"The enactment of this historic new law is a significant step forward in fulfilling our nation's commitment to fighting the global HIV/AIDS pandemic around the world and building a better future for all God's children," Griswold said, noting that it will now be up to Congress and the President to see that this new commitment is fully funded and equipped with the strategies needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals -- an eight-prong declaration that, among its objectives, seeks to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, reduce child mortality and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

The new law provides -- for the first time in U.S. law -- a comprehensive and holistic approach to the worldwide humanitarian crisis of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). This includes children who suffer from poverty, armed conflict, displacement, trafficking, and pandemic disease such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. International experts estimate that 14 million children in Africa alone have lost one or both parents to AIDS -- a number equivalent to every child younger than five in America -- and many experts believe the figure could reach 25 million by the year 2010.

Griswold was joined at the press conference by the principal Congressional champions of the new law, Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Betty McCollum (D-WA) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA); as well as actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie; Trevor Nielson, executive director of the Global Business Coalition for HIV/AIDS; and the Rev. Mpho Tutu, an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Virginia and board chair of the Global AIDS Alliance.

"Recently this issue became very personal to me," said Jolie. "My daughter Zahara was orphaned because of AIDS, along with one million other children in Ethiopia." Jolie went on to