Students travel to D.C. for AIDS rally

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Seven students from Princeton's chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) loaded up two rental cars and headed for the nation's capitol Saturday to participate in a student rally to help fight the AIDS epidemic.

They joined several thousand protestors swarming around a few policemen in the Upper Senate Park. Students waved blue and red signs proclaiming "Humanity" and "Medication for Every Nation: Generic Drugs Save Lives," and chanted "Act Up, Fight Back, Fight AIDS."

The rally was part of a three-day effort by the national SGAC to demand increased funding for AIDS treatment worldwide and to encourage debt cancellation for many impoverished nations.

The energy of the rally provided a welcome change for students discouraged by what they called Princeton's lack of wide support for social justice advocacy.

"It's invigorating to feel a connection with other people our age who seem to be passionate about social justice issues," said SGAC member Shahrzad Joharifard '05, who attended the event.

Another student, Tim Cheston '08, spotted a bumper sticker that summed up his reasons for leaving campus for the day: "If the people lead, the leaders will follow."

"Every politician is there to represent us. Once we are clear of our intentions, they are supposed to follow," he said. "Our generation is not mobilized or equipped with the values of social change. It was my desire to be a voice for so many others."

The SGAC's goals for the rally were to insist that the Bush administration give $1.5 billion to the Global Fund rather than other AIDS organizations by 2006 and cancel all debt owed by impoverished countries.

SGAC also demanded that Congress re-authorize and fund the Ryan White CARE Act — the largest source of discretionary domestic spending for AIDS — and end support of politicallyrather than scientifically-based AIDS prevention programs.

University students joined the protest and spoke with AIDS activists at the march, including representatives from Hope's Voice, a group of HIV-positive speakers who present education programs about living with HIV/AIDS.

Roughly 39.4 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, according to the December 2004 United Nations report on AIDS.

But students said the epidemic reaches much further.

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"Even if you're not infected with HIV, you're affected," said co-president of the University's SGAC chapter Ariel Wagner '05, who organized the trip to the rally with co-president Jean Su '05.

"People are dying because of absolutely unjust inequalities, and people need to get passionate and upset," Wagner said.

Other activities at the summit included awareness workshops that concluded with training sessions on how to effectively lobby Capitol Hill.

Princeton's SGAC has grown over the last two years to include about 150 students on its email list, Wagner said.

During World AIDS week in December, the group raised $5,000 for Partners in Health, an organization that runs health clinics for the poor around the world.