Also available in: Español

The Global Fund’s response takes place seven (7) months after the Venezuelan Network of Positive People RVG+ requested international aid for more than 200 thousand people living with HIV and AIDS in our country.

ACCSI, January 19, 2017: Today, the Venezuelan Network of Positive People RVG+ received a letter from The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where the negative to provide humanitarian aid to people with HIV and AIDS of our country is stated, arguing that  Venezuela “is still a high income country…and as such is not eligible.”

It is regrettable and worrying that international cooperation, especially The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, ignores the current crisis that scourges the Venezuelan population, among which people living with HIV and AIDS, whom lack daily access to proper medical care and without the required minimum international standards, frequently subject to shortage of antiretroviral medication, laboratory reagents for diagnosis, HIV control and follow-up, and the permanent shortage of medication to treat AIDS related infections as well as medication to treat cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hemophilia, diphtheria, among the long list of health conditions. This added to the food crisis that makes a significant number of people living with HVI suffer from hunger, because in Venezuela they are not guaranteed basic foods, such as milk, rice, meat, cereals, oils and butter, pasta, flour products, sugar, among others.

The ignorance of the Global Fund is so serious, that it shows its full unawareness of the national crisis, for instance, that in 2016 the Venezuelan government declared the State of Exception and Economic Emergency [1] and recently, in January 2017, the same government ratified that State of Emergency in the economic environment. [2]. This economic crisis has had a direct impact on the lives, health and the whole social environment of the Venezuelan population, seriousness that is known and discussed all over the world, including the United Nations.

That is why this type of international bodies are losing credibility due to their total disconnection with the realities of the countries and their weak responses to health crisis that hit people in the world. Ingratiating with governments that openly disrespect human rights is extremely alarming, and deserves an urgent intervention to those international cooperation organizations and a strong protest from the global civil society movement, in order to demand that they return to their main objectives for which they were created.

According to its website, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is an international cooperation organization with significant actions to face barriers, with innovative approaches for prevention, treatment and care services for hundreds of millions of people, helping to revitalize whole communities, strengthening local health systems and improving the economies of the countries. More information at  http://www.theglobalfund.org/es/

Read here the letter from the Venezuelan Network of Positive People RVG+ and other NGOs working on HIV in Venezuela, addressed to the Global Fund:  Carta de Venezuela al Fondo Mundial 07 junio 2016 versión español

RVG+’s Letter in English:  Letter to the GF Board from Venezuela June 07 2016

Read here the letter from the Global Fund to the Venezuelan Network of Positive People:   RVG Board Members_Joint_2017.01.18