EU Urged to Pour More Money Into Anti-AIDS Projects

On Thursday, international leaders urged the European Union to commit more money to fighting AIDS in Africa to avoid "murder by silence." "The EU must do much more in the battle against AIDS," said Jan Nico Scholten, president of the Association of Western European Parliamentarians for Africa. "The situation in Africa is awful; people pass away and children are being orphaned," Scholten told a press conference in Gaborone, Botswana, where delegates from 35 parliamentary organizations are gathered to discuss how their institutions can help fight AIDS. "EU political leaders do not understand the scale of the problem that Africa is facing," said Jeff Balch, director of AWEPA. He noted that money spent in the war on terrorism far exceeds that spent on AIDS. "People forget that two years ago today, during the September 11 attacks, 3,000 people died on that single day. But, AIDS is killing 6,000 people per day in Africa -- double the number of people who died during those terrorist attacks."

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