President Bush’s $15 billion effort to fight AIDS has handed out nearly one-quarter of its grants to religious groups, and officials are aggressively pursuing new church partners that often emphasize disease prevention through abstinence and fidelity over condom use.
Award recipients include a Christian relief organization famous for its televised appeals to feed hungry children, a well- known Catholic charity and a group run by the son of evangelist Billy Graham, according to the State Department.
The outreach to nontraditional AIDS players comes in the midst of a debate over how best to prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The debate has activated groups on both ends of the political spectrum and created a vast competition for money.
Bush’s conservative Christian allies are pressing the U.S. foreign-aid agency to give fewer dollars to groups that distribute condoms or work with prostitutes. The Bush administration provided more than 560 million condoms abroad last year, compared with some 350 million in 2001.
Secular organizations in Africa are raising concerns that granting new money to groups without AIDS experience may dilute the impact of Bush’s 3-year-old program.
“We clearly recognize that it is very important to work with faith-based organizations,” said Dan Mullins of CARE, one of the best-known humanitarian groups. “But at the same time, we don’t want to fall into the trap of assuming faith-based groups are good at everything.”
The administration is beginning a broad effort to attract newcomers and distribute money for AIDS prevention and care beyond the large nonprofit groups that traditionally have led the fight.
The New Partners Initiative reserves $200 million through the 2008 budget year for community and church groups with little or no background in government grants. Some may have health operations in Africa but no experience in HIV work. Others may be homegrown groups in Africa.
Large nonprofit groups involved in health and development projects typically enlist local religious groups because of their deep community ties.
The goal now is to reach remote corners of the target countries – 13 in Africa, and Haiti and Vietnam – and bring aboard community and faith groups that previously lacked expertise to win grants, deputy U.S. global AIDS coordinator Mark Dybul said.
Religious organizations last year accounted for more than 23 percent of all groups that got HIV/AIDS grants, according to the State Department. Some 80 percent of all secular and religious grant recipients were based in the countries where the aid is targeted.
