Campaign for Equal Access to Antiretroviral Treatment
The Rwandan Survivors Fund (SURF) staged a Reading of the Testimonies of Rwandan Survivors in Washington Square Park - to mark the 14th Anniversary of the commemoration of the genocide on Monday 7th April 2008. The event served as a call on the Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) to recognize HIV+ survivors of the genocide as an at-risk population for antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.
OGAC's AIDS relief program delivered by USAID in Rwanda, PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), fails to recognize HIV+ survivors of the genocide as an at-risk population eligible for priority to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Despite the fact that many survivors are HIV+ today due to a systematic program of rape and deliberate infection during the genocide and are particularly vulnerable, PEPFAR currently does not recognize survivors as an at-risk population for HIV and AIDS counselling, testing and treatment.
The current policy of PEPFAR in Rwanda reads:
“The successful collaboration between the USG and the GoR has led to numerous innovations, including: Voluntary counseling and testing and ARV services for most at-risk populations such as commercial sex workers, refugees, prisoners and the military”
From: http://rwanda.usaid.gov/PEPFAR.html (foot of the page, fourth to last bullet point)
The first Reading of the Testimonies SURF staged in London resulted in funding from the UK's Department for International Development of £4.25 million to provide ARV treatment to 2,500 of an estimated affected population of 25,000 women survivors raped and deliberately infected with HIV and AIDS, which proves that it is possible to support survivors through AIDS relief programmes. The US campaign that we are launching at the Reading of the Testimonies NYC, on paper would be even more feasible to deliver, as it does not require any additional funding through PEPFAR to ensure access to ARVs for more survivors - just a recognition of the rights of survivors for equal access to treatment.