Press Release: President Clinton To Visit Rwanda To Highlight Progress Of HIV/AIDS Care And Treatment Programs

President Bill Clinton will meet with government leaders and visit an HIV/AIDS clinic in Kigali, Rwanda on Saturday, July 23 to highlight the country’s progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

President Clinton will also visit the Treatment and Research AIDS Center (TRAC) to donate a year’s supply of pediatric antiretrovirals for 2,500 children as part of the Clinton Foundation’s Pediatric Initiative.

TRAC is Rwanda’s national agency responsible for the management and coordination of HIV/AIDS care and treatment efforts. As of June 2005, the clinic within TRAC, which also supports the Central Hospital of Kigali, was providing HIV/AIDS treatment to approximately 2500 patients, 260 of them children. Currently, the Clinton Foundation supports fourteen positions at the clinic.

For its Pediatric Initiative, the Clinton Foundation has partnered in Rwanda with the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS. The Initiative aims to put 10,000 children in more than ten nations on antiretroviral therapy by the end of 2005, more than doubling the number previously receiving life-saving medicine in the developing world. The Clinton Foundation is also working with Paul Farmer and his organization, Partners In Health, on the Rural Initiative, which extends HIV/AIDS care and treatment to those living in traditionally underserved areas.

President Clinton will also meet with Rwandan President Paul Kagame to highlight the progress made in extending HIV/AIDS treatment across the country. Rwanda has been a leader in Africa at combating HIV/AIDS by integrating care and treatment programs into all levels of central and local government. In the past year alone, the government has tripled the number of people on ART to approximately 13,250, approximately 20% of those who need it, and increased the number of ART sites from 20 to 57. The Clinton Foundation has worked with the Government of Rwanda since 2002 to help develop and extend the availability of HIV/AIDS treatment.

Rwanda is the final stop on President Clinton’s tour of Africa. As part of his Foundation’s work expanding HIV/AIDS care and treatment, the former President has also visited Mozambique, Lesotho, Tanzania, and Kenya.

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