By Paige Bagby
To the Greater DePauw Community,
I write to you in concern with the recent proposed budget for The State Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) by President Donald Trump. My name is Paige Bagby and I am a sophomore Global Health and Conflict Studies major. My freshman year of college I was chosen as The DePauw representative for the END7 Campus Leaders Council. END7 is a campaign of the Sabin Vaccine Institute working to raise the awareness and funding necessary to control and eliminate the seven most common Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) by 2020. These seven NTDs infect over 1 billion people in 149 countries. But, what I want to bring to your attention is that the funding for eliminating and eradicating these 7 NTDs is at risk.
"The Budget"
Global Health spending makes up roughly .25% of the overall federal budget. And of the .25%, The United States Agency for International Development’s NTD program is 1% of the .25% federal budget. So, that is less than .003% of our Federal Budget that is allocated to the eradication of NTDs. But President Trump has proposed a 28% to the USAID in the recent release of “America First, a Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.” This is a very small amount of our federal budget which does a tremendous amount of good worldwide.
"The Good of The USAID"
The USAID’s NTD program was founded in 2006, and is now the largest donor for treatment of mass drug administration (MDA). The program currently supports 32 countries worldwide. In the last 10 years, The US Agency for International Development has made an incredible impact by funding and delivering more than 1.6 billion NTD treatments in the poorest regions of the world. This was made possible by the USAID’s partnership with the following pharmaceutical companies which donates medications to prevent and cure NTD’s: Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Merck Serono and Pfizer.
"Neema"
I want to bring to your attention the seriousness of this. One billion people are infected by one or more of these NTDs, all of which are totally preventable. I share with you a story of a young girl who lives in Burangi Village, Kenya. A village that is surrounded by water, no roads or hospitals, or means of receiving medications. In this village lives an 8-year-old named Neema. She has been sick with an NTD for four years which now affects her everyday life. She has constant diarrhea and now must often leave school to wash her clothes, or not attend at all. She was once first in her class but now she struggles to keep up and lives in a constant state of embarrassment. Like many of the infected, she lives in a rural area where there are no doctors, nurses, or pharmacies and, if left untreated, she will soon be unable to attend work or school, leaving her no future to provide for herself. This story is one like many of families living in poor rural areas. But, programs that the USAID funds, allows for mass production and delivery of the mediations that give hope to families like Neema’s.
"Blueprint of change"
On March 16, the White House released its budget request for the 2018 fiscal year. This blueprint requests a 28% cut from the 2017 USAID budget. This is very bad news for the progress of eliminating neglected tropical diseases and global health. Now you may be thinking, why does eradicating NTD’s or providing foreign aid matter? Although NTD’s don’t affect people living in the United States directly. In my opinion, you must have health to function in society. Health determines everything. It leads to the ability to get an education, go to work, and furthermore, economic prosperity. When you build an economic base in a country, you are strengthening the health of the world. These 7 diseases are preventable and easy to get rid of. From a fiscally conservative viewpoint, we have already invested in the elimination and irradiation of neglected tropical diseases and to have the greatest return, we shouldn’t stop now. The partnerships the USAID holds with the previous mentioned pharmaceutical companies, makes the following statistic possible “Every $1 invested by USAID in NTDs leverages $26 in pharmaceutical donations for mass treatment campaigns reducing USAID's treatment cost to 63 cents per person, a best buy in public health” (Adapted from the USAID). This is a cost effective investment that will lead to economic prosperity worldwide.
"What you can do"
It is the member of congress’ job to represent their constituents. Each and every one of your voices matter. I urge you to write to your senator and representatives to reject the budget proposal to protect the current funding for The State Department and United States Agency for International Development. Sabin Vaccine Institute has made this incredibly easy and all you have to do is fill out the appropriate blanks in the following link: https://e-activist.com/page/6761/action/1?ea.tracking.id=DEPAUW
Signed,
Paige Bagby
END7 DePauw Representative