On Monday, The Herald-Sun featured a poignant guest column by Braveen Ragunanthan, a global health certificate student and undergraduate co-chair of the DGHI Student Council. He calls on the public to demand more from their elected officials and the 2012 presidential candidates with more support for foreign aid, which he points out is less than one percent of the annual budget.
Where is the Foreign Aid Discussion?
Special to The Herald-Sun
By Braveen Ragunanthan
“During the Republican debate in Iowa this past Thursday night, issues of HIV/AIDS or famine in Somalia were absent from the discussion on foreign policy or the rest of the debate.
Certainly, there are far more important issues than the 12 million people at risk of death from starvation in the worst famine that the Horn of Africa has seen in 60 years.
Flat-line funding or cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) seem irrelevant to what America is facing, too. Today, many of my fellow Americans would demand that I see a psychiatrist for crying out against cuts to our foreign aid - specifically humanitarian aid. But I pray some of us simply pause and realize that America’s foreign aid is barely 1 percent of the annual budget.
Less than 1 percent. That’s it.
A recent national poll suggests that Americans estimate that we are spending 20 to 25 percent of our budget on foreign aid. Democratic voters feel that 10 percent would be appropriate while Republicans assert that 5 percent is enough.
Reality is not even 1 percent of the budget.
I am still listening to what so many tell me right now: “America is in debt. We’re extended all over the world. American families are hurting right now. The United States can no longer afford wasteful foreign aid or assistance.”
I agree that our enormous problems require urgent action in the best interest of our nation. However as we work to implement cuts and increase efficiencies in defense spending and other targets, I urge us not to fall under the impression that the grand solution is reducing humanitarian aid.
America is saving millions of lives. The magnitude of the suffering in Somalia is unfathomable.
Neither words nor Anderson Cooper can quite capture the despair of a mother who is choosing which one of her children will survive because of starvation. Can you imagine your children in this situation? It is happening right now.
Recently science has come to a groundbreaking consensus on AIDS. A study known as HPTN 052 has taken the research world by storm after proving that HIV/AIDS medication, known as antiretroviral therapy (ART), can reduce the risk of transmission by 96 percent. Basically, treatment is prevention.
With this overwhelming evidence, scientists and policy makers now undoubtedly know what needs to be done against this global epidemic. It is actually possible to imagine an end to AIDS with enough political will.
I have worked in rural South Africa and Ethiopia. There I witnessed firsthand how the United States is touching the lives of so many people around the world. I cannot forget how the head pharmacist of a hospital in rural KwaZulu-Natal shook my hand when he found out that I was an American.
He looked in my eyes and said, “Thank you. Because of America, many people in South Africa are able to have a chance against HIV/AIDS. God bless America.”
Never had I felt so proud to be an American.
Let’s encourage our leaders to change what’s wrong with our policies and not what is unequivocally saving human lives. We cannot turn our back on the world’s most vulnerable.
Call on presidential candidates to commit U.S. support for 8 million people on ART treatment by 2015. Urge them to not ignore Somalia. Most importantly, don’t let them cut the pennies we are spending for humanitarian aid when this may be among the most effective uses of 1 percent of our budget.”
Braveen Ragunanthan is from Canton, Ohio. He is currently a Robertson Scholar studying at Duke University and the University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill.
See the guest column on The Herald-Sun’s website.
