Former President George W. Bush Reflects on Legacy of PEPFAR

Southern Methodist University's Daily Campus interviewed former President George W. Bush about PEPFAR's impact in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. The article describes the origin of PEPFAR, and the program's focus on partnering with African nations to treat, prevent and destigmatize HIV/AIDS. "The old model of foreign aid was to say 'we're going to write you a check and we'll feel better about it,'" Bush said. "We said, we will support you if you design a program that is effective." The article, which includes comments by former U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Mark Dybul, describes some of the criticisms the administration faced for promoting abstinence as an HIV/AIDS prevention strategy. With PEPFAR, "Dybul said, the U.S. provided more condoms than the rest of the world put together -- more than two billion of them," the article reports. According to the paper, both Bush and Dybul "declined comment on [their] thoughts about the [Obama] administration's handling of PEPFAR." (Huseman, 1/17).

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