...and another thing.

Seeing as it was World Aids Day yesterday, and I forgot to post anything, I'll post this now. It was an email I received yesterday from Ann, who was in Tanzania with me. If you haven't got time to handwrite this, you can just copy/paste into Word.

Hi guys, sorry, this is a bit long winded, but it's to encourage the UK government to make tackling AIDS on a global scale a priority so your participation would be much appreciated.

Happy Advent and I hope you're all having fun!

Love Ann xx

And it doesn't matter if u send this after World AIDS Day, anytime, but preferably before the G8. As it's World AIDS Day today, 1st December, we thought many of you would be willing to support the campaign by emailing or sending the letter below.

We are particularly targeting MPs this year because the UK government will be hosting the G8 summit and will have European presidency next year. As the elections are coming up as well, we as potential voters hopefully have quite influential powers.

Attached is a letter that some of us have put together so that you can copy and paste onto an email, or fill in the relevant bits, print it off and send it to your MP to show that you care about the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Handwritten letters have the biggest impact on MPs but we know that many of us would never get round to doing that, so we've tried to make it a bit easier. This doesn't mean that you can't edit it or do one of your own (which would be even better), just make sure you include your name and address.

To find the contact details of your relevant MP go onto www.locata.co.uk/commons and type in your post code and you will be given the relevant information. It's important that it goes to your MP because they won't always take notice of letters/emails from people outside of their constituency.

Approximately 40 million people are currently infected with HIV, mainly people living in the developing world with no access to treatment. With anti-retro viral treatment HIV positive people could live for over twenty years but without will only live for about another ten.

I hope you all understand why action has to be taken and help get the message across to our government by emailing/posting this letter and forwarding it to other people to do the same.

Thanks for your support.

Ann

Write your address & date here

Dear (name of your MP),

I am writing to express my deep concern about the lack of action that the UK government is taking over the HIV/AIDS global crisis. It is having devastating effects in many developing countries and yet it is us in the developed world who can make a difference. Millions are dying of AIDS in developing countries because they lack access to care and treatment. Tony Blair and other G8 leaders must make AIDS history by committing to a date and timetable for providing access to HIV/AIDS care and treatment to all who need it. That means agreeing to:

• Funding the fight: $20 billion is needed by 2007
• Treating the people: Lowering the prices of life-saving AIDS drugs and other essential medicines
• Investing in health: Enabling poor countries to respond effectively to the AIDS crisis by improving the quality of their health services

I hope that tackling HIV/AIDS on a global scale will become a priority at the G8 summit. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

(Your name)

Once again, here is the article I wrote about our primary school event, and you can also visit the SPW and Stop Aids websites.