CONFERENCE
Ending poverty stats with ending sexism: Trudeau
The effort to help raise the world’s poorest out of hardship so they can live full, healthy lives begins with eradicating sexism, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.
“We know that poverty is sexist,” Trudeau told a Montreal town hall meeting organized by U2 singer Bono on Saturday.
“Women and girls living in poverty are less likely to get an education, more likely to suffer from diseases and almost always lack in basic social, political and economic rights.
“When you don’t have an education, it’s hard to climb out of poverty. When you’re battling disease, it’s hard to climb out of poverty. When you don’t have basic equality rights, it’s hard to climb out of poverty.”
Trudeau’s remarks came after an international conference he hosted in Montreal at which governments and foundations pledged $12.9 billion over three years to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It was just short of the $13-billion target.
The money was raised by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, which says its work over the past 14 years helped save 20 million lives, with the number of people dying from the three diseases dropping by one-third in targeted countries.
The new infusion of cash will help save another 8 million, the Global Fund said.
Canada pledged $785 million over three years, a 20-per-cent increase from its previous contribution three years ago. In total, Canada has committed more than $2 billion to the fund.
Bono, whose One Campaign takes aim at extreme poverty and preventable diseases, praised Trudeau and Canada for being a leader in the fight for global health. “The world needs more Canadas,” he said.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates pledged $600 million to the fund via his philanthropic foundation.
The conference was “an opportunity to show that even in challenging times, we still care and we’re willing to invest in the things that will make a more equitable, prosperous and secure world for people everywhere,” Gates said.
The plight of girls and young women was a central theme at the conference.
Faced with inequality and discrimination, they are less likely to go to school and more likely to be impoverished, all of which puts them at increased risk for infectious diseases, the conference heard.
Adolescent girls and young women are disproportionately affected by HIV, accounting for three-quarters of all new infections among adolescents in Africa.
Maximina Jokonya, a Zimbabwean born with HIV, told the conference that for years she was unable to get treatment. Her health declined to the point where she could not walk and rarely left her home for two years.
In 2006, she started anti-retroviral therapy, thanks to funding by the Global Fund, which has provided anti-retroviral treatment to more than 9 million people with HIV.
“I’m one of the 20 million people who have been saved,” said Jokonya, now a mentor to young people with HIV in Zimbabwe.
But she said girls and women in particular still face barriers within the health system. Many are afraid of being judged when they ask for condoms, for example.
“It’s important to help adolescent girls because the cost of losing them is more than investing in them,” Jokonya said.
Canadians should not think these issues only affect the developing world, Doris Peltier of the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network told the conference.
“In Canada, aboriginal women and girls are at the bottom of the ladder,” she said.
When it comes to HIV, for example, they don’t have the same treatment resources as other Canadians.
Aboriginals living with HIV also face racism, stigmatization and a “code of silence,” added Peltier, who was diagnosed with AIDS in 2000.
“Indigenous people are being left behind,” Peltier said.
“Poverty is sexist, but it’s also racist.”