Indiana Activists to Senator Lugar: You Hold the Keys to Stop HIV and AIDS Local Indiana AIDS and Health Advocates Deliver Giant Keys to Senator Lugar’s Office, Demand Critical Reforms to U.S. Global AIDS Programs INDIANAPOLIS--Today, dozens of activists from Indiana gathered and delivered giant silver keys to Senator Lugar, calling for critical changes to U.S. global AIDS policy during the reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The keys represented five major “keys” to fighting AIDS and were delivered to the Senator’s office during a meeting that followed the media event.   Senator Lugar (R-IN) is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Along with Chairman Biden and Senators Kennedy and Sununu, he introduced the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008. The bill would reauthorize PEPFAR—President Bush’s 2003 initiative that funds HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and care around the world for another five years.  However, activists say the current reauthorization legislation falls short in addressing the needs of men, women, and youth. “The current Global AIDS bill, introduced by Senator Lugar, does not fully address the needs of people at-risk of and living with HIV and AIDS around the world, particularly women and adolescents.  The United States has been a leader in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and we’ve made progress. But we have also learned many lessons that should be reflected in the new legislation,” said Alison Case, a student at DePauw University and a member of Americans for Informed Democracy. Activists are calling for Senator Lugar to support: •    Elimination of abstinence and be-faithful funding directives for prevention programs that hinder access to comprehensive information and services, •    Training and retention efforts for at least 140,000 new health professionals and additional paraprofessionals and community health workers as needed, •    Support for treatment of one-third of those in clinical need in developing countries, which is projected to be four million people by 2013, •    Integration of HIV/AIDS services with family planning services whether or not family planning programs already receive U.S. support, and •    Removal of the requirement that PEPFAR grantees pledge their opposition to prostitution. “Senator Lugar’s bill misses the mark on key issues like funding for comprehensive and integrated prevention programs and addressing the dire shortage of health professionals.  Several components of the bill, especially those driven by ideology rather than best health practices, jeopardize the health and rights of men, women, and youth across the world,” said Paula French, Co-Executive Director at Step Up, Inc. PEPFAR reauthorization legislation, which has passed both the House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees, will be considered in the coming months on the floor of both chambers. “Senator Lugar still has an important opportunity to amend the Senate bill to ensure it does the most good worldwide. We need to be treating four million people, and not placing arbitrary, ideologically-motivated restrictions on how prevention programs can be funded. And we need to train sufficient numbers of doctors and nurses to provide care to the people we’ve promised to care for,” said Scott Ryan, a student at the University of Indiana, Bloomington and the Director of Philanthropy at Sigma Phi Epsilon. The media event at Senator Lugar’s office was sponsored by Step Up, Inc., Brothers Uplifting Brothers, and Planned Parenthood of  Indiana.