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Please Reconsider, Zimbabwe asks Global fund to fight aids
Zimonline
August 09, 2004

http://www.zimonline.co.za/downloads.asp?ID=146

HARARE - Zimbabwe will appeal to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to reverse its decision to withhold funding from the country.

Harare was going to approach the Global Fund before the August 18 deadline by which such appeals should be lodged, UNAIDS official Hege Waagan told ZimOnline. UNAIDS is assisting Zimbabwe with its application for funding from the Fund.

Waagan said, 'We feel we have a chance. That's why we are appealing.' The Global Fund is an international partnership, designed to attract and manage financial resources to fight AIDS, TB and malaria. It was launched two years ago by the G8 group of industrialised countries following a call by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan for the creation of a "war chest" to
fight HIV-AIDS.

Two years ago Harare successfully applied for US$14 million from the Fund. The money, however, still has to be disbursed.

Sources in the donor community said President Robert Mugabe's and his government's strained relations with the powerful G8 countries may have influenced the Fund not to approve funding for the country.

The money Zimbabwe is seeking from the Global Fund is to be used to expand the provision of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs from the 5 000 people receiving ARVs now to about 50 000 people within two years.

'The Global Fund money would have made a major difference in people accessing treatment. Unless we get other funds we won't be able to do so', Waagan said.

Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world with 25 percent of its 12 million people infected with the virus. At least 2 000 Zimbabweans die of AIDS related sickness every week.

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