2006 Press Releases

HIV/AIDS Prevention is all up to the individual (October 3, 2006)

U.S. Embassy Belize's Commercial Assistant Darlene Gentle speaks with delegates in Barbados on HIV/AIDS programs.

U.S. Ambassador to Belize Robert J. Dieter, along with more than fifty participants including ten other U.S. Chiefs of Missions in the Caribbean, attended the Caribbean Chiefs of Mission Conference on HIV/AIDS September 26 and 27 in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Regional ambassadors highlighted successes in HIV/AIDS over the past five years, addressed some of the challenges from a Caribbean perspective, and discussed their next steps forward to sustaining the momentum towards 2010.  The ambassadors and their HIV/AIDS technicians shared best practices in an “HIV/AIDS Marketplace” by showcasing the contributions made through the Ambassadors’ Small Grants Program for HIV/AIDS, as well as other success stories and strategies of the host governments, NGOs and FBOs in the Caribbean.

The Caribbean has the second highest prevalence rate in the world.  Between 2004 and 2006, PEPFAR had provided $252 million to assist with HIV/AIDS programs, and worked closely with CARICOM, UNICEF, PANCAP and UNAIDS.  This is in addition to funds provided through the Global Fund, of which the United States is by far the single largest contributor.  From 2003 to 2006, the Ambassadors’ Small Grants Program for HIV/AIDS has provided to Belize alone a total of $80,000 to address the epidemic.

The two-day conference was the fifth meeting of the U.S. Ambassadors of the Caribbean region, the first of which was held in Haiti in 2002.  In his remarks to the conference participants, Global Coordinator of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Mark Dybul said that while there has been substantial progress in recent years in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, a lot more could be done once every person in the world saw it as their responsibility to prevent its spread. 

Despite an increase in antiretroviral therapy availability and declining HIV prevalence rates in the Caribbean and elsewhere, stigma and discrimination still exists and people are still not willing to change their sexual behavior.  He noted that First Lady Laura Bush had proposed the establishment of an International Testing Day to encourage more people to get tested, and to recognize that HIV/AIDS was a medical disease like any other and was not a “punishment from anyone or any being or something people got because they were bad human beings”.

Other participants at the conference included U.S. Embassy Belize’s Economic/Commercial Assistant Darlene Gentle and other regional USG HIV/AIDS technical officers from the Agency for International Development, Center for Disease Control, Peace Corps, and the Department of Defense.