 Good afternoon. I'm Steve Morrison from CSIS and thank you all for joining us this afternoon We're really thrilled to have the leadership from the AIDS 2012 conference with us here today Chris Byrer from Johns Hopkins University and Diane Havelier from UCSF They have Taken this leadership role in preparing for AIDS 2012 the conference will be held here July 22 to 27 of this year returning the United States After a 22-year hiatus we're even more thrilled that today that we can that we can welcome into CSIS four key personalities From America and from the faith-based community who've been at the forefront of Putting in place health programs And Have been willing to come and join us here today to talk in some depth About their achievements about the assets that they bring about the partnerships that they've forged Over time and how they see the future. This gives us also an opportunity to talk in a very positive way about the upcoming AIDS 2012 Conference which is going to put a spotlight on the role and the contra special contributions The faith community has made in this area And and so we're bringing these two streams together very deliberately here today I also want to add this is not meant to be a one-off single event in this process and we hope that we'll be In the lead-up to the July conference convening again and have the opportunity to engage other faiths And and and and other folks from the Christian community that we did not bring here today including black church community in America We had hoped that Bertrand Odan The head of the International AIDS Secretariat would be with us today He made a special journey from Geneva to be here yesterday, but he's become ill unfortunately and Cannot be with us for this event and sends his regrets and we'll do our best to try and get him here in the near future When he's feeling better. I want to also thank many of my colleagues who've made this event possible Julia nagle. This is being webcast live. We've solicited a number of questions online already that will be incorporated into the discussion Matt Fisher Suzanne Brundage Carolyn Shrout Robert Lee. Thanks to all of you for your help here. What we're going to do is we're going to have some some early welcoming remarks from Diane Haveler and from Chris bear Chris is just back from Burma and we we thought that was a very good occasion to hear Some thoughts around the faith community in Burma and some of the changes very promising changes. He's observed That'll take a few minutes and then we'll move to What is meant to be a very lively interactive? conversational a roundtable With Kay Warren from Saddleback Church can hack it from Catholic Relief Services Anita Smith Children's aides fun and can heal from world vision Diane will do the introductions of our guests I want to single out chef Shepard Smith for his kind and very activist approach in helping us pull all of this together today So please join me in welcoming Diane Haveler from UCSF who's going to Deliver kick the event off and get things going. Thank you So thanks very much Steve, thanks to all of you are here, thanks to Suzanne for putting together this really exciting session this afternoon This summer in July July 22nd through 27th over 25,000 delegates including over 2500 press are going to be gathered here in Washington, DC for the International AIDS Conference The International AIDS conference is really like no other It is the only health issue where every two years there is an annual gathering of The scientists the policy makers the community leaders the persons living with the disease Economists Political scientists they all come together to talk about How we can work together to define the AIDS response? The impact of this meeting is always just absolutely tremendous This meeting has shaped the AIDS response in 2000 the theme of the meeting was break the silence and it was the moment the globe came together and decided that we were going that We could and we would offer treatment to every person that we could living with HIV At the meeting just to give you a little sense of what we do is we take stock of the epidemic We look at the trends. What's happening in terms of the numbers of two new cases? Where are they happening? We showcase the latest science and we discuss and we debate The best ways for us to go forward in terms of the AIDS response As Stephen mentioned, it's a historical meeting in that it's going to be occurring in the United States Their national AIDS society requires that the host city or host country Does not have a ban against enter allowing people with HIV to enter the country in that ban that we had in the United States was Fortunately lifted in the last year in order that we could host the conference here in the United States So clearly this is one of the first Products of this meeting which is the human rights victory and we shouldn't underestimate that This meeting is also going to be historic because we are at a time in the AIDS epidemic that we have never been before Because of all the research investment of the United States and really countries around the world We have a whole new set of tools and some new exciting data That lead us to believe that we can change the face of the AIDS epidemic over the next decade and specifically over this last summer there was some groundbreaking data That were released that showed this not only does HIV treatment help save lives and reduce suffering But it also reduces HIV transmission between couples of 97 percent And we're still pinching ourselves about the results of this study But now the real work begins because we have to figure out how to apply this new exciting results It's also historic because we used to be afraid to talk about the cure for HIV and now Scientists have made new breakthroughs that now this is a very Exciting dialogue that we're going to be having and we're going to have a pre-meeting before their national AIDS conference starts and also We're now talking about things like HIV and aging something that we never before we envision that we would be talking about The excitement and the momentum that's being generated for this meeting I think was reflected in Hillary Clinton's Really brilliant speech that she delivered in November of this year Where for those of you attended she called for an AIDS-free generation This was followed shortly on World AIDS Day in December by another just absolutely Inspiring speech by our own president which talked about our country's commitment to ending the AIDS epidemic and our commitment to ramping up treatment to try to reach six million people through the PEPFAR program by 2013 One of the key questions that we are going to be addressing in the international AIDS conference is how do we take this new knowledge and apply it in an Error of economic restraints Most of us in this room can't really change Quickly what's happening with the economy But I would argue most of us who are working in the AIDS movement can change how we Approach the question of going forward and I think we're going to need to think about new models and these new models include many Different things such as increasing the efficiency of what we do improving healthcare systems and integrating with other communicable and Noncommunicable diseases and reaching out to new partners The theme of the world of world of the international AIDS conference is turning the tide together And what this session today is focused on is the together part of turning the tide We know that we are not going to be able to use all the tools We have all the the knowledge that we have now to turn the tide without us having new models for collaboration The faith-based community and we're going to see some of the most prominent leaders in the United States If not the world here with us today have been involved in the AIDS response ever since it started In fact, the faith-based community has been involved in response to diseases of vulnerable and affected populations Long before the AIDS epidemic began Their work is going to be absolutely key to the response as AIDS as we go forward Really when you think about it a lot of the principles of why PEPFAR and how PEPFAR was rooted was rooted in the principles of a faith-based community And this is something that has resulted in the saving of millions of lives Early in the 1980s when I was a Physician in my formative years in San Francisco Right when the AIDS epidemic was breaking we had our own version of leprosy Young men were walking around in the halls of our hospital and every street in the Castro district with disfiguring purple lesions on their face on their mouth on their hands and on their feet and When I was a physician in San Francisco, I really learned a lot about the technical aspects of medicine Which has served me well, but what I really learned in San Francisco in that time was about compassion And I really learned watching the patients watching the communities about putting Compassion into action and that is I think really one of the hallmarks of faith-based Organizations what they have done for this epidemic So Steve asked me to comment on what our vision was for the international AIDS conference And I think it is to take the new knowledge that we have Bring all the individuals at the table Including and especially the faith-based communities to realize what we can do for the AIDS epidemic and truly make it the moment That we mark as the beginning of the end of the AIDS epidemic So I want to thank you for your attention I'm looking forward to the session this afternoon and I'm now going to turn the microphone over to professor Chris Bayer From Johns Hopkins University who will be the officially the president-elect of the international AIDS Society announced in Washington this summer So thank you Chris Well, thanks Diane. Good afternoon everyone. I must apologize. I got a cold on one of the five flights And that that it took to get here and that's my voice a little off What I what I thought I would do and talking with with Steven Diane is Share with you some some reflections on my recent trip to Burma also known as Myanmar And because I've been involved with that country for just about 20 years now Talk a little bit about the role that the faith-based communities have played there in regards to HIV but also more broadly because they've been so critical they've been so essential and I think it's one of those examples of where The spiritual traditions and the spiritual communities Really essential for people in the toughest kinds of situations so One of the things of course, that's just happened recently for those of you who are following this, you know that About ten days ago now Was a large release of prisoners of conscience political prisoners from Burma, and it was so heartening And when that list came out You know many of us were looking very carefully to see who was there and one of the people who was there Was somebody that I have been Campaigning for the release of since since he was arrested and so I'll just tell you a little little Story that will illustrate exactly what I'm saying so in this country of course is very limited access to antiviral therapy and we don't know the exact numbers because the surveillance is so poor but Somewhere less certainly less than one in five Burmese who needs antiviral therapy gets it So it's still a place where the majority of people die of untreated HIV disease and that means of course that there is a substantial need for hospice care and for care of people who are really really quite ill and the Buddhist monasteries in the