.contact us |.about us
News > International News ... ...
Search:
    Advertisement
Gates foundation doubles India AIDS grant
( 2003-10-14 09:06) (Agencies)

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said Monday it was doubling to $200 million the prevention funds for HIV and AIDS that the Microsoft founder promised India in a visit last year.

The announcement came as a former U.S. diplomat said India must educate its 1 billion people about AIDS or face a crisis.

Education "means talking about sex and intimacy. These are difficult problems in any country in the world, not just in India," said Richard Holbrooke, who heads Global Business Coalition for HIV/AIDS.

"But if you don't do it, millions of people will be infected and every infected person will die, even with treatment," Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told a conference of government and business leaders Monday.

In increasing its contribution from $100 million to $200 million, India now represents the Gates Foundation's largest financial commitment to any HIV/AIDS initiative in the world, said Helene Gayle, director of the foundation.

The foundation also announced the first $67.5 million in grants, to be paid to seven organizations in India over the next five years. Target groups of the prevention strategy will include 300,000 commercial sex workers and 4.5 million clients, among them truck drivers and their helpers along 4,400 miles of major highways in India. The seven organizations will provide condoms, voluntary counseling, testing and care, Gayle said.

The Indian government says about 4.5 million people are infected with the AIDS virus, a number some experts consider a gross underestimate. Holbrooke also questioned the government's figure, but said that even if correct, it will rise.

"India has the largest number of AIDS victims after South Africa," he said.

"We have to speak frankly and openly to young boys and girls ¡ª 13 to 15 years old ¡ª and tell them how AIDS is really spread and how to avoid it," he said.

Ben Plumley, chief of staff of UNAIDS, said his organization was keen to deepen its partnership with Indian industry in tackling the AIDS epidemic. The conference held Monday was organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry, an umbrella group of India's top business groups.

 
Close  
   
  Today's Top News   Top International News
   
+Space launch timing is like a chess match
( 2003-10-14)
+Winds sink two ships, 44 feared lost
( 2003-10-14)
+Nation expects EU to be largest trading partner
( 2003-10-14)
+Foreign experts focus on SARS control in China
( 2003-10-14)
+Chinese seeking justice from Japan
( 2003-10-14)
+Gates foundation doubles India AIDS grant
( 2003-10-14)
+US hopes for UN vote on Iraq draft Wednesday
( 2003-10-14)
+Bolivians protest, President defies calls to quit

( 2003-10-14)
+Egyptian twins doing well after separation in Dallas
( 2003-10-13)
+Pakistan seizes 1.2 tonnes of opium from Afghanistan
( 2003-10-13)
   
  Go to Another Section  
     
 
 
     
  Article Tools  
     
 
 
     
  Related Articles  
     
 

+Bill Gates gives $51 million to New York schools
2003-09-19

+Central bank takes dead aim at inflation
2003-08-25

+Gates says states' proposal would "cripple" Microsoft
2002-04-23

+Gates cautiously optimistic about IT future
2001-10-12

+Microsoft chief software architect and co-founder Bill Gates said on August 7 at the international Joint Conference fo Artifical Intelligence that they had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsid
2001-08-08

 
     
   
        .contact us |.about us
  Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved