AIDS-free generation is within reach but only with fully-funded Global Fund

In the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog, ACTION Director Kolleen Bouchane highlights President Barack Obama's mention of global development and global health in Tuesday's State of the Union address. "So the United States will join with our allies to eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades, by connecting more people to the global economy, by empowering women, by giving our young and brightest minds new opportunities to serve and helping communities to feed and power and educate themselves, by saving the world's children from preventable deaths, and by realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation, which is within our reach," Obama said in the address, Bouchane writes, adding, "While there are many important nuggets (eradicating extreme poverty -- yes please!) to ramble on about, for me, the promise of an AIDS-free generation is the biggest tangible opportunity right now."

"An AIDS-free generation is within our reach -- but the choice President Obama makes in the next few weeks on the budget he sends to Congress will be more than a signal -- it has the potential to accelerate progress around the world in a serious way. Or not," she continues. "As the president and his team head into the final weeks of deciding their budget, a decision on what to commit to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria will be made," Bouchane writes, adding, "We will not realize an AIDS-free generation without a fully-funded Global Fund." She concludes, "We must all keep up the pressure, and remind President Obama that supporting the Global Fund is the first opportunity he will have to keep his promise of leading us to an AIDS-free generation" (2/14).