AUSTRALIA'S CATHOLIC BISHOPS CHALLENGED ON PNG AIDS CRISIS

The Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated, arguably Australia's smallest AIDS-care charity, is publicly challenging Australia's Catholic Bishops to provide one million dollars as soon as possible in a significant acknowledgment of and response to the AIDS crisis on Australia's geographic doorstep in PNG.

The challenge follows the CathNews report "Millions to die of AIDS in PNG" OF 12/3/07.

In an Open Letter to CathNews, the President of The Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated, Brian Haill, appealed to the Australian Catholic Bishops to immediately authorise its Caritas agency "to start channelling  a significant money stream ...rising to at least one million dollars in the months ahead because PNG is  poised on the brink of an appalling casualty rate in the area of HIV/AIDS."

"The decision needs to be made now, in the early days of the Australia-wide Lenten  Project Compassion, to allocate truly  realistic funding to our nearest and stricken neighbour", Haill said.

"While we acknowledge the wide-ranging global support that Caritas seeks to offer the world, we have to challenge its priorities given the calamity that's unfolding on Australia's own doorstep.We do not accept that Caritas is doing anywhere near enough to alleviate the plight of the HIV-infected people of PNG. This is why we have aimed this Open Letter at the bishops themselves, calling on them to intervene as a matter of urgency in the area of Caritas funding priorities." Haill added.

The Australian AIDS Fund has itself, over the years, worked hand in hand with Fr Jude Ronayne-Forde of the National Catholic AIDS Office in Port Moresby, helping him in his efforts to feed and care for HIV patients even in the Port Moresby General Hospital, and other initiatives. The www.aids.net.au website of The Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated carries detailed photo reports concerning these efforts. Those efforts have included assisting in the establishment of PNG's first AIDS hospice, San Michel, furnished and equipped by the Australian AIDS Fund Inc.

"The National Catholic AIDS Office in PNG needs to be hugely and vitally assisted in financial terms  right now", Haill concluded.

Issued by:-

Brian Haill, President,
The Australian AIDS Fund Inc.,
PO Box 1347,Frankston,
Victoria, Australia  

Email: bhaill@bigpond.net.au
Website: www.aids.net.au