Buddhist parts of the country in many cases have stepped up to the plate and really Really worked on that and a large one just outside of the old capital Rangoon was a place called Magen Monastery On the abode of that monastery is a man named the venerable who in Dhaka and he's a man in his 40s a very progressive person and really Set up a tremendously effective wraparound service of AIDS basic AIDS care a support Stigma reduction programs and a hospice setting but he also is like many of the monks a Person involved in human rights and democracy and so as many of you will remember 2007 there was this tremendous Uprising of the clergy of all faiths, but certainly most prominently the Buddhist clergy in what was called the saffron revolution September and October of 2007 Which was brutally crushed by the then military government Magen Monastery was raided the patients were thrown out onto the street and the people in the surrounding community were told That they must not help those people or take them in or they too would face severe consequences The monks were arrested and detained and who in Dhaka Was jailed and forcibly disrobed which actually is sort of not allowed to be done But anyway, that's that's what the military did He maintained his practice for the next four years or so in very very tough prison conditions We're greatly concerned about him. There was congressional hearings this summer on the transition in Burma I was a witness in those hearings and that was actually the first appearance of Aksang sushi The Nobel Peace Prize winner in the US Congress. She she spoke via videotape And we again raised the issue of this man and the other monks and you know called for their immediate and unconditional release So imagine my delight to find out that he's been freed So that's a great thing and it illustrates I think hopefully the change that's happening in this country And also really the central role that the faith-based community has played I have to say that there is somewhat of a more troubling concern, which is that Burma is a is a multi-ethnic country and a multi-religious country and Large parts of the country particularly in the north, but also in the west are heavily Predominantly Christian and one of the larger ethnic groups that lives in the whole north of the country on the border with China Is the Kachins and the Kachins had a long-standing ceasefire with the military that has broken down the new civilian government called for an immediate cessation to violence and unfortunately the army Disregarded them. So that's a real concern You know you have a civilian government. You would like them to be able to control the military That's kind of not what's happening. The best accounting is that there are some 60,000 internally displaced Kachin civilians right now. So that is really getting to be a substantial humanitarian crisis the Military has allowed one UN convoy in they distributed 300 blankets So we have ways to go there and And right now honestly the only groups that are there and have access to those people are the churches Churches of the Kachin people and the pastors there and there really is no one as they say between the dog and the wolf for those people except the churches and So they again are playing just a critical role and it should be said unfortunately again The data are very spotty, but as far as we can tell and my own group has done this and a number of others have Looked at it Kachin state has the highest HIV rate in the country largely due to injection drug use And so they're an enormous number of untreated people there and there have been of course treatment interruptions With HIV treatment and TB treatment because of this internal displacement. That's just precisely the kind of direction We do not want to go in so while we are uplifted in some ways We also are just really cognizant that it's early days and for the ethnic people of Burma It's still a really challenging environment. Let me just close by saying we did I was traveling with the president of Hopkins And a small delegation we did have an afternoon meeting before we left the country with the Aung San Suu Kyi She is in fantastic form. I must say and she's Engaged Absolutely committed to as she has been for so long to the health and well-being of her people very interested in the HIV issues and I reflected with her that in 2000 Which required really a sort of underground insurgent effort. We worked Together to get a video address for her at the Durban AIDS conference And in that address She had basically highlighted two issues and and she's a ran these by Before doing and I really want to say two principal things one is that everybody Deserves compassion We could all agree on that and then she was very concerned that in Burma at the time and remember this is 12 years ago There was this perception that somehow there were innocent victims like you know babies born to HIV infected women and then there were not innocent victims like people who were injection drug users and She wanted to say and from a Buddhist perspective because she is a very devout Buddhist It is completely irrelevant how anybody gets exposed, right? Everybody deserves compassion. Nobody is outside the circle of our compassion and to me that that is the crux teaching of all the faith traditions and it's something that because of the nature of HIV and the nature of so many of the people in the populations who are most heavily affected That is just always a challenge for governments for communities and and really the faith-based organizations and people have led the way in that in that Tolerance and that is just so critical so I'm delighted to be a part of this and and I'm greatly looking forward to the deliberations and discussions this afternoon and Want to thank Steve Morrison and CSIS for doing such a spectacular job of helping us at the conference think about these issues and Thank you for your attention Thank You Chris and Diane I'd like to invite our panelists to come forward and get seated along with Diane And we'll begin the program. There's going to be a convert for the next 45 minutes to an hour. We'll have a Structured conversation and at a later point. We will Diane will open the floor for questions and comments. We have microphones here when you come forward Please just identify yourself and be and be brief And again, thank you so much for being with us Do you want to know? Well, thanks very much. Can everybody hear me? Is that better? Okay, great. So once again our esteemed panelists. We have K. Warren from the Saddleback Church Ken Hackett from Catholic Relief Services Anita Hill From the Children AIDS Fund and Kent Hill from World Vision so What I'm going to do is to just start out with Asking each of the panelists just to talk about the contribution of their organization To the AIDS response and I'm also going to ask you one reason why your organization got involved in the AIDS response So I think we'll start with Ken Thank you very much That last question I wasn't expecting but it's actually very very interesting for us At Catholic Relief Services, we have operations around the world in 100 countries and we have a long history of being involved in health going back to the 60s and 70s when we were doing leprosy programs in Sierra Leone and parts of Africa and I took over the organization in 93 and I in 92 I had returned from the Philippines back to Kenya This was the time of the Somali crisis And what I noticed when I returned to Kenya was that friends of mine People who worked for me had died in the interim of 10 years when I was either in the Philippines or in the headquarters and when I asked they had died of TB or pneumonia This is strange. This is really strange So I brought to my board I think it was the first board meeting the fact that we have to do something about AIDS and the Catholic bishops Steve this was long before your time said oh touchy issue and I was advised to all you can just don't get us in trouble this is 92 and So we were doing a lot of community counseling and Absence behavior change of kind of things in Uganda in the early days in Kenya, Ethiopia All the parts of the world, but we were never doing anything Clinical or medical and there's a Doctor in at the University of Maryland, I guess he's a colleague of yours Chris dr. Bob Redfield up in Maryland Who came over one day? Just so that we could meet this was in 93 94 And he said you you Catholic Relief Services have this capacity of Operations in a hundred countries you're connected to the the Catholic health systems throughout the world And you're not doing anything to treat AIDS patients And he really gave me the They're talking to and we deliberated for a long time and We found ourselves more and more engaged, but we had no physicians on board We had no expertise and in those early days when The anti-retrovirals really weren't doing much and they cost a lot and there was no money But some of us knew it was the right thing to do and when the opportunity presented itself That pep far well first of all I had to work to get the pep far thing as many people did here get the legislation through and then We decided to apply and did and won and then we said oh my god we won We won in 11 countries $365 million and we don't have a physician on board So we had to hustle a little bit, but that's the beginning of of the serendipitous way that we fell into this thing But I think it was out of the the just right in your face fact that there were so many people that we knew personally who had passed away from the AIDS virus that Pulled and pushed us into it all How about you Anita? Well, I'll do the second question first how we got involved Children's AIDS Fund is a faith inspired organization and has partnered with many faith-based organizations for 20 25 years ago Oh, sorry 25 years ago We really got involved because of my husband shepherd who's already been mentioned here today We he was we had a consulting business at the time working with faith-based organizations and other nonprofits and He and his father who was still living at the time were looking at reports of what was happening the beginning of the symptomatic, you know Syndrome that that people were talking about and and as we he and his father Talked more and looked at it more. They thought his his dad was a orthopedic surgeon with a public health degree felt that We needed to respond differently and then then we were at the time and there needed to be very specific Steps that were taken and groups that were going to actually limit The spread of what was happening and find the answers at the time unfortunately, there were Some faith-based leaders who were coming out very vocally in opposition to People who in judgment of people who were affected by this this new disease and We knew that was wrong, you know, that was not who we were as people of faith and So it really was a combination of events. We didn't know anybody We didn't have friends or family that were impacted but ended up through that series of events Closing down our consulting business and turning it into AIDS organization At that time and we've been involved for the last 25 years So and one of our first you asked the question about contributions the first Grant government grant that we got was part of the first 11 organizations that were funded by CDC under the America response to AIDS campaign and our task was to Educate equip and engage the faith community in the issue and so for those first five years I think we were in a different church in a different community every weekend Going