Africa: Matt Damon Urges Funding for AIDS Assistance Overseas

Upon his recent return from Africa, actor Matt Damon praised PEPFAR, President Bush's emergency AIDS relief plan. Damon spent most of his time in Zambia, which had an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 16.5 percent in 2003, compared to the United States' prevalence rate of 0.6 that year. "You walk into these clinics; you're surrounded by people who are alive and well because of the president's plan and because of this money," Damon said. His trip was sponsored by the DATA Foundation, a nonprofit Africa advocacy group, and the ONE Campaign, a coalition of groups fighting AIDS and poverty. "The work that's being done and the people that I met who are on the front lines there, I just came away feeling like we're going to beat this," Damon said.

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