Action Of The Week - StopAIDS

Written by Matt Brandwood, 2 months ago | Permalink | Campaign: Stop AIDS

Action of the Week

Stop AIDS UK Strategy URGENT Week of Action: May 4th- 9th!

Brief Background: The UK government will be launching their new 3 year Strategy for tackling HIV in the developing world on 19th May. Many Medsin and Stop AIDS students have been campaigning all year to try and influence this as the strategy will have a huge influence on the global response to HIV, and ultimately the lives of millions of people affected by the virus.

With 2 weeks until this strategy is launched it is not looking good. Despite the UK government leading the other G8 countries in 2005 to sign a pledge of providing Universal Access to HIV prevention, treatment and care by 2010, they now look set to abandon this promise!

The most crucial issue is whether or not the strategy will include a spending target. At this stage it does not! A strategy without a spending target would be a real catastrophe, as it would not only mean the UK's abandonment of the promise of Universal Access, but it would send a worrying single to other governments around the world to follow suit. The impact this will have on communities affected by AIDS is very real and very worrying.

Take Action TODAY, there is less than 2 weeks until this strategy is launched. The strategy is still not completely finalised: this week the final decisions will be made so this is our last chance to influence it. By taking the simple actions below targeting the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for International development we can change this situation and secure the funding promise!

What you can do to change this:

If you can spare 30 minutes:

  • Print out the attached scorecard (A4 or A3 versions), get a group of people together and take a photo of yourselves holding this up next to a prominent landmark in your town.
  • If you haven't got access to a printer than find a piece of card and write out one of the following statements to hold up: "Gordon Brown, Don't break your promises on AIDS", or "No spending target = Broken Promises on AIDS"
  • Print 2 copies of the photo off and either fax or post it directly to Gordon Brown and Douglas Alexander separately (addresses below) with a signed copy of the attached letter. The more signatures the better, but we literally have about a week to do this so anything is better than nothing!
  • Email Katy so she can keep a count of all the actions taken: Katy.athersuch@spw.org

If you only have 5 minutes in total take these 2 actions:

  • Email Gillian Merron and Douglas Alexander the Secretary of State for International Development asking them to include the spending target of £2.5 billion in the strategy: http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=25&ea.campaign.id=689 (print out the letter and post if possible)
  • Take this Super badger action on Facebook and promote it to ALL your facebook friends and networks. To install the applications visit: apps.facebook.com/superbadger

Gordon Brown sneakily escapes email actions by refusing to have a public email address. The only way to get noticed by his office is if we have a mass fax and letter writing campaign. Please spread the word. For better of worse this government Strategy will have a massive impact on the lives of millions of people affected by AIDS. Act Now!

Addresses:

The Prime Minister: Fax: 020 7925 0918 Post to Gordon Brown: The Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA.

Douglas Alexander the Secretary of State for international Development: Fax: 01355 84 3632 Post: 1 Palace Street, London SW1E 5HE

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