around and and trying to help educate because in those days people knew very little and we're very afraid So it was important to be there answer the questions and and what was wonderful was in our experience People once they understood it they Were ready to be involved. They opened their arms and many and many times We were invited in if there was a member of the congregation who Was infected and before the congregation knew they had issues to handle and we helped work those things through and in every case but one the congregation embraced the the infected Individual and family so that was the early contribution to the faith involvement and and we've been privileged to be a part of the AIDS Relief Consortium for the last eight years under Catholic Relief Services that that Ken was just talking about so we under CAF management We have about well over 50,000 patients on treatment and care Well, I wish I could say that we were some of the first to respond But actually we were some of the left to respond we've come late to the fight for which I've spent a lot of time apologizing and regretting and wishing that we had not been Some of those who were early as you spoke some of the earlier church response, which was not positive and For me it was this 10 years ago this next month that I had an epiphany if you will It was a spiritual experience reading a magazine article about AIDS in Africa at the time I didn't care I wish I could say that I did but I didn't I didn't know anybody who was positive It didn't matter to me. It was something that was off my radar I was busy raising my kids being a pastor's wife I was very involved in my life and I was not aware of what was happening in the world even though the pandemic had been decimating lives for so many years at that point, but I picked up that magazine article that day and Something in that moment It was as if I had never seen anything about HIV before never understood the scope of it never understood How many people were infected never understood how many children were left orphaned and vulnerable I had it was as if I just opened it and it was brand-new news that had happened that day and It launched me into a very deep soul-searching moments. I spent about a month running As fast as I could from what seemed to be something that I was supposed to be involved in and yet I felt completely inadequate I Had nothing to contribute. I had been a home act major in college for Pete's sake What did I know about a medical disease or what could I do for orphans? It just seemed daunting and completely out of my reach and After about a month of just this very deep soul-searching and realizing that I had been ignorant that I had been Hard-hearted judgmental everything. I knew was wrong top of that. You know, I didn't know much and when I didn't know was wrong Yeah, really sad Just came to a point that proverbial fork in the road where you make a conscious decision to choose one way or the other in the Way that you think and I made a conscious decision that I had been wrong. I had been hard-hearted. I had been Way behind in showing God's love and compassion and so I just I said yes Yes, this is I know nothing. I will begin to learn and God put in my path. Dr. Robert Redfield Interesting that you had mentioned him. I think Bob is is he's an amazing man Shepherd and Anita came into our lives and those three individuals began to tutor us and teach us and train us and I Began to go to the International AIDS conferences and I I looked at our church and thought, you know what? We have done nothing We have done nothing for anybody who's HIV positive globally or locally and that has to change and so we began the HIV AIDS initiative at Saddleback Church, which has both a local component and a global component So we care for the people in our community who are positive never support group our local HIV pastor is here I brought him today. I think we may be the only church in the world. I don't think I'm exaggerating I really think this is true I think we may be the only church in the world who has four full-time staff members Committed to HIV and orphans that is their only job. We have a local HIV pastor who Takes care and supports the people in our church and our community who are positive helps create an atmosphere in our church of acceptance of safety Of embracing people who are positive. We have a global HIV pastor whose sole responsibility Is to care for people globally teach and train our Church members to go on short-term and longer term mission trips to help with a pilot pilot project in Rwanda. We have a full-time local Orphan care director and we have a full-time global orphan care director our full-time orphan care director is here because we are Committed to caring for people who are HIV positive We are committed to doing what we can to call the faith community to stand up to not be like we were behind the 8 Well be in the caboose We want to be the engine that drives the train that says God cares for people who are HIV positive and This crisis will not be solved without the full commitment and engagement of the faith community Already as you'll hear the faith community and other NGOs has been dramatic But there's a call for local congregations to to stand up and to say we care for people Who are positive we care for the orphaned and vulnerable children who are left behind so That's how we got started, okay Thanks for your honesty that was just terrific. Well Kent world vision has just such a huge reason reach in health Tell us about what you're doing and how you got started. Well a common thing. We've heard today is the role of leadership I Was just watching a video this afternoon that somebody had shown me Which was rich Stearns who became the president of world business back in 1998 and very quickly he He came to the conclusion that if you looked at the total reach of world vision the amount of money They were spending on HIV aid was very very small and he took it as a major campaign that the the scale of the crisis they they need to show compassion and to use the The assets of world vision internationally and in terms of the u.s To do something he got on a campaign on that didn't have much trouble convincing The international world vision community to work on this and as the others have suggested here There were some people who thought is this really what we want to be focusing on but once the Message really got heard loud and clear That compassion Christian compassion human compassion requires it then it became a big deal and back in 2000 It really began to scale up fast for world vision. There was a hope initiative that got started I think in terms of the question of what have we done that's probably had the most impact There was something in the hope initiative called channels of hope Which I looked at the statistics today. I was sort of flabbergasted I hadn't realized exactly the scale of what was going on but for example in Africa the determination was made that to address questions of stigma to attract in the network of believers to work in compassionate care and palliative care and Testing and all the things you need to do Behavioral change messages the whole range of things you're going to need to do real major work with the churches so we set up these three-day workshops and The statistics over just a few years are that literally tens of thousands of these workshops occurred With hundreds of thousands of people and not just Christians world vision ran them for Muslim communities as well the Muslims were very open to the messages and what we were trying to do and so World I think that may be the most effective part of what world vision has done now They've done all the stuff related to to orphans and behavior change messages and palliative care And there are very special things that faith faiths groups have to offer and we'll probably talk about that a little later But I think it's really since since about 1998 particularly 2000 that this is scaled up as as a huge initiative for world vision One of things I just want to say after hearing our panelists Share with us that it's really great to see a lot of young people in the audience You never know when you're going to come across some situation of here some story or open up some magazine That's really going to move you and I think you can see what it did to these four people here and really what's happened so thank you thank you all for really sharing that I'm going to ask questions now to Kevin Kent on the outside of the panel just about some examples of things your organization has done With us through us partnerships and non us partnerships I know you were track one and so the tap-fart program So tell us a little bit about some of the major accomplishments there But also about some things you do with non US partners. Oh well the US partners was An effort to put together like Anita's group and and the University of Maryland and and others to find a Combined effort that could bring capacity to other partners in the countries where we work so Taking just the the Catholic Church's network. Let's say in the 11 countries. We were in it's enormous because some of those countries 40 to 70 percent Of health care is offered by faith-based organizations and a good chunk of that is Catholic and we were able to activate that and to support it and to help it grow and help its outreach to many more people Excuse me. I Think at this juncture we have Approximately two hundred and seventy thousand people on Antiretroviral care now a lot of that is going to be passed over to governments under the new plan We hope that those governments bring the faith-based networks along with them. That's not always the case But I think what we have been successful in doing is Building those capacities locally in those hospitals and health centers at the end of the road the seventh day Adventists the Methodist the Catholic daughters of charity place way out there that have been out there for 50 and 70 years that have built credibility and legitimacy and Trust among the people they're serving and that has to be sustained for the long term and that's one of the challenges ahead Well with respect to a world vision Unlike a lot of international organizations in the United States We're not dependent on government grants we get between two and three hundred million dollars a year So seventy five eighty percent of our money comes from private sources So most of the money we get to do the work we do Comes from other other sources and more than half of the money for World Vision International isn't raised by the US at all Most of the two point six billion dollars is raised outside the United States And we've gotten global fund grants that World Vision is using in Somalia for example Believe it or not right now in south and central Somalia Through through third-party entity. So there is money from non-US government sports both public and Private but the key the key partner has been the churches and the religious institutions the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia Catholics and Protestants in Africa Muslims as I mentioned before They're the they're the backbone of it because they have the credibility in the community If you can get them to share the right message and they activate their networks I mean they were there before we got there. They're going to be there once we leave There the key is to connect with those community-based organizations So I think our most important partners are the community-based faith-based organization partners on the ground I'm going to ask Two ladies