treated as high priority.
I trust this information is helpful to your readers. I resisted the impulse to score political points in the LGBT debate at the expense of unfortunate persons afflicted and affected by HIV/AIDS. Respectfully, I recommend that others do the same.
Helene Coley-Nicholson
President, Lawyers' Christian Fellowship
helenecoley@yahoo.com
AIDS funding shift long time coming
-->