Statements and Webcast
Fondation Esther Boucicault Stanislas
H.E. Ms. Esther Baucicault Stanislas (Haiti)
10 June 2011
- Statement: French (Check against delivery)
Statement Summary
ESTHER BOUCICAULT STANISLAS, Foundation Esther Boucicault Stanislas, expressed gratitude to the efforts of all countries, North and South, that had helped to give hope to millions of people. While today’s needs were even more urgent, support from the Global Fund and her organization had supplied antiretroviral treatments to those in need in Haiti. She had been one of the first Haitians to publicly live with HIV. She drew attention to the “closing window of opportunity” to rebuild Haiti and provide the necessary resources for people living with HIV/AIDS. The lack of resources compromised daily the health and emotional well-being of Haitians living with HIV. The unplanned encampments in Haiti exposed women and girls to sexual violence and to the risk of infection. HIV affected the poorest, like so many others in Caribbean countries. Access to treatments must be increased, and Haitians must be empowered through employment.
She said that mothers with HIV were now able to give birth to uninfected children, but that was not happening in the more remote areas of her country, where access to treatment was limited and, thus, where hope had dissipated. While she was grateful to the wealthy nations for their contributions, she said the world would never be able to afford second-line drugs as long as pharmaceutical patents were more important than people’s lives. Haiti needed a stable health-care system to enjoy access to health care and basic human rights. With the Global Fund, her own and all other grass-roots organizations, treatment for pregnant women with HIV could be doubled, and all mother-to-child transfer of HIV could be eliminated by 2015. That was not a dream, but a hope, and she knew the struggle would be victorious. What were needed was treatment, housing and jobs.
Source: GA/11093