on my side just about as an issue near and dear to your heart, which is women children orphans But maybe talk a little bit about some of the programs you have with the US government outside of the US government working with those populations Well, it is it definitely near and dear to our hearts and we have we have both We have one amazing Catholic Hospital partner in rural Malawi that we've been able to work with on pride with private funding called st. Gabriel's it's a namatete outside of the long way and What was wonderful about that partnership Was you know, they really had an they had an idea of they didn't have an HIV program had an idea of what they wanted to do and We said okay, you know, we'll we'll partner with you and give you the seed money to do it and and so What's what's so great about that is because so so many times donors don't really know what should be done But we say we'll give you money to do this and that's not what really has to be done first in this case They had a plan for a whole year to to educate their catchment area Which is about 600 villages and very very rural area got that the head men on board Developed village AIDS committees and have a whole network of people already in place Educating them about the importance of coming to the hospital the importance of prenatal Care Importance of learning your HIV status. So after that year of activity They then introduced all of these issues the testing, you know treatment care and it's the one place I mean of all of our partners. I think it's the one place because they did it right They have kept The HIV Numbered down. I mean there's not a lot of transmission There is very open discussion public disclosure in the communities. I mean these these commute village aid councils have become Their trained community health workers and now they work not just on HIV but multiple other things and You know, it's a family-centered care is really what we've always advocated as what we need to do to create the right kind of environment and That's what this this is a model of that and so with with private funding And Bob Redfield got us involved in that as well. This is I if I make just one little comment This particular hospital is I think a prime example of what faith-based and religious based and motivated Healthcare offers It's not just the service of distributing a vaccine or an antiretroviral It's a whole wraparound thing and I need to talk to about the community base the way The director of that hospital with Bob Redfield's help Pushed and and encouraged and Helped that that unit of good strong Viable health care expand itself was really terrific. And so the wraparound services are having a really powerful impact on adherence And all kinds of other indicators So I mean we're hearing about the activation energy that the organization create about the sense of community and the wraparound services and Okay, well, yeah, our experience is a little different because we don't receive any government money We never have we never received a penny of a pet farm money or anything else I'm not that we shouldn't or others shouldn't we just we have chosen not to we wanted to We felt like that we had a place of visibility and we wanted to be able to be completely free from Self-serving motives we want didn't want anybody to think that we were advocating for anything because that we were a Recipient of money. So we receive no pet farm money at all. And so our role. I'd say with orphans is is twofold And very very dear to our hearts It was orphans who first captured my attention with HIV and so they have remained very dear to my heart, but Two things we're looking for new ways of doing church initiated sponsorship a little bit different than other sponsorship programs We're looking to Ways that churches can go directly from church to church in different places where the church on the ground actually Recommends who the children are we're looking for ways to keep children within families in Countries where possible where traditional sponsorship dollars might be either for a child or for a community We're looking for ways to strengthen maybe the extended family so that a family could keep a child if they had Income generation or something else, but we're also advocating adoption for as one of the solutions to the orphan problem There were only about 9,000 children adopted into the United States last year internationally out of the 16 million that have been orphaned by HIV. So if if AIDS has killed And left 16 million children orphaned and only 9,000 let's say of those were adopted into the United States There's a problem and we're also advocating the adoption of HIV positive children This should be a place where the church should shine We should be the first to say we will take HIV positive children in the country where they are from but also if that doesn't happen if there isn't a strong enough support system There why should a child be left in an orphanage children were not made to grow up in institutions They were made to grow up in families and there are Families available we just need to make sure that that is done in a really good way one of the things about orphans that to me is very tragic even at the International AIDS conferences there is there's got nearly enough emphasis on orphan children or on the HIV positive children if you look at the numbers of Conferences and symposium and events that are about children around orphans It's minute and who are the most vulnerable in HIV we talk about who are vulnerable populations Who is more vulnerable than children? No one no one is more vulnerable They are the most vulnerable people on our planet and this should be at the forefront They should receive the top research dollars. They should receive the top money The seek the best treatment for for an adult We would not look at a child an American say well if you're you're sick Let's cut a tile and all and happen give it to you We don't do that Why do we in HIV care think that that's appropriate for children so as our role at Saddleback Children Research we are are Heavily into advocacy for children for HIV positive children for sponsorship and in a little bit different way and for for making sure that people are free and Understand that they can adopt internationally these kids who are are languishing and in orphanages around the world Well, thank you for those comments. I think that as we're Putting together the conference program Children in orphans will be a focus. There's also another population that needs attention and As our programs for mother-to-child transmission become more successful We have children who as we say a little bit technical but are exposed but Uninfected and our scientific studies today show that these children don't do very well And we don't know if it's biological reasons We don't know if it's social reasons, but these children are in essence also being left behind So this is another group that we need all of your advocacy on because these kids are going to be growing up and members of our society And they need our support So can't you run a huge organization? I'm sure you have a lot of challenges Maybe you could share well with the panel in the audience some of them with any age response What have been some of the major challenges for you and your organization? Well, I think actually I mean I followed this Issue for several years because when I worked for USAID and I worked in the Global Health Bureau And actually got a chance to see You know CRS and Anita and Shepard and other faith-based groups do a good job with with funding to do the work And was part of the very heated debates about the strategy for Dealing with the prevention of HIV AIDS and I think I've noticed a change in the last few months that I'm a bit disturbed by on December the 1st on the International AIDS Day when President Obama spoke and we had a lot of other speakers from all over the world here I See sort of backtracking on paying attention to prevention as such There's a big push to make this an AIDS-free generation We're wonderfully happy about the empirical evidence that if you're on ARVs And I think you use these statistics or you did die at 97% of people on ARV are not likely to transmit Wonderful news indeed not only do you save lives, but you stop transmission But there is a temptation I think To to try to have just a technical fix to the pandemic of HIV AIDS and the success that we've known of the last Few years has been a large part because there've been behavior change And so you take a place like Uganda or Kenya or Zimbabwe you actually had behavior change There was a delay of sexual debut. There was greater faithfulness within marriage and within couples There was a lowering of concurrent multiple partners, which everybody knows is the greatest feeder of this the The spread of this disease these were huge factors Whereas in southern Africa the prevalence rates remained and still are stubbornly high They had far more condoms than the rest of Africa But they didn't change their behavior as much to go along with that and so if we don't have a combination of prevention Options and interventions available. We're not going to make this an AIDS-free Generation and here's where I think the faith-based groups need to be very Careful that they they don't lose one of the great gifts they have to deal with this pandemic and that is to deal with behavior responsible behavior It has to do with sexual debut and it has to do with faithfulness and it has to do with Christians in Places like South Africa and other places where Christians are technically in the majority But frankly their behavior does not match what Christian behavior should be in terms of multiple partners The church ought to be the first to stand up and say wait a second This is the contrary your conduct is contrary To what we as Christians believe it ought to be we need to be consistent if we did that we would drive down The spread of the disease so I hope we don't take our eye off the ball and in continuing to contribute to this part Relative to intervention strategies that I think will make a difference Thanks, and I think we'll be talking about combination prevention a lot at the meeting and That will be definitely one of the the the future of things Okay, how about you? You alluded to some of them early on when you were starting up No, I think Kent brings up a very very good point dinner. I'm trying to think You know, we've all seen those of us who have traveled throughout sub-Saharan Africa. You've seen the Billboard with the advertisement about prevention paid for by USA ID. I mean That has an impact. It doesn't have an impact at all I mean, I don't believe social marketing through billboards is going to change behavior and I think Ken can't raise a very good point that the credibility the legitimacy of the faith-based health actors can bring about a sense of trust that can bring about change and when it's pervasive and when there's a collaboration between governmental and non-governmental government and faith health providers as well as for-profit health provides if the if people could get on the same page in a country I think you could have a powerful powerful impact on behavioral change and on Eliminating this disease and other diseases as well People are not on the same page. I was I was telling my colleague This afternoon at lunch about a story in Kenya that when the the slush of AIDS money came Into Kenya From Global Fund and from PEPFAR the government of Kenya Ministry of Health and its various Arms went out and hired people