I work in one of the largest slums in Africa: Kibera, located in Nairobi, Kenya. Some years ago I started St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School to educate young people there who have lost either both parents to the AIDS pandemic, or one parent and the remaining parent is infected. I am proud to say we now have 265 students, and we are supporting another 50 graduates to go on to college.

Seeing the impact of AIDS every day, I was delighted last week at news of a bipartisan agreement in the House Foreign Affairs Committee approving a much-needed expansion of the president’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. I hope the Senate follows suit with a package at equal in size and scope, to confront not only HIV/AIDS, but also the complex social and health issues which are inextricably linked to AIDS.

Anyone visiting us in Kibera would see that the AIDS issue cannot be viewed in isolation. My students, teachers and their extended families face inter-related problems rooted in poverty, issues of gender and a broken health system. A smart U.S. response must address this context, including the dearth of qualified medical personnel and community health workers. And, to be effective, it would confront tuberculosis head-on, since, as we have seen in Kibera, TB is actually the biggest killer of people with HIV/AIDS.

The bill approved by the committee takes this holistic approach, yet I have been disappointed at the statements I have seen, from Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and others, questioning whether countries will be able to utilize the $50 billion that it authorizes. In fact, what we have seen in Africa is that U.S. aid has strengthened the very systems that must absorb and utilize U.S. assistance, including basic infrastructure and personnel. The bill approved by the committee greatly expands this kind of capacity building, and I hope the Senate version incorporates this crucial innovation.

I also hope members of Congress realize that when we talk about funding we are talking about helping millions of children facing potential abandonment after the loss of their parents. A little-known fact about the U.S. program on AIDS is that, at a minimum, 10 percent of the funding must be spent on meeting the needs of children. As a result, a wide range of services is getting more funding, including vocational training, school-based feeding programs and urgently needed psychological and emotional care.

Yet, for all the good news of bipartisanship breakthroughs on AIDS policy, I am still worried that the funding authorized by the House committee is more mirage than reality.  After all, we are relying on Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees, to provide enough money in the budget for international programs generally. 

Then, appropriators, in particular Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), would need to actually provide the money for these health programs. I implore Congress to ensure that the bill, aptly named the Lantos-Hyde U.S. Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria Act, is in fact fully funded.

Working in Kenya, I see people suffering and dying all too often from a disease that can be prevented. It is crucial that this program not become a political football, and I hope members of Congress of good will, from both sides of the aisle, will continue to work together for the sake of Africa. Unless the U.S. AIDS program goes forward, and is actually funded at the authorized level, together with programs that address the broader context of the epidemic, the ones who suffer the most will be the children I work with every day.