Wow! What an
incredible RESULTS conference this year.
The conference was three days
packed with speakers, workshops, and fellowship. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health
shared about his cutting edge work, pioneering AIDS treatment for the poorest
people in world. I learned new stories and skills. I heard of the shift in health focus to the
ultra-poor and the emphasis on equity, not simply equality.
Fortunately, Loyce was
able to begin treatment because by this time anti-retroviral and TB drugs
were available due to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
Today Loyce is sparkling and accomplished 24 year old, an
AIDS counselor herself and now an advocate and spokesperson for people with AID
and TB.
It gave me chills to think that back when she fell sick
with AIDS I was in Washington DC advocating for funding to launch the Global
Fund. That enabled her to get the
treatment and counseling she needed to survive.
She would not be alive today without the collective efforts of
supporters of the Global Fund.
I ended up going to ten different congressional offices
to advocate on our issues. We focused on
the Reach Every Mother and Child Act and on building more support for the
Global Fund. Although we won’t know
until later how successful we will be, we’re patient and we won’t quit.
The director of the Global Fund, Mark Dybul, spoke to us
by video from Italy. He announced the wonderful
news that Italy had just promised to increase its commitment to the Global Fund
by 30 percent! And this is in spite of Italy’s
own budget challenges.
Donor countries will convene in Montreal in early
September to pledge their commitments to the Global Fund for the next three
years, 2017-2019. The Fund seeks $13
billion to continue their work. We hope
President Obama will continue US leadership with a pledge for 1/3 of the $13
billion. We scurried around Capitol Hill
on Tuesday and Wednesday, asking members of congress to support this level, maintaining
what we've done the last three years. The
Fund has saved seventeen million lives since 2002 and is on track to save 22
million all together by the end of 2016.
Do these big numbers just make your eyes glaze over? Me too! But visualize this: 22 million people would fill the Darrell K.
Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium 200 times over. Or imagine roughly 3 out of every 4 Texans
dying! Meeting Loyce Maturu, a survivor, helps make it real to me.
You may be glad to hear that the Reach Every Mother and
Child Act has garnered 158 co-sponsors, including 56 Republicans. This puts it in the top one percent of bills
right now. When the House reconvenes
after July 4th, I think there will be another dozen or two on the
bill.
In two decades of lobbying on hunger, no one in Texas
RESULTS has ever had a real meeting with any US Senator from Texas. We meet with staff, but a chance encounter
has been our only opportunity to touch a senator personally
That’s why I was delighted to spot Senator John Cornyn
when I boarded my Southwest Airlines flight home. As I was making my way to the back of the
plane I saw him seated in the emergency exit row. He realized I recognized him and quickly
closed his eyes, feigning sleep. Respecting
his privacy I did not disturb him right then, but an hour later, 35,000 feet
somewhere over Tennessee, I made my way back up the aisle and handed him a
letter I’d just written asking him to sign a congressional letter urging
President Obama to support the Global Fund!
Mark Coats
Austin, Texas
July 3rd, 2016
