Wednesday, as part of her participation in the 19th International AIDS Conference 2012 in the U.S. capital, Sophia Martelly, the First Lady of Haiti met with the former First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Laura Bush.

Mrs. Martelly took the opportunity to promote the new departure of Haiti whose the President Michel Martelly, is the main promoter. She thanked the wife of former U.S. President George W. Bush, for the U.S. Government's commitment in favor of people living with HIV-AIDS through PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), an initiative launched by her husband during his tenure.

Indeed, PEPFAR and other donors, providing help in the basic treatment of triple therapy, despite the fact that this action does not take into account certain key factors. It is true that women no longer die of HIV, but they continue to be victims of cancer of cervix. Not only treatment is expensive, but the centers of care are not accessible. For this reason, the First Lady wanted to seek the assistance of Laura Bush, in a international advocacy, so that the overall health and integral of women living with AIDS, is taken into account in the envelopes granted by donors and the UN.

Later, accompanied by Florence Duperval Guillaume, the Haitian Minister of Health, Mrs. Martelly was the guest of the journalist Amita Parashar of the show "Tell me more with Michel Martin" aired on NPR in Massachusetts. The interview focused on the social development policy and health programs carried out in Haiti since January 12, 2010 and the role of First Lady alongside the Head of State in the fight against stigmatization of those infected. Sophia Martelly took the opportunity to emphasize that the HIV prevalence was 6.2% in the 80 in Haiti, had declined to 2.2% today. She made a plea for funds allocated by donors who support Haiti take into account the health of a comprehensive and integrated manner.

In the late afternoon, accompanied by Dr.Jean-Robert Brutus, Director of "Aba grangou" Mrs. Martelly met some members of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Department of Agriculture of the United States around food policy conducted in Haiti, of the funding program for local production and the fight against hunger and malnutrition. The First Lady believes that it is time that development aid provided to Haiti, is qualitative and takes into account the integrated and transversal approach of the Haitian Government.

HL/ HaitiLibre