Graça Machel speaks at press conference about ending Pediatric HIV/AIDS. Photo: Stephane de Sakutin, AFP/Getty Images
"You tell me next time we meet how much is being spent in wars and defence...but how much is being spent in health, how much is being spent in agriculture to produce food for our kids," Machel told delegates.
Graça Machel urged African leaders to commit to ending HIV infections among children and women, in the world’s worst affected continent. Speaking at the launch of the Campaign to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS, Graça Machel highlighted how little budget is assigned by African countries to health issues. She pointed out that Africa cannot only rely on international commitment to the eradication of HIV/AIDS - the pandemic has to be addressed just as conscientiously by African leaders.
"You tell me next time we meet how much is being spent in wars and defence...but how much is being spent in health, how much is being spent in agriculture to produce food for our kids," Machel told delegates.
"We will not get there when African leaders do not get moved, they do not get moved by the hundreds of thousands of people who are dying on this continent when we know that this can be prevented," she said.
She said she would lobby for African governments to meet pledges made in 2001 to devote at least 15 percent of national budgets to health.
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