Ealing Health Activist Lobbies for Change in Parliament
Lemona Chanda calls for investment in fight against AIDS, TB and Malaria
Lemona (pictured middle) speaking with MP for Totnes Anthony Mangnall. Picture: Anna Gordon / @AnnaGordonPics
A 38-year-old woman from Ealing visited parliament earlier this month as part of a delegation urging the government to invest in the fight against AIDS, TB and Malaria, at a ‘Day of Action’ organised by anti-poverty organisation The ONE Campaign.
The day on 18 May was part of the campaign by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, which seeks to eradicate these three diseases around the world.
Lemona is icurrently working to develop the WHO policy bank on gender-transformative policies in the healthcare workforce and develop UK’s feminist foreign policies through the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP). She met with MPs to talk about Global Fund success stories, presenting its investment case and if fully funded she believes it will help save 20 million lives.
The UK co-founded the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, which claims to have saved over 44 million lives, halving the death rate from the three diseases in the countries in which the Global Fund works.
In 2020, for the first time, programmes declined - due to the pandemic and disinvestment into Global Health. 1 million fewer people with TB were treated, HIV testing dropped by 22%, and malaria deaths increased by 12.4% in Global Fund eligible countries.
Lemona urged MPs to call on the government to make an ambitious pledge to the Global Fund to get the world back on track toward ending these diseases and to build resilient health systems globally. The Global Fund is having its seventh replenishment this year, asking governments to help reach its funding target of $18bn to help it continue its lifesaving work.
She also provided MPs with booklets which included messages addressed to them from constituents expressing their wish for the UK to invest more in ending preventable disease through the Global Fund.
Lemona says, “The pandemic and its aftershocks have meant that for the first time in a generation we have seen the threat from AIDS, TB and malaria increase. Science has given us the tools to finally beat these diseases. We have the knowledge and skills to get these tools where they are needed. What is missing is the investment to finish the job.”
In response, MP for Battersea Marsha de Cordova said “I’m massively willing to commit to write to the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, calling on them to increase their contribution to £1.8 billion.”
ONE is an international movement working to end extreme poverty and preventable diseases by 2030. It is non-partisan and puts pressure on governments to do more to fight extreme poverty and preventable diseases, especially in Africa. ONE also supports citizens in demanding accountability from their governments. For more information, visit www.one.org.
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May 26, 2022