It Starts with Us Campaign - Global

Philippa Lawson, HIV+ representative of Infected and Affected Communities to the Board of the Global Fund, and Stuart Flavell, International Coordinator of GNP+, launched the campaign at the International Treatment Preparedness Summit in Cape Town. GNP+ will manage and promote the campaign.

It Starts with Us ask HIV+ people to send cash directly to GNP+. By bringing a bag of money to the fifth Global Fund Board meeting on June 3 2003, members of Philippa Lawson's delegation intend to show the Global Fund Board, in a concrete and physical way, that the Global Fund matters to people living with HIV/AIDS.

It Starts with Us complements other efforts to support the Global Fund, such as the Fund the Fund campaign (click here for a description of this programme).

HIV/AIDS, Health.

Initiated in 2001, The Global Fund is an independent public-private partnership designed to attract, manage, and disperse funds to support technically sound and cost-effective programmes designed to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. This country-level grant application process requires broad multi-sectoral participation of public and private sectors.

The Global Fund is currently underfunded, despite the fact that, by 2005, 500,000 people will begin HIV medication (this includes a six-fold increase in the number of people receiving HIV treatment in Africa); 500,000 children orphaned because of AIDS will receive support; 2 million people will receive TB treatment; and 20 million will benefit from treatment for malaria. The Global Fund currently lacks the $1.4 billion it needs to approve its third round of grants in October 2003.

Although It Starts with Us seeks to gather funds on an ongoing basis, there is an immediate need for quick cash donations in time for the June 3rd Global Fund Board meeting. Outside the context of this meeting, donations may be sent directly to the Global Fund via the UN Foundation.