Request for funds ‘about time’

Press, 28 January 1988, Page 5

Request for funds ‘about time’

A request by the President of the United States, Mr Reagan, to the American Congress for SUSI.S billion to help combat A.I.D.S. was “about time,” said the director of the New Zealand A.I.D.S. Foundation, Mr Warren Lindberg, yesterday. “The Reagan Administration was most reluctant to spend money on A.I.D.S. in the early stages of the epidemic. It was not until 1983 when Congress voted extra money for A.I.D.S. almost against the will of the Administration that any significant work was done.” The New Zealand Government had not been so backward, said Mr Lindberg. “Our Government has not been that dilatory in the past and we would not expect it to be in the future. “The epidemic is controllable — A.I.D.S. is preventable but it does require some intensive education and counselling work and that costs money.” Last year, the foundation received $500,000 for A.I.D.S. work, said Mr

Lindberg. How much it would receive this year would be discussed in the normal Government budget cycle later this year, he said. The Christchurch branch of the A.I.D.S. Foundation is considering small business ventures as a means of raising urgently needed funds. Mr lan Smith, the coordinator of the branch, said yesterday that the local group still had financial difficulties. Only one gift, of $lB,OOO, had been received when the branch publicly appealed for money in November last year, he said. “We still need money and we can’t sit back and wait for it — so, we will be looking at ways and means of developing fundraising schemes.” A meeting of the group today would discuss "endless possibilities" for fundraising ventures such as buying a small stand of trees and selling firewood, said Mr Smith. “We will be looking at all sorts of ideas — we really have to have ongoing funding.”