This commentary is by Felicia Bonanno, a homesteader in Essex Junction. She volunteers for a national organization called RESULTS, which works to influence policies that help to end poverty at home and abroad.
It would be easy in a tiny state like Vermont to isolate and to care only about issues that directly relate to us, but time and again I am surprised by how Vermonters show that they do care about world issues.
Across the state, Vermonters are finding ways to support Ukraine through donating supplies and money to NGOs and waiving the Ukrainian flag, welcoming refugees from Africa, Europe and Asia with open arms, and voting for humanitarian aid to be sent overseas.
We observed World Tuberculosis Day on March 24, and I hope my fellow Vermonters will continue to be the action-taking advocates I am proud to know by supporting a cause that could save 20 million lives over three years.
When Covid hit, people and resources on the front lines of other pandemics were pulled in to help fight Covid, resulting in backward motion on progress toward saving people from TB, AIDS and malaria for the first time in a decade.
Over years, the Global Fund partnership has saved 44 million lives, reduced the death rate from these diseases by 64 percent, and strengthened health systems around the world. To continue this vital work, make up for ground lost during the pandemic, and prepare for future health crises, the Global Fund needs at least $18 billion over the next three years.
I am a local Vermonter traveling to Washington, D.C., in April to ask our members of Congress to urge President Biden at the upcoming pledging summit for the Global Fund to contribute a full third of the $18 billion needed to prevent any more devastating impact on the fight against tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria.
My fellow Vermonters can help by writing to Sens. Sanders and Leahy, asking each of them to continue the legacy of supporting the Global Fund by urging the president to include the first U.S. installment of $2 billion in his fiscal year 2023 budget request and urging Congress to appropriate the same amount for fiscal 2023.
Thank you, Vermont, for always raising your signs, flags and voices. The replenishment conference is this fall. I beg you to raise your voice on this issue too so that Sens. Leahy and Sanders will know how much Vermonters care about saving millions of lives from AIDS, TB and malaria.
