Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Brazil rejects Faith-Based AIDS Funds

Good for Brazil. I wish I knew some Portuguese so I could congratulate them on their bravery and pride in their own language, turning down 40 million precious American dollars with too many strings attached (wouldn't it be nice if we attached half as many strings when we were throwing hundreds of billions of dollars down the military-industrial rathole).
"... Brazil's top Aids official, Pedro Chequer, said the US' conservative approach to treating the disease would not help.
Correspondents say references to prostitution are likely to become a condition for all US Aids funding.
Washington says it is important not to promote prostitution, and does not want any of its funds to be spent on treating prostitutes.
US President George Bush has allocated $15bn to the worldwide fight against Aids.
Much of the spending is being channelled to programmes that advocate abstinence, rather than condom use, and cannot be used for abortions or to treat prostitutes.
But Aids activists in Brazil said the clause would hamper the treatment of infected sex workers and their clients.
Mr Chequer also called for official recognition of prostitution as a profession in Brazil.
Sex workers should have the right to collect state welfare payments like other workers, he said. "


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good for them! Thanks for the link, TBL. I've posted the story at work.