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My son is a human rights activist in South Africa. Here are his words about the impacts of these cuts on a human level: “The decision to cut foreign aid, and specifically the AIDS funding program set up 20 years ago by George Bush, is causing suffering, costing lives, and breaking down fragile health systems. In South Africa, 15,000 doctors and nurses who provide care to people with AIDS and TB were told to stop work ten days ago. Their patients, all very poor, have been left stranded. The doctors themselves have not been paid. People will die. The organizations that employed them do not know what to do. The organization I work with, the Treatment Action Campaign, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Through our advocacy and monitoring we have helped millions of people to get treatment that has saved their lives. These doctors have expertise and institutional knowledge in a country where we already have a huge shortage of doctors and health workers. They are also the most experienced doctors and researchers dealing with AIDS, including developing a vaccine. But now we are probably going to have to close the organization because 70% of our funding came from the USA. We were told in an official letter on Friday to immediately tell all employees to cease work. This has been done. Foreign aid has won America many friends abroad; it has been its great soft power. Now it is losing that influence. We are one world and we depend on the US and other developed countries for solidarity with previously disadvantaged countries where true and genuine democracy is taking shape.” While we can’t fill this void alone, we can keep fighting the good fight with the knowledge that we are indeed our brother’s keeper. Please continue to support St. Mary’s Outreach with your prayers and generous donations. Sue Heywood, Outreach Chair
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