AIDSVote Kicks Off in Washington

GLOBAL AND DOMESTIC AIDS ACTIVISTS LAUNCH AIDSVOTE.ORG

National grassroots network aims to put HIV/AIDS on 2006 election agenda and clarify candidate stances on key AIDS issues - "Universal Access" held as key to end of AIDS

Leaders of the global and domestic AIDS activist movements announced the start of a new nationwide candidate and voter education initiative - AIDSVote.org -- in Washington today.

AIDSVote.org (www.aidsvote.org) is a non-partisan initiative meant to put HIV/AIDS on the election agenda, educate candidates and voters on AIDS issues, and clarify candidates' stances on policies that will decide whether the AIDS epidemic grows or slows - or even ends -- in coming years.

"Public action is the key to ending AIDS," said Frank Oldham, director of the National Association of People with AIDS. "The United Nations has called for universal access to prevention, treatment care and support by 2010, and we'll only get there if every candidate and every voter knows what's necessary to save lives - and acts on that knowledge."

Organizers said the federal, statewide and local 2006 elections will play a major role in the future course of issues crucial to stopping the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. -- where more than one million people are infected with HIV - and globally -- where 40 million people are infected and 8,500 die daily of the disease.

"AIDSVote.org will provide the tools for domestic and global AIDS activists to demand that our elected officials support policies that will turn the epidemic around rather than worsen it," said Matthew Kavanagh of the Student Global AIDS Campaign.

The AIDSVote.org platform calls for universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010, a position endorsed by United Nations member states in 2001 and 2006 declarations.

Documents on the AIDSVote.org website will help local activists shake the platform demands down to questions for candidates in Senate, House, gubernatorial and other 2006 elections - and to clarify and publicize candidates' positions through meetings, questionnaires, petitions and "bird-dogging" at public appearances. Participants will be urged to spread the word about the results of their activism through a blog on the AIDSVote website (www.aidsvote.org).

"Every segment of the AIDS movement is part of this effort, and we're unified on the issues," said Jodi Jacobson of the Center for Health and Gender Equity. "Prevention based on science, treatment for those in need, adequate funding to save lives and access for everyone who needs it - if we build the political will to do it, we can really end AIDS."

Added Neil Watkins, National Coordinator of Jubilee USA Network, a network of more than 75 faith-based, community, and solidarity groups working for cancellation of impoverished country debt, "We're proud to join with AIDSVote.org to educate candidates and help generate the political will needed the need to drop the debt and treat the more than 8000 people who are needlessly dying every day from HIV/AIDS."

"Medical students know that the knowledge and technology exists to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS," said Laura Frye, Global AIDS Fellow at the American Medical Student Association. "We need the U.S. government to take leadership in providing funding for treatment and the skills and technology to stop the spread."

Other student groups are involved as well. "Students know that in the textbook for ending AIDS, the first chapter is a clear commitment by US policymakers to support universal access to prevention, treatment, care, and support by 2010," said Hanni Stoklosa of UCGH University Coalitions for Global Health. AIDSVote.org is a project of the Campaign to End AIDS (www.c2ea.org) a national grassroots organizing and advocacy project dedicated to ending AIDS through mobilization and advocacy led by people living with HIV/AIDS and members of the communities hardest-hit by the epidemic.

Michael Kink, Esq. Legislative Counsel Housing Works New York | Albany | Washington | Jackson, MS mobile 518-527-2787 kink@housingworks.org www.housingworks.org 247 Lark Street 1st Floor | Albany, NY 12210 57 Willoughby Street 2nd Floor | Brooklyn, NY 11201 925 15th Street NW 2nd Floor | Washington, DC 20005 809 North State Street Suite 109 | Jackson, MS 39202