well We're going to hire the people from the trained staff were working in the the Catholic the Methodist the Agra Khan the other hospitals And so the faith-based hospitals and health systems were losing their top quality staff And a group of our Christian leaders Went and saw President Kabaki and said this can't happen. I mean you're devastating our health service And Kabaki made some adjustments Because there was a moment of collaboration there That's not true everywhere And I think that's something this conference should kind of highlight where great opportunities for collaboration exists where Together government non-government faith-based and government can make a real change Well, I I think that One of the keys to Sustainability that we're all talking about and thinking about as we come You know, we're coming to the end of the track one funding Funding is shifting and funding is scarcer and all of those issues that we all know too well I think that the the role of the faith-based community is Absolutely key to Solving that because we've already talked about there are they're already in the communities. They have credibility they Know that the people many times that come that they serve There's More of a safe place. It helps reduce stigma all those things Are important, but but we just heard a story last week. It's kind of a Again a model for sustainability if you will There's a group called the willow creek church association will a creek churches in Chicago They have a network of 13,000 churches evangelical churches and they've been working in Several sub-Saharan African countries, but the story last week was there was a USAID funded project in this very remote Northern part of Malawi That ended and we've all been through that as well the project ends. It's not recompeded. What's going to happen? What now but the great part about this story is The churches that the willow creek association has been working with and training in that area are Actually going to be able to pick up what was what was being done They won't lose momentum the program will continue and it will be done locally without us government funding So I mean to me that's we can look at obstacles and there are many But if we continue to look at the models that work and strive for that and working together as Talking about it has to be a collaborative effort Where everyone does their part and makes that come together? What Anita said as I told you we don't take any government funds and so One of the one of the crying needs is for health care workers I mean everybody bemoans the fact that there are not health enough not community health care workers because there will never be enough doctors You know nurses there just will never be enough professionals And so how can we have community health care workers to take up some of the slack? so in Western Rwanda in In the Kibblea region of Western Rwanda two years ago We began a pilot project where we went to 14 churches in the area and one mosque They they said and we asked would you recommend two people from your church or your mosque to come and receive community health care? Training and so, you know within a short space of time There were 27 health care workers that that we had trained no government money no outside money This is a local church doing this in Western Rwanda in collaboration with the local churches Well now two and a half years later. There are 3,500 Community health care workers trained in that area and by the fall of this year. There will be 7,000 Community health care workers trained without a penny of government money or anybody else's money It has been something that the churches have done they have come back and forth the local the indigenous church has Received training and each of those health care workers has a case out of seven families And so in a year, they will make 49,000 home health care visits they teach a spiritual lesson they teach a hygiene lesson and So we're keeping the metrics on it because we really believe that it will over time raise the level of health care in that entire area It's scalable. It's reproducible It is something that you can do without a lot of money and then in an era where the economic downturn is getting worse There's no good news economically. There just isn't and there won't be for a long time and with government our government and others Cutting funds there has to be some way to step in the gap And fill some of those gaps where there have been government funds in the in the past that have taken care of things But there has to be something that is more sustainable. It has been said by each of us The church is there in every community. It's an existing distribution channel for both information for care for support for treatment for medical for treatment adherence for the adherence coaches that could raise the Level of people staying on their medication the church in a community I mean we talk a good talk of honoring the faith-based community But I haven't seen it really yet And I'm so anxious to see if these are not just words But really something that will be put into practice to value what the faith community brings the local credibility The fact that we will be there long after a grant expires long after a government change Even if there's conflict if there's turmoil if there's disaster the church is going to remain in a community So the credibility the durability of it the fact that it's an existing Distribution channel the faith community offers the highest motivation of all and it is love the faith community brings to this fight Something that is not going to get tired. It's not going to get worn out It's not because it's great foreign policy to have countries like us because we help them out in their problems This is going to the heart and the core of who we are as human beings and the faith community brings that love and that compassion That will not grow weary in doing good And so to see the faith community given not just a seat at the table or a cursory glance But to understand that that we bring Distinctives that can really turn this epidemic around is heartening to me and exciting I'm I'm thrilled to see the interest in that and I really hope that it it becomes more than lip service But that the faith community has a will that's vital Could I could I give you some examples that are non-Christian to make the same point? The key is to find whatever the religious community is in a given area and then tap into that and We heard an example earlier a Buddhist. Let me give you one. That's Muslim in India. It's not about HIV AIDS It's about polio of the state or the province of Zutra Pradesh Having a difficult time getting the folks to get their inoculation rates up It was 20% they decided to go to the Muslim community because there was a lack of trust in the product and They convinced the Muslim leaders to do this. They got behind the effort and they went from 20% to 85% Polio coverage now, that's just another example of you take the community It happens to be Muslim in this case, but it could be Buddhist It could be it could be any variety of Christian community But they have the trust if they give the right messages, they're the best positioned to make the change so This is that this is true has tremendous public health potential To activate these communities and bring out the best and the other thing I'd like to say is I think it sends a Very powerful message when diverse religious communities cooperate together around a common Problem because it sends a message of religious freedom and religious tolerance to the broader community Because we all know religion isn't always a positive factor It wasn't always a positive factor in the early stages of combating HIV AIDS It's any it's a big group. You've got people who who embarrass you who are part of your religious group So the point is to get people of goodwill who really are faithful to their religious traditions have them work together And you bring out the best in those traditions Well just to Kent's point this area of Cooperation and collaboration among faith groups has been long-standing. I mean there are these Entities throughout the world Christian Health Association of Ghana of Malawi of and then those Associations will collaborate with other faith groups Muslim Indian Aga Khan whatever So that that is a long-standing issue that I think is under recognized by the international public health community whether it be for HIV AIDS or from malaria or for TB or or what and I think that can be maximized if it's if the Those individuals in governments in the Global Fund The people who are putting the money behind things can help the Ministry of Health see that that's not a threat that's a collaborative partner if you can work with this grouping of Christian Muslim agencies But that's not the message they're getting Oftentimes, they're getting build the size of your ministry make it more efficient and more effective Not build up the whole health service I want to draw out Okay, something that you said that is a theme that we are going to be also wanting to highlight in the conference And that is the the training of community health workers not just for HIV But for multiple diseases and I think that there's a very unproductive Debate about AIDS exceptionalism And I think we really need to put that debate aside and to talk about the ways that as we do I guess the appropriate terminology is tax-sharing now not tax-shifting among our community health workers really to Raise the level of the whole health of the community And I think that that's a very exciting concept that we will be featuring in the AIDS epidemic I think now we can open up the the panel to Some audience questions on the way that we'll do this if you could kindly identify yourself We'll take a couple of questions and we would take two or three and then we'll Serve them to the panelists I'm very taken with how all of the panelists have highlighted by the way. I'm Steven Kolecki I'm with the US Conference of Catholic Bishop I'm very taken by how the whole panel highlighted the distinctive Contributions of the religious community can make and the strengths that we can build upon and the reach that we can have in local Communities and so forth and the spiritual resources we can bring to the task One other thing that is important for those communities that do collaborate with government is the ability to do an active Partnership and one of the things that was important in the PEP far original PEP far legislation and then in the reauthorization Was that there would be an emphasis on abstinence of behavior change which you alluded to earlier But also that there would be conscience clauses so that faith communities could do what they do well and make that contribution But not have to do those things with which they don't have any expertise or have a moral problem or objection I just wondering if the panel could comment on How the faith community can work with our own government as it moves toward Reauthorization of PEP far in the future even if the dollars are less it's still the significant player and having active partnerships will be important So preserving those conscience clauses and other Dimensions of that will be important. Thank you Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Rosemary Sekiro. I'm the president of second hope for tomorrow an organization that focuses on Young people and women Initially from Kenya. Hello. I want to thank you all so much for this wonderful presentation on faith based We've had so many Conferences all over the world