Women's History Month

WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in conjunction with the March celebration of Women's History Month, I rise today to salute a number of women who have dedicated themselves to the fight against global AIDS and HIV.

This year the theme of Women's History Month is "Women Inspiring Hope and Possibility." It may seem that phrase is too broad-and a month is too short-to fully recognize or appreciate the many and varied accomplishments of women throughout the years. From the medical professional who administers compassion along with her care, to the educator who inspires her pupils and allows them to achieve, to the mother who installs in her children feelings of worth and value, women foster hope and opportunity in their everyday actions.

While traditionally this month is used to commemorate women from the past, it seems fitting that we take some time to look at modern-day heroines. Today, the women we honor are busy ensuring that HIV/AIDS will soon be relegated to a chapter in history-a terrible and sorrowful chapter but history nonetheless.

There are 42 million people throughout the world living with HIV/AIDS. We saw more than 3 million AIDS-related deaths in 2003. Each year, AIDS deaths claim more than the entire population of Chicago. Life expectancy has dropped below 40 years of age in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS has already erased 15 years of progress in the worse affected countries. Despite our efforts to date, this epidemic continues its deadly spread across the globe.

More than 30 million HIV/AIDS sufferers are located in sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia, where more than 60 percent of those infected are women. At especially high risk are teenage girls, who frequently marry older men at a very young age, and have little control over their destiny. This, in turn, puts the next generation of children in a position or susceptibility, as each year about 120,000 HIV-positive women become pregnant.

As Americans, it is sometimes hard to see that the AIDS epidemic is not just across the ocean, it is in every part of this world. It is in our own backyard and poses a threat from every direction. Once a person has seen its devastation face to face, he or she will never be the same.

Three years ago, I went to Africa and saw it myself. I saw it in Uganda, where I sat on a porch with mothers who were HIV-positive. They were gathering scrapbooks, photos, notes, and little memorabilia of their lives to leave to their children who were in the yard playing, children who had been orphaned already, or who, having lost one parent, were about to lose their second parent.

I saw it as I traveled through Botswana and South Africa. A senior governmental official confided to me that whenever she travels from her busy capital to her home district, she loads up a large van with coffins and tents, and spends her time helping her constituents, one after another, bury their loved ones and grieve for their dead. She attends funerals, not parades. She gives away coffins, not bumper stickers. There are the politics of Africa in the era of AIDS.

Most recently, as I traveled to India and Bangladesh, I witnessed the plight of the rural, female AIDS sufferer, and I saw those who were working to help her. I firmly believe that the future of India lies in the hands of its women.

When you meet the victims of AIDS, when you see their courage, and see what little it takes to fight this AIDS epidemic successfully, as they have in Uganda and a few other countries, you realize that our leadership and our commitment at this moment in history can make such a difference.

Two women, Dr. Helene Gayle and Dr. Amy Pollack, head organizations dedicated to providing that leadership and to preventing the spread of the disease through multifaceted intervention and family planning.

Dr. Gayle, who cochairs the Global HIV Prevention Working Group for the Gates Foundation, previously worked for the Centers for Disease Control, CDC. There, she initiated HIV-prevention programs built around U.S. communities, as well as the CDC's global AIDS initiative. It is her belief that a comprehensive approach that includes prevention services, such as STD treatment, behavioral risk reduction, and voluntary HIV testing, along with HIV treatment and care for affected populations, is the cornerstone of stemming the AIDS pandemic. Wielding the influence of the Gates Foundation name and funding, she is in a unique position to ensure implementation of these methods, and she has done so with great success.

Dr. Pollack's EngenderHealth organization was a 2002 United Nations Population Award laureate. Through her trips to Africa, Dr. Pollack, has borne witness to EngenderHealth's unique family planning initiatives, concentrating on the gap between the desire for contraception and access to it. With a goal of reducing the number of HIV-infected children and orphans, EngenderHealth assists clinics to close this gap.

I salute the vision of Dr. Gayle and Dr. Pollack and commend them for their dedication and perseverance.

As Americans become more aware of the pandemic proportions of this disease, especially in Africa and South Asia, increasing numbers of women are working for AIDS awareness, treatment and prevention.

Sixteen years ago, three American women whose lives had been touched by this horrific disease sat around a kitchen table in Santa Monica, CA. Recognizing that there was a huge gap in understanding how infected children were affected by HIV/AIDS, they cofounded an organization to fund research for pediatric AIDS.

Today, that organization, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, is the premier not-for-profit in its field. Although Elizabeth Glaser, who cofounded the organization with Susan DeLaurentis and Susie Zeegan, passed away in 1994, her dream-and her name-live on through the foundation. Today we honor the legacy of Elizabeth Glaser and the work of these three women.

I said at the outset of these remarks that it is traditional to honor the great historical contributions of women in connection with Women's History Month. The thousands of women working to find a cure, to help those who are suffering, or to cope with this disease in their own lives are surely making a lasting and positive impact on the history of the world.

Mr. President, today I have paid tribute to just a few of these women. My only regret is that I cannot give much deserved thanks and recognition to all the women who have dealt with, or are dealing with, HIV/AIDS in their own lives, in their communities and around the world. In celebrating Women's History Month, we say to them: Thank you. Thank you for your commitment, your compassion, and your courage. Thank you for leading us into a better future.