CT: So what is the current situation with AIDS at the moment in the world?
DM: Well the United Nations has told us today that HIV/Aids is still a very serious problem. Thirty-three million people are living with HIV and Aids, 90 per cent of them are in developing countries. Seventy per cent of them don’t even get access to healthcare, immunisation and the drugs they need.
Now we [at Christian Aid] believe in the Stop AIDS Campaign, because it's concerned about life and it's concerned about hope and it's concerned about giving people a quality of life.
We’ve got to work with our Government and the international community to really make a difference. This means spending lots of money in the right places in the right way, working with civil society, faith groups, government leaders and others so that we tackle this on an urgent war footing and really bring life and hope, especially at this Advent time and this Christmas time, to be able to say to people 'we can make a difference'.
CT: Why are you rallying here today?
DM: Today’s event is because of Worlds Aids Day and because our Government is looking at its own strategy for the next three years. We want to remind our ministers that we as the British public and the British civil society organisations, NGOs and faith groups are wanting our government to continue to take the lead that they have taken, to put money into the international fight against Aids, to be able to influence the international leaders of the World Bank, the IMF, the European Union and the United States so that together we can actually do something about HIV and Aids.
But the campaign cannot be one day, it needs to continue because every day 5,700 people die. Every day another 8,000 people get HIV and Aids. So this is not going to happen unless they put it on a war footing. Today is just an event in an ongoing campaign, a commitment to get our Government and international leaders to put money and action where it matters.
CT: So what plans do you have for World Aids Day?
