Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
28 August 2007
Kigali — The United States is providing approximately $167 million in official assistance to Rwanda in 2007 with the largest chunk of it going into HIV/Aids and Malaria programs, statistics released by the US Embassy in Kigali indicate.
The figures show that for 2007 alone, Rwanda will get more than $103 million, up from $72 million in 2006 from President George Bush's emergency plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR). This means about a 31% increase in US money going into different projects targeting HIV.
"The US Government does not provide direct budget support to the Government of Rwanda. All of our funding is program based", Brian George, the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Officer told RNA. Most of the projects are however managed in collaboration with government.
The general percentage increase in total aid support rose by 40% from the previous year to $167 million.
The announcement coincides with the ongoing three-day trip ending Tuesday by Mr. Michael Leavitt - the US Health Secretary in Rwanda since Sunday. Mr. Leavitt visited several health sites in Kigali and met Prime Minister Bernard Makuza. Secretary Leavitt also met with students and staff of Kigali Health Institute this afternoon.
He is expected to also travel to the Western province to see for himself a $287,156 project in Kibuye hospital that has supported Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT), Prevention of Mother to Child HIV Transmission (PMTCT), and Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ARV) services. Other affiliated health centers such as Kirambo, Mukungu and Rubengera are also benefiting from the program implemented by Columbia University.
The funding to Rwanda in 2007 is through the U.S. aid agency (USAID), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of State, and other U.S. Government agencies and departments.
In 2003, President promised $15 billion to fight AIDS over the five years ending in September 2008 - then the largest financial commitment by a nation to battling a disease. Recently, Mr. Bush increased the funding to $30 billion over five years, beginning in October 2008.
The increased commitment Mr. Bush is asking for would pay for AIDS treatment for 2.5 million people in 15 countries, more than double the 1.1 million who now receive treatment through the program.
Through last September, the Bush initiative was paying for anti-retroviral treatment for 822,000 people in the "target countries" including 12 African nations. In Rwanda, up to 30,000 people are getting ARVs from the same plan with a target of more than 50,000.
In June 2005, President Bush launched the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI). He pledged to increase U.S. malaria funding by more than $1.2 billion over five years to reduce deaths due to malaria by 50 percent in 15 African countries including Rwanda.
This year alone, Malaria programs funded through Bush Malaria initiative amount to $20 million, the US Embassy said.
US Secretary Leavitt will visit the 'Twubakane project' in Kigali that according to figures from the US Embassy has so far trained staff in 10 health centers and more than 660 community distributors. He will also tour Rubungo Clinic that has benefited from Twubukane project. They are all part of the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI).
Mr. Leavitt was also scheduled to be at the ES Kicukiro Secondary School that is part of the Health Schools Initiative which is administered by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The program aims at reducing HIV/AIDS incidence among youth aged 15-24 by promoting abstinence and safer sexual behaviors, improving communication among secondary school youth, and providing confidential HIV testing to students who are otherwise unlikely to visit fixed voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) sites.
In Rwanda, the US is also funding the ten-million-dollar campaign is called 'Phones for Health'. Under the plan, health workers use mobile phones loaded with special software to enter information into a central computer system. The workers also use Motorola handsets to receive treatment guidelines, order medicines and get training materials.
All sites that provide anti-retroviral treatment in Rwanda access this system, with 17 via the Internet, and 107 via mobile phone.
The 'Phones for Health' project in Rwanda was introduced as a model for extending the technology to connect health-information systems in 10 focus countries by 2010. It has already been expanded to Nigeria.
Just last week, Rwanda has launched a $10 million indoor insecticide-spraying campaign to combat malaria in the country supported by the US Malaria initiative.
The pesticide ICON is used in the campaign and health officials are pleased indoor spraying will be an addition to our many solutions to controlling the spread of malaria.
The spraying campaign started Gasabo and will move on to Kicukiro, Kirehe, Nyanza and Nyarugenge districts - areas with high numbers of malaria cases. Expansion to other districts is scheduled for January.
In 2007, Rwanda is also benefiting from the U.S. Department of Defense's $7.2million defense program under the Africa Contingency Operations Training Assistance (ACOTA) program. 60 percent is for training and 40 percent for equipment.
The country is getting $260,000 from the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program as well as $220,000 in humanitarian assistance.
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I would like to thank you for giving $ 167 million major grant to Rwanda forHIV/AIDS. Do you have any program for Educational funds. Kindly I reequest you to give me the details. Thanks Dr.G.Ravichandran Associate Professor KIST Rwanda