Former President George Bush marked 20 years since he established the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief at an event in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
During a conversation with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, Bush reflected on the creation of the AIDS program.
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“I believe that human life is precious, and we’re all God’s children. So I meant it when I said while campaigning that to whom much is given, much is required,” Bush said. “We’re an unbelievably wealthy nation, and yet there are people and generations being destroyed. And so that was the genesis. And, you know, a lot of skeptics, but we put together a plan that worked and had a hell of a team of really good people, motivated by one thing: human life.”
Bush announced the creation of the program during his State of the Union address in 2003. The program has gone on to support nearly 65 million people through HIV treatment and testing services and has saved approximately 25 million lives.
Its success is largely felt in Africa, the pandemic’s epicenter, where life expectancy dropped by 20 years because of HIV in 2003 and child mortality tripled.
Despite its success, the program, which is up for reauthorization by Congress in 2023, is focused on closing service gaps and ending inequities moving forward. In an announcement last year, PEPFAR laid out a five-year plan to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic by 2030. It is considered the largest global health initiative ever dedicated to a single disease.
Bipartisan speakers on Friday lauded Bush’s leadership in the global health field, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Bill Gates.
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“Twenty years ago, President Bush stood before Congress to launch a commitment to ignite a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts in the campaign to defeat this dangerous disease,” Sherman said. “It was a bold declaration with a unifying purpose. To deploy the full reach of American leadership, diplomacy, and compassion to save lives. So let me say thank you to President Bush for the vision to make PEPFAR a priority and reality.”
Other guests included Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova, former Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Ambassador Dr. John Nkengasong, America’s global AIDS coordinator and special representative for global health diplomacy.
