Miami Herald - March 14, 2008
Jacqueline Charles, jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The visit lasted only a few hours, but that's all first lady Laura Bush needed to conclude that major U.S. funding for AIDS programs, which has helped dramatically reduce the rate of infection in Haiti, must continue.

"I want to encourage especially the people of Haiti and the Haitian Americans . . . in Florida and all over the United States to stay involved in Haiti, to reach out as individuals . . . to make sure this success continues," she told The Miami Herald.

Bush's stop in Haiti, part of a two-day tour of the region, comes a few months after a controversial study claimed a subtype of AIDS originated in this country and traveled to the United States.

The first lady didn't discuss the study. Instead, she spent most of her time touring the country's leading HIV/AIDS research clinic.

As patients and medical personnel strained to catch a glimpse of Madame Bush, she saw and heard how Haiti has been reducing the rate of mother-to-child transmissions and the prevalence of HIV in the population.

A decade ago the HIV rate was as high as 14 percent, and today it is 2.2 percent, said Dr. Bill Pape, director of the GHESKIO clinic. The world renowned HIV/AIDS research center, in a tough Port-au-Prince neighborhood, is the oldest such center in the developing world.

Bush also met with several women who are HIV-positive and are now sustaining themselves and their families with the help of the clinic's micro-financing program, aided by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

A CHANCE TO SUCCEED

But it was a brief meeting with three HIV-infected adolescents that struck a chord with the first lady, who said it had proved to her that despite the difficulties of treating young people with the disease, it can be done. All Haitian youths want, she said, is a chance to succeed.

"You can see the success at GHESKIO," Bush said. "I was just very encouraged."

Though this was her first trip to Haiti, it's not her first to promote funding for AIDS programs outside the United States. Last month, both she and President Bush toured several African countries to highlight the success of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Haiti and Guyana are receiving funds through that program.

"It's important for Americans to know what they are doing," she said, referring to the $15 billion PEPFAR program, which the administration created five years ago and Congress is considering renewing.

"They are not aware their taxpayer money is being used to save lives all over the world."

The visit also underscores Haitians' ongoing efforts to battle the stigma of AIDS. Just last fall, the country was again thrown into the worldwide debate over the origins of the disease after researchers published a study saying the most widespread HIV subtype of the virus emerged in Haiti in the 1960s and came to the United States years later.

Pape said the study was a "distraction" in Haiti's battle against AIDS and branded it as "garbage."

"We believe it is wrong," he said of the report. "It's not your race that puts you at risk. It's your behavior."

Bush said she was especially concerned about the vulnerability of women to the disease. She applauded efforts to reduce mother-to-child transmissions but encouraged women to take more control of their lives.

"I want to urge women everywhere to know they don't have to comply with men in every case. They should try to protect themselves in the very best way that they can," she said. "I urge women to do what they can to be responsible for themselves, to reach out to each other and to tell their girls, their children, their daughters as they raise them that their main responsibility is to themselves."

LITERACY PROGRAM

In addition to touring the clinic, the first lady also met with Haitian President Ren Pr val and Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis and toured IDEJEN, a USAID-funded project that works to provide literacy and job training to Haitians ages 15 to 24.

Students showed off their ability to read full sentences in Haitian Creole, just six months after enrolling in the program.

The Bush administration, which has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into Haiti for a broad range of development and police training programs, has been touting the country as a success story.

"Haiti has been a very important aspect of what we consider to be President Bush's accomplishments in the region," Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview from Washington.

Alexis said he hoped the first lady learned from her visit that the situation is improving in Haiti.

"I believe we are in a strategic moment in Haiti's history," he said.

"We have to capitalize on the results so far, the works in security and on the stability that has been established. . . . It's time to show the people democracy is not about voting, but about changing their real lives."

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