[Ip-health] IndyStar column: Even in Tough Financial Times, Life-Changing Priorities Remain

[Dan Beeton]

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Even in Tough Financial Times, Life-Changing Priorities Remain

By Fran Quigley

ELDORET, KENYA. A few weeks ago here, a slender teenage boy named Victor
walked into the offices for AMPATHs program for orphans and vulnerable
children. He appeared to be fighting off tears as he solemnly handed over a
letter.

AMPATH stands for the Academic Model for Providing Access to Healthcare, the
program that has grown out of the partnership between Indiana University
School of Medicine and Moi University School of Medicine and Moi Teaching and
Referral Hospital here in western Kenya. AMPATH has grown into one of the
largest and most comprehensive responses to Africas HIV/AIDS pandemic and
poverty crisis, and I am privileged to serve as director of operations for the
Indiana side of our efforts.

            An important part of AMPATHs work here is providing care, in the
form of food, school fees, medicine and other necessities, to children who
have been orphaned or left destitute by HIV. Our program directly serves
12,000 such children. Umoja, a coalition of Indianapolis and Kenyan
faith-based organizations, serves thousands more in the Chulaimbo area.

            After Victors parents died of AIDS, he became one of the children
receiving support from AMPATH. That means Victor was helped by the generous
people of the U.S., through the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR) and the private donations from our Indiana community. So when Victor
dropped off his letter after completing secondary school and his university
entrance exams, his message was intended for all of us.

My dear parents AMPATH, the letter began.

            May I take this chance to return my sincere thanks and gratitude
to you for enabling me to complete my high school education. For sure, you
have proved to be as helpful as a brother and as concerned as a parent.

Youre one people who brought light in my life at a time when I saw darkness
engulfing my future. This was after I dropped out of school due to lack of
fees and stayed at home for a whole year before I met you. You revived my
hopes at a time when I saw them tumbling down like the Biblical walls of Sodom
and Gomorrah.

But glory be to God, for I have finally ended the race. Thanks once again. You
can proudly join me in shouting, Yes we can.

Sincerely, Victor

. Despite the fact that programs like PEPFAR make up less than 1% of our
federal budget, Vice President-elect Joe Biden has mentioned the possibility
of backing away from President-elect Obamas foreign assistance goals. I
recently watched a panel of solemn Washington pundits pronounce that limiting
aid is an obvious step for the Obama administration.

We are certainly going through tough times domestically, so I can understand
how such a move may seem obvious in the abstract. But here in western Kenya,
suffering does not occur in the abstract. I wish these commentators were here
to meet the families who owe their very survival to programs like PEPFAR.

For a fraction of the cost of a Wall Street bailout, we can continue to
deliver hope where there was once only despair. Just ask Victor.



This column is online at
http://www.indystar.com/article/20090112/OPINION12/901120318/1002/OPINION[1]


--
Dan Beeton
Center for Economic and Policy Research
1611 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202-239-1460
Cell: 202 256-6116
Skype: dan.beeton
E-mail: beeton@cepr.net[2] / www.cepr.net[3]

===References:===
  1. http://www.indystar.com/article/20090112/OPINION12/901120318/1002/OPINION
  2. mailto:beeton@cepr.net
  3. http://www.cepr.net/