since the epidemic broken Africa so many people have died women Children who are victims and I want to thank faith based because faith based has really supported Africa when it comes I don't know how many countries but Africa's 50 over 50 countries and faith based has really Supported Africa especially with vulnerable children and orphans of HIV aid How do you look or what do you think is very very important? Is it prevention? protection or treatment to those that are victims and are you collaborating with African faith organizations and Faith and organizations like mine. How can we collaborate because HIV has been there if we collaborate with you faith based I think they would have been very very big change especially people on the ground and you from here So how can we collaborate with us and those back in Africa as I say Africa's 61 countries? Maybe you've been I don't know but I think faith based us is doing good work and has been doing good work. Thank you Yeah, I'm Heather from the Guttmacher Institute And I also had a question about the constant Conscience provision. So I wanted to jump on that question and just talk. I would like you to talk you've talked Convincingly I think about the love and compassion. That's really at the center of your work And I wanted to hear a little bit about the protections of beneficiaries of your programs I'm thinking particularly of discordant couples who who need information about the importance of Condom use in their lives and if there are objections to condom use then just how to meet those Special needs of those discordant couples. Thank you I think what we'll do is we'll take these three questions and then I'll have you come back first I think we have quite a bit of material for the panel. Yeah, let me let me begin with the conscious class. I think one of the big factors in why the international effort on HIV AIDS has been successful has been a big tent approach and In a big tent approach, you have a lot of people under the tent who have something to contribute But they don't contribute everything and they don't even necessarily like each other. I mean, let's be honest When The US ski G would give money USA would give money to faith-based groups It would give money to very secular groups. He didn't like the faith-based groups He didn't like any talk about abstinence or be faithful didn't want to talk about behavior change at all who didn't Didn't like us distributing more condoms than anybody else in the world And the other side of the spectrum didn't like us talking about abstinence and being faithful and The conclusion we came to was you really needed all of these different approaches You didn't need to require that everybody Commit to or believe in all of them What you did need was for them to do what they were capable of doing that would make a difference And there has been a very definite shrinkage of the conscience clause understandings in the United States in the last few months and Whether it's the Catholics being told that if you don't do what we think is the right thing to do with respect to offering or requiring of your employees or providing for your employees contraceptives when that would violate a tenant of your faith To saying That you may not participate if you don't have the right views on a particular sexual issue These are very dangerous moves that will have very severe religious freedom consequences and public health consequences If we were to do something that did not continue to include the faith-based Players in the fight against HIV AIDS because some don't agree with everything that the faith-based groups believe We lose tremendous amount of firepower on the other hand If you just went for faith-based partners and you didn't have secular partners And you didn't have people who worked with the folks who meet let's let's talk real frankly here If you if you didn't realize that prostitutes Who are willing to play a major role in making sure that condoms are used? If you because you didn't like what prostitutes do which many religious groups all religious groups that I know of don't Really favor they don't think it's healthy for women. They don't think it's good for the community Nevertheless, it's better to use the condom in a prostitute situation and not infect family members innocent family members or children I Think you've got to have a big tent That allows people to play the role. They are willing and able to play to do that That's going to keep involved faith-based groups. It's going to keep involved others Who don't always agree with everything in the faith-based groups? But we've got to do what we can to protect the conscience of all who are involved to allow us to gain the full Benefit of what they have to offer and we need to we need to fight hard for the conscience provisions to be there That will allow that full range of Actors to play a role Elequently said Kent and I don't have to answer Steve's question, which makes it even better I think and I think it partially answers the question from the woman from their gut One of the things I wanted to say in response to your question Related to condoms and discordant couples, etc. I think that that often there's an assumption made about faith Based organizations and what they do there's a broad range of Services that are provided in some instances. They don't distribute condoms in others We do and so it's a matter of understanding And if there's something that that our partners can't provide we we do referrals So it's the elements are there And and so I think that that's also important in terms of what Kent was saying big tent. We all work together we we do our we contribute our strengths and Work with others who do things well that we don't do or don't do well So I think in that way. That's how we've addressed that issue Great. Thanks. Our second question that we had was just I would generically reframe it as How your organizations are working? side-by-side hand-in-hand with African-based organizations Bernie remember the panel Well, let me start if you visit our office in Westlands. We'll talk to you in Westlands. We we work with hundreds of organizations in Kenya in every part of Kenya and As does world vision and many other organizations. So we're open to collaboration. We don't know everyone who's doing everything But we're open to support find out collaborate with all types of African religious or faith organizations Now I think that probably speaks for just about everybody Thank you very much. I want to thank CSIS for this forum and to some of my dear friends And you all have been great. I'm really here to make an announcement. I am I Am Pernessa seal the CEO of the bomb in Gilead and for 23 years we've been mobilizing the faith community address HIV and Working in five African countries bringing Christians and Muslims together building their capacity to take on this work We are also pep far funded, but I'm standing here to take this opportunity because For many years with that comes along with the international AIDS conference are so many pre-conferences And one of those pre-conferences is the interfaith conference and this year July 19th through the 20th The pre the global interfaith conference will be held at Howard University Our theme is taking action for health dignity and justice as many you know the international sponsor is the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance out of Geneva and the National co-sponsors is the bomb in Gilead the Catholic Medical Mission Board and The American Jewish World Service you can visit the website is up our call for abstracts have not yet come out but the the the website is IAC dash faith Dot net We have a call for chaplains at this time And I just want to invite you all to stay tuned because I know that most of you in this room are a part of that Global interfaith conference and we want to see all of you all of your participation this year in the United States at Howard University here in DC. Thank you Thank you. I'm gonna take the moment to just ask some of the panelists Okay, it shares some really exciting things that her group was planning on doing up to the conference Maybe maybe you could I'll share with us. Sure We're looking I was just talking with some of the folks on from CSIS that that we are looking to mobilize a hundred churches We started with ten and decided that wasn't nearly enough a hundred churches in Washington DC to Not just be a presence during the conference. We would like to do two things We would like to mobilize churches in the DC Baltimore northern Virginia area to maybe fly the Red Ribbon During this conference week a lot of churches show that sign of support on World AIDS Day But what an incredible moment for the faith community and Synagogues mosque whoever would like to fly the Red Wibbon Red like Elmer Fudd the wed-webbon the red ribbon During during that week we in particular Are we have one that has a cross in the middle of it because we believe that it gives two messages one that God cares for people who are positive and that we can't solve a crisis without the faith community without the church So that'd be one thing that we would like to mobilize churches But we'd also like to not only have them make that statement during the week, but an ongoing Outreach ministry so if a hundred churches would decide that they would begin an HIV ministry outreach in This area as a result of that conference and we're looking for 50 of those hundred to be in the African-American community It's got to be It's got to be a partnership between African-American churches and Everyone so we are looking to do that. We're looking to take people to the conference from our church We're hoping to bring about 40 people from our church mobilizing other evangelical pastors in the United States to come It's a perfect opportunity here. It's in our capital and Washington being the AIDS capital of the United States It would be tragic if not almost typical to not address the epidemic here Locally while we're bringing in people from all around the world. This is the moment. It's a moment Well, thank you Kay and stay tuned for that Yeah, hi, my name is Jennifer Chow with research America. I know we've talked a lot about delivery And we know that You know the faith-based community. We've talked is a very powerful force both here and abroad I was wondering if you guys could comment a little bit about that force here in the US and The role for advocacy specifically around research and development Here in the US using your reputation using Your roots in the community and how we can gather more support from key leaders around that Perhaps even at the conference My name is a father Kiro I actually just started at my own non-for-profit organization called the Blessed Mother Teresa Center for Hope Providing support for the LGBT community For those who have been rejected by friends family and others because of their HIV status So but my question is we've here we hear a lot about what's the work happening in Africa, which I Have had the opportunity to see firsthand As well as in other places in the world But when it comes to North Africa in the Middle East, we barely hear anything and there's a big crisis over there So I wanted to know kind of what is happening and what's being done over there Other than Lebanon because I know Lebanon is pretty advanced in regards to that But when we're talking about Egypt Iran You know Israel itself Palestine and so on there's there's a big crisis in those countries and but we'd never hear What's going on what kind of work is being done there? So