15273: Karshan: Speech by First Lady Mildred Aristide during President Clinton visit on AIDS (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

Remarks by Mildred T. Aristide, First Lady of the Republic of Haiti, on the
occassion of former President William J. Clinton's Visit in Haiti at the
Hôpital de l'Université d'Etat d'Haïti

April 8, 2003

Good Afternoon,
President Clinton,
Members of the Clinton Presidential Foundation,
Dear Friends,


President Clinton, we join together in welcoming you to Haiti and to our
State University Hospital.

    We are here today, 200 years and 1 day after the death of General
Toussaint Louverture, precursor of the independence of the first Black
République, Haiti.  After a full month of debates and conferences on the life
and political struggles of Toussaint Louverture, the greatest lesson that I
take, and that which I think most of my compatriots take from this
illustrious life cut short, is the importance of creating openings.  Indeed,
Toussaint was so known for creating openings, that he changed his name to
Louverture, the French word meaning opening.

    Three months after President Aristide took office in 2001, he created a
major opening for the 300,000 Haitians living with HIV/AIDS when he launched
the drafting of the country's 5-year Strategic Plan against AIDS.  On that
day the President declared that everyone has the right to live.  He
established the commitment of the Government of Haiti at its highest level,
to prioritize the struggle against AIDS and link this fight to President
Aristide's overall war against misery and poverty in Haiti.  And he put to
rest, once and for all, the question of whether there is political will here,
in the land of Toussaint to fight a 21st century pandemic comparable in its
human devastation to the African slave system fought by Toussaint himself.

    With that commitment, a nucleus of persons active in the prevention care
and treatment of HIV/AIDS joined the Ministry of Health to support the
continued drafting of the Strategic Plan and to participate in the United
Nations Special Assembly on HIV/AIDS.

    When the Global Fund was created shortly thereafter, it put out its call
for national AIDS projects.  Haiti submitted a national project in March of
2002 that was based on our Strategic Plan.   The project reflects the broad
public/private partnership that exists in the fight against AIDS here in
Haiti.  Haiti's project was ultimately approved, and what the Global Fund
terms as the "Country Coordinating Mechanism", or CCM, was created -- a
multisectorial group representing a cross section of Haitian society, who is
here with us this afternoon and which I have the honor to preside.

    The CCM has worked intensely in the past year with the Global Fund to
achieve the disbursal of funds to Haiti.  And we are happy that after, some
initial delays and complications, the disbursals have been made and all our
partners are beginning to implement their projects.

    We are proud that Haiti's Global Fund Project on AIDS was approved and
that the funds have begun to flow, but very conscious that the funds are
hardly enough, and the project hardly responsive to the full challenges
presented by AIDS in Haiti.  To truly fight AIDS the government must
strengthen the public healthcare system, public education system, and all its
infrastructures.  It must have the resources to combat poverty.

    The CCM gave itself the added charged to helping find additional
resources to fight AIDS in Haiti.

    And so, President Clinton, your Foundation's commitment to the Government
of Haiti to help us strengthen and reinforce our public healthcare system as
reflected in the Memorandum of Understanding that we just signed at the
National Palace, dovetails precisely with our 5-year strategic plan against
AIDS with the priorities established by this government.

    With limited resources, diminished further by an unjust embargo on
humanitarian loans, the government has demonstrated this commitment.  The
government has just completed constructed on a satellite clinic not far from
the State University Hospital that will relieve some of the pressures on this
facility.  Dozens of maternity wards and operating rooms throughout the
country have been renovated.  These important investments in the healthcare
infrastructure are a necessary step in the needed expansion of services for
the people of Haiti.  It will facilitate a truly effective public/private
partnership whose first goal must be the delivery of healthcare services to
all Haitians.

    On behalf of the 300,000 Haitians living with HIV/AIDS and the more than
150,000 children orphaned by this disease, we thank you for partnering with
us to bring vitally needed healthcare to our public hospitals.  We look
forward to a successful partnership.

    Thank you.