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Let's be friendsLSE P&P: "We need cheaper drugs now, Mr Benn!"
On the eve of World AIDS Day Treat AIDS Now campaigners from LSE People & Planet put Hilary Benn on the spot about the government's 2010 promise.
LSE People & Planet presented Hilary Benn with 200 Treat AIDS Now action-cards
Rowan from LSE People & Planet reports:
On the eve of World AIDS Day, a group of around 30 P&Pers from LSE and neighbouring universities attended a lecture given by Hilary Benn MP, UK Minister for International Development, entitled ‘HIV/AIDS: prevention, treatment and care - how will the world deliver universal access by 2010?’.
All wearing ‘the world is watching’ t-shirts, the campaigners turned a significant block of seats red, and did not allow Mr Benn´s rhetoric to go unchallenged.
Anti-retroviral Viread aka Rowan from LSE P&P gets lecture attendees to sign Treat AIDS Now action cards
On entering the building, attendees were met by two giant anti-retroviral drugs (formerly recognisable as two P&P members) and large eyeball props, signifying to Mr Benn that the world is watching that he and his government keep the promises made on providing HIV/AIDS treatment for all.
The Treat AIDS Now campaigners took over the foyer of lecture theatre, collecting signatures and distributing information about the campaign to other students, academics and members of the public attending the event.
In the question and answer session that followed the lecture, all the campaigners stood up together as Megan Gaventa, chair of LSE People & Planet, asked Mr Benn questions about the government’s stand and action in regards to turning the 2010 promise into reality.
Although Mr Benn failed to give a full answer, LSE People & Planet succeeded in making sure the government knows that the pressure is on to fulfil their promise and inaction will not be accepted.
LSE P&P also took the opportunity to present him with a giant ‘pill bottle’, full of around 200 Treat AIDS Now ‘pill card’ petitions that they had been collecting on campus that week.
Megan Gaventa of LSE People & Planet group said:
“While Mr Benn did little to address our concerns, this was a fantastic opportunity to question decision-makers about the impacts their policies are having on the 40 million people suffering from HIV/AIDS worldwide, and to convey our concerns to the rest of the audience. What we need now is for this to happen again and again, until we start getting real answers to our questions, and finally see action being taken in the fight for universal access to treatment.”