it'd be nice to hear more about it Hi, my name is Ashley Wetherford. I'm here representing the Best Shot Foundation Actually, I wanted to to piggyback off of her question About galvanizing members of the faith-based community in order for advocacy purposes But I also wanted to know sort of what you think it takes to To encourage members of the faith community to support funding that is very essential to programs like PEPFAR or the Global Fund Great, good question. So maybe we'll start with the Middle East question Yeah, let me just I take it you were talking about the discrimination even violence against LGBT folks in the Middle East and in Northern Africa Yeah, I Suppose on the latter point Haven't got as much attention because relative to Africa the prevalence rates weren't as alarming But on the the first issue about the violence and the discrimination the hostility the and and really Pretty bad situations relative to violence. You're absolutely right Those situations and no no compassionate Christian no compassionate person of any religious faith Could in any way condone and not to be a part of Stopping any kind of violence against groups the issue is not what you think about their sexual behavior This is totally immaterial To when people are abused and violence against them, so but you're right That's a serious problem there and and to the extent we can have some impact on saying, you know separate whatever your views are on sexuality from Condoning or not attacking any activities that are are hostile to this group or anybody else that is subject to that kind of persecution So I would just say you raise a very valid point It is very much under the radar in North Africa in the Middle East Lebanon I would also have to say something about Lebanon and you cut me off there, but You're right But there are so many other issues that have been heaped on the on the stage in in North Africa in the Middle East that That one is just getting very little attention For most of our the operating agencies But the funding issue I think it's important too because nobody's mentioned it yet But I think really a key role that the The faith-based communities played during the budget debates over the last six months They played an absolutely clerical role in keeping the health numbers Relatively steady I have a vice president who just deals with advocacy and a team of 12 people and He conducted I read his evaluation of his team over the weekend hundreds of meetings with Senators and congressmen all making the case the faith-based community cares what the levels are they don't want disproportionate cuts in the budget They don't want it done on the the backs of the poor around the world or in this country What better group than the faith-based community to say look these are difficult times financially But this is not the place to be making the cuts and I think with some impact And then we weren't the only group that did that so I think the the role of faith-based groups in In helping the government to keep their numbers up for the budgets is very important Even as they raise money Privately to do this good work the government has an obligation to do something and this ought not to be where the cuts take place But the reality in terms of increased money for research into this area or our service Under under this budget environment. It's basically hold rather than increase and I think together we've done a lot of things on on Capitol Hill But it is a real hard push at this point in time to get big increases And one of the point I just wanted to pick up in regard to the Middle East one of the features of international aid conferences We have regional sessions, so we are going to have a specific Regional session about that part of the world and we will have Experts and panelists and members of the community really try to delve into the problem that you really just brought up So thank you very much Other questions. Yeah Thank you very much for this very important and very vital point about how to work together as As different religious groups and towards our common enemies like HIV to work with in others And also I'm proud of like how the Catholic Relief Agency work in different African countries But now I'm very interested to hear like what is like the next step towards other In contacting other religious leaders in this country because as a Muslim now I'm hearing the word like HIV and like homosexuality pops up in the Muslim sermons So I think it's kind of they're entering into it. So what is It's good to collaborate and fight again as the enemy and I would be interested to get all of you like Business cards and go after most after most, you know to deliver this message, you know The other thing also it I'm very much curious to hear that like whenever we talked about global We take us out of the question is the equation. So what is like? being like Washington DC the most Prevalence rate even compared to Uganda Like what is the activities here in the social community? I haven't heard anything about what's going on in our neighborhood what seven word in areas. Thank you very much Hi, I'm Christina Hermann. I work with the missionary outlates of Mary Immaculate and It's a Catholic order. It's in 65 countries. We have AIDS clinics on the ground in Africa But our what we focus on primarily is talking to companies So we talked to all the major pharmaceutical companies We do this in collaboration with other faith-based shareholders in the interface center and corporate responsibility Which is a 40 year old organization in New York? So I just wanted to throw that into the mix as sort of an additional, you know a different take on how to deal with the AIDS problem I Think the the global health work within ICCR started with Faith-based shareholders going to pharmaceutical companies and saying, you know Basically asking for drug donations. This was back in the 90s and then it's evolved to talking about now we're talking about the business model and pricing and specifically and this is my question relates to the pricing issue of second and third-line drugs and Particularly in middle-income countries where the companies see those you know people at least people with Resources in middle-income countries as the next big market. So, you know as you folks are really on the ground providing services, how do you see that as as a problem? Do you see it as a problem and Do do you have any? views on the Unit aid patent pull that's something we've been talking to companies a lot about as a way to try to You know pull the intellectual property of the HIV AIDS drugs and create new Formulations focus more on pediatric formulations that sort of thing Yeah, my David Brian with the results. Thanks for the interesting panel just a real quick question about Tuberculosis in HIV AIDS as we know tuberculosis is the single biggest killer of people living with HIV AIDS And so I'm interested to hear how your programs have been addressing TB HIV co-infection for instance are your our churches that you're working with working to break down stigma about TB which is actually very high and and to help to help people in the congregation know the signs and symptoms And be willing to come forward for screening and I guess with the With the conference itself, maybe you could tell us a little bit about How TB HIV will be how you expect it will be addressed? Within the program of the conference, and I don't know if there's if there's space to comment, but I'd be curious to know as you look at As you look at HIV AIDS and obviously My question is about TV. If you look at TV, it's killing almost as many people as HIV AIDS on a yearly basis It's very close actually in terms of overall numbers. I'm wondering if you have any thoughts about how How the faith community might take up that as an issue whether it's HIV Related or not, obviously the faith community is Embraced the other causes particularly malaria But hasn't picked up as much on TV as an advocacy Issue per se even though as we were hearing that the research and agenda Research and development agenda is very important on TV and getting overall funding obviously is important. Thank you I think we'll start with that question Just from our point of view We have not been focusing specifically on TV, but the partners that we support the mission Hospitals at the end of the road have long been dealing with the issue of TV as well as AIDS and as well as malaria They're full-service providers For all diseases in in the catchment area that they are serving so if I mean We're not focusing on a particular advocacy agenda on TV. Although that should be considered But in terms of dealing with TB as a disease It is being addressed through all of these Christian and other types of faith-based hospitals That's our experience as well all of our partners are addressing both and Screening for both and malaria as well. So so it's all part of the package. That's being The services that are being provided And we should think about what more we could do to help Help the issues that you're talking about it and we will we'll do that And just answer David's question in terms of the conference there one of the plenary talks has been dedicated to HIV and TB Which is going to be delivered by Professor Tony Harry's who lived in Malawi for decades actually and work in both HIV and TB as well as some symposium Sessions and as well as some skills-building sessions and I really just hearing that the question I really would invite the face-based community HIV and TB is an area that I work in I think we can all get better at the way we deliver care And I think the face-based community and some of those skill-building session will be wonderful to have you at the table in those Discussions so really we can all brainstorm together about how to do it a little bit better because it's still a little bit siloed And I think we could probably make some progress There was a question in the audience about what's happening here In the United States and in Washington, DC I know there's tremendous amounts of groups here in the city from the face-based community who are going to who are working actively in HIV are Going to be at the conference. We're going to the panelists would like to comment on that Well, I think you a K brought this up well before and I was really pleased to hear I hadn't heard that before But it is true that the HIV rate is higher here than I think any place else in the country So it's great that you're planning on doing that I would like to say something about the drug question if I could about how to address the drug companies and the problem with patents, etc Of course the issue is a very complicated one in the sense that you don't want to do anything That interferes with the research to get done, which will make the breakthroughs at the same time there's plenty of room to appeal to drug companies on their pricing and What can be a win win situation? Which brings up this issue that I really want to say as well There's a tendency sometimes to talk about faith-based organizations in terms of their moral Fiber and their character, etc. Etc. But I think it's terribly important not to draw some kind of sharp artificial distinction between the faith-based communities and their moral commitment and the rest of the the International humanitarian world We all know that there are plenty of people who are not in quote-unquote faith-based organizations who are motivated by the very highest standards of conscience and Belief in morality, etc. And there's plenty of room for collaboration for people