PRESS RELEASE - APRIL 3, 2008
President’s Global Ambassador for AIDS
consults with representative of local group
Mark Dybul, the President’s Global Ambassador for AIDS relief, consulted with Frank Biden of locally based Hand in Hand Ministries on Tuesday in Washington, D. C., to discuss legislation before the U. S. Congress to fund the President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief. Besides Dybul, Biden also met with representatives of other AIDS relief organizations, including the One Campaign and the Global Fund.
The House and the Senate each ended up passing similar $50 billion dollar AIDS packages, which will go to conference next week. Biden’s brother, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware), was the principal author in the Senate where he is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Hand in Hand Ministries was recently named one of four members of the National AIDS Commission in Belize, which has the highest per capita incidence of the disease in Central America and the third highest in the Caribbean. In January 2005, Hand in Hand Ministries opened a day treatment and outreach center in Belize City. It is the only facility of its type in the entire country of nearly 300,000 people.
Biden will travel to the Children and HIV/AIDS: Action Now, Action How international symposium in Mexico City with Dybul. Mark Thessing, director of programs for Hand in Hand Ministries in Belize, wil attend the symposium, as well as co-founder and executive director Wayne Fowler.
Hand in Hand Ministries is a non-proselytizing, faith-based organization that helps provide life’s essentials to the poorest of the poor, giving them dignity today and hope for tomorrow. It also currently has programs in Jamaica, Costa Rica and Appalachia.
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