2006 Speeches

February 14, 2006

2006 Ambassador’s Song and Verse Contest
“Prevent HIV/AIDS:  Live Smart – Know Before You Start” 

Dr. Roy L. Austin
United States Ambassador 
Queen’s Park Savannah

Salutants:

Good morning!! 

I am pleased to be here for the 4^th edition of the annual Ambassador’s Song and Verse Contest. As in the three previous contests, we have a theme that is important to you, the young people of Trinidad and Tobago, and to people the world over. The young people competing will bring you messages aimed at helping to prevent HIV/AIDS, a disease that continues to take thousands of lives worldwide. The messages will tell you that in order to reduce the likelihood of contracting this dreaded disease you must LIVE SMART - KNOW BEFORE YOU START. 
 
I must thank many individuals and groups that are working with the Embassy on this year’s contest:  The Minister of Education, Senator the Honorable Hazel Manning, and her staff  make this Contest possible every year; and so do many educators throughout this country. The National AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC), National Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Program (NADAPP), and the Heroes Foundation are all very valuable partners. Many of my Embassy colleagues have come to value this event and work hard to make it successful.  Then there is Nikki Crosby whose energetic and enthusiastic  emceeing for all four years adds immensely to everybody’s enjoyment of the show. However, most of all, I thank the kids who participate as competitors or as spectators, and the parents who provide encouragement. All whom I have just named have made this the fantastic event that it has become.
 
The United States Embassy and the U.S. Government take the fight against HIV/AIDS very seriously.  President George W. Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR) is the largest commitment ever by a single nation toward an international health initiative -- a five year, 15 billion dollar, multifaceted approach to combating the disease in more than 100 countries around the world.  The United States supports the most diverse HIV/AIDS prevention strategies of any international partner.  In addition to the ABC approach to prevention, we support prevention of mother-to-child transmission, prevention of medical transmission through blood safety and safe medical injections programs, and special programs that focus on intravenous drug users, on HIV-discordant couples, on women, on men, and on alcohol abuse, among other key strategies.

A notable priority of the President's plan is ensuring that women receive equitable access to services.  At PEPFAR- supported sites, 60 percent of those receiving treatment, and 69 percent of those receiving counseling and testing, are women.  Also, the United States is the only international donor to track program results by gender, ensuring that both men and women receive the benefit of American supported AIDS programs.  

Noteworthy, too, is that more than 80 percent of all of America's implementing partners in 2005 were indigenous organizations.

The statistics tell the story of the extent to which America is committed to fight the HIV/AIDS scourge in partnership with host nations.  Today, America is providing antiretroviral treatment for 471,000 people -- up from only 50,000 who were receiving treatment just two years ago.  In the last two years, 3.1 million women have received American-supported services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, preventing an estimated 47,100 infant HIV infections.  The initiative provided care for nearly 3 million people in 2005, including more than 1.2 million orphans and vulnerable children and more than 1.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS.

--During the last two years, 9.4 million people received HIV counseling and testing services.

--During 2005, 42 million people were reached through community outreach prevention efforts.

Much of the $15 billion that President Bush has promised has already been committed and is being spent.  The goal of the Emergency Plan is to support treatment for 2 million HIV infected people, support prevention of 7 million new infections, and support care for 10 million people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. 

Together with our partners, we have made great progress, but our ultimate goal is to build quality healthcare networks and increase infrastructure capacity in host nations to sustain these efforts long into the future.  The AIDS initiative is an outstanding example of the way that  "for people throughout the world, America is a partner for a better life," as President Bush said in his State of the Union address. 

Today, the American Embassy will partner with many Trinidadians, including some of this country’s finest entertainers, to try and ensure that a substantially greater number of this great country’s people will enjoy health and happiness. 
 
Based on the performances of the previous three years, I know that our young performers can more eloquently deliver the LIVE SMART: KNOW BEFORE YOU START message than I can.  Thank you very much for supporting this year’s Ambassador’s Song and Verse Contest.