of goodwill Whether they're in organizations that call themselves faith-based or not faith-based and there's actually a theological warrant for this With respect to Christianity in particularly which requires us to see in all human beings whether they happen to call themselves Religious or not as repositories of the design spark of Conscience if nothing else even if that's all you call it Any place you see works being done that are good it's theologically sound to say God is in some way at work there and It's it's really an important message for Christians and other religious believers never to forget That there are people of goodwill out there that are more than willing to cooperate and are motivated by extremely high values and we need all the help we can get and We should we can go together to those drug companies sometimes say is there a way we can you can meet your needs And yet you can help us get a good price to be on the Gavi board And this was the big issue is is there a way the the global alliance for vaccines and inoculation? And we talked a lot about how do you go and make it an appeal? To maybe you buy in advance a lot of drugs So you the international community agrees to buy a lot of drugs and they agree to put the price down a lot Well, there are ways to talk about this in a way that they won't they'll have something to report to their stockholders And we can get what we need which is a product that we can reach the poor with I'm looking at one of the online questions, which I think you answered in some kind of a way Which was how in such a divided country can we move this issue forward in a positive way? I think you partially responded that and I I would just turn that question around if any country can move forward in a Positive way. We have total religious freedom here We are just for those of you travel around the world And you just see how other countries don't have this how fortunate we really are and to have the good ideas and the goodwill And the good faith of the the panelists here at the table. I think you can be very optimistic in that regard That's not our biggest animation Could I could I address the question about collaboration with Islamic groups? I think the the area of interfaith collaboration on health programs is rich People might you know the Boko Haram may be killing Christians in northern Nigeria But there are some efforts In Nigeria right now that show real and true interfaith collaboration around Medical things and that can be repeated and seen in Uganda and in many other places So there's opportunities there and I think there's a willingness now There are issues But I think in the health arena you can get beyond those issues Good afternoon. Thank you for an excellent panel and greetings to my friends on the panel the International AIDS Summit as you said in your introductory remarks sets the standard for evidence in this in this area and I would like to ask the panel to comment on the challenges that many of us working with faith-based organizations face in representing and presenting Two donors to governments to partners To secular organizations the evidence for the fine work that has been described in so many wonderful instances here By our panelists It's really exciting to hear about the evolving vision for scale-up for multi-faith collaboration for partnering with governments But in the end of the day, and I I think Kent of Gavi for example 4.3 billion dollars. Who's the best distribution system in the world? Where's the evidence? So I put to the panel the question of how the summit might be used most productively and constructively to invite from our community The very best of the development of thinking when it comes to presenting collecting and presenting the evidence. Thanks Hello Thank you to the panelists and for all the work you do I have a comment more so and an invitation more so than a question My name is a monago for Mata, and I'm with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation We're one of the largest providers of care and in the United States and also have programs in 26 countries And on the first day of the international AIDS conference We're hosting a march and rally here in Washington, DC To call attention to the need for world leaders and governments to continue to fund HIV treatment We're encouraged not only by the evidence refining our programs, but also by the science that shows with An increase in treatment and getting more people on treatment We can not only prolong the lives of people living with HIV, but we can also reduce the transmission of this disease It's encouraging It gives us hope that this can actually be eradicated in our lifetimes And it's an issue that unites all of us Christians Muslims black white It's something that we all know that everyone deserves and so we invite you to join us It's going to be July 22nd here in Washington, DC And you can go to our website keepthepromise2012.org to sign up your support, and I hope to see you all there in July Thank you My name is Lynn and we're from the World Faith Development Dialogue at Georgetown University and Mrs. Warren you referred in passing to the fact that faith-based Organizations don't necessarily get the respect or the place at the table despite the international community saying how much they're valued And I do hear that. Oh, you know we hear that a lot that faith-based organizations are to some extent underfunded overlooked off the radar I'd like to ask what would it look like if faith-based organizations had a better place at the table Is this a matter of coordination among faith-based organizations? And is there a problem with faith-based organizations tending perhaps to be somewhat more fragmented or very numerous for example The perspective of Saddleback Church, which doesn't take any government funding gives you, you know, perhaps a different Perspective than Catholic Relief Services, which has been very successful and active saying working with US government funding. Thank you Well, yeah, she addressed it to me So would you just make sure that that Just is you're leaving just you know everybody's making announcements So I'm gonna make an announcement. Okay, so we printed out just a flyer That's two-sided that just kind of some of the basic Tenets of what we believe every church can do about HIV the advantages and benefits of the faith community in global health And this little diagram right here on the this little colored section right here is An example of a place in in Rwanda that I mentioned to you where there are three hospitals 18 clinics, but 725 churches just to make the visual of where would you like to get your health care and one of these three hospitals spread out one to two days walk a clinic maybe one day walk or a church that is in every little Hamlet in that area. So grab one of those on your way out the question That you had asked about the faith community some of that I'm gonna actually defer to these folks who Receive government help all the time But at the the very heart of it I would say that there is a prejudice against the faith community that that I have experienced in Funding in on the ground you there may even be a policy at the government level of Acceptance of the faith community and their contribution, but then you get a country level or you get And it's not always the same story and so I would just say there is an Attitude toward the faith community that they aren't valued as highly probably as they should be and then some of the messages Don't get transmitted down the pipeline to the people on the ground that the faith community should be Honored and respected and I think when it comes to funding I think faith community is a disadvantage many times in not given Some of the doors are closed to the to the faith community or the restrictions are in place And really these others can speak to that more thoroughly than I can since we don't take it But this is what I know from speaking to many folks like these good folks here Let me see if I can do a perspective on the attitudes so you're working with CDC You're posted in Uganda or you're with a ID. You're posted in Uganda. What do you deal with? You deal with the Ministry of Health and You deal with them in the morning and in the evening and you get to know them very well You're not dealing with the sisters of divine mercy Who are up north of Gulu? The ones who have the rubber-soled sandals They don't come in with the suits and I think there's a that's part of it It's a little bit of ignorance on the part of the public health professionals Who were trained in the best universities who get assigned to the capital city are told to deal with the Ministry of Health not to deal with The obelisks or the Cambonis So that's something that has to be factored in and I think it's coming. It's but it has to be built around Evidence so somebody mentioned in one of the questions What are you going to bring in terms of evidence that the faith-based community can actually produce at a scale as Effective a service as anybody else And I think that's some of the abstracts that should be brought forward for this conference I mean my people gave me notes about an eighty eight percent Viral load suppression level. I don't know whether that's good or bad, but it's a number You know, but we don't want to say too much about that because we can't get it published in the journal of this or that but that's the numbers we have and and I think if we can bring that kind of evidence-based Approaches to the table. You can't if you're the CDC the the global fund on the USA ID health person You can't ignore it Certainly, let's say we we welcome that the abstracts are doing two weeks, so please I Just wanted to say I do think that the transition of the PEPFAR funding from US to the country level is actually helping this because You have local partners who are stepping up and in many cases faith-based entities That are taking on more and more responsibility, so they will be at the table more than the international partners Who have been there, so I think that that's a step through in the right direction In terms of being at the table and how how we make that happen And in terms of the evidence Question I just wanted to say part of what you know We've been advocating for a long time is mapping Mapping mapping all of the services that are out there because it looked one way, you know in in the PEPFAR countries Eight years ago. It's a very different story today And there's not been that kind of effort made that must be made for us to understand The evidence or find get the evidence to show all of all of what is happening in the faith community and in other Community, so I think there are some small projects, but Not to the scale that we would need to get the evidence that is necessary I'm before I turn it back over to Steve Okay, and in the spirit of one of your comments, I know you said some of your team members were here Yes, yeah, I just wanted to all the audience members who are working Part of the faith-based need to stand up so we could give them a round of applause So I'd like to thank our panelists, and I think Steve is going to close on behalf of everyone here Please join me in thanking our panelists You've been all very very generous okay, thank you for coming such a long distance Ken canton. Eda. Thank you so much for your time and Diane all of your leadership in along with Chris and pulling together the plans for AIDS 2012 which I think is going to be a very successful gathering with a lot of Key input from the faith community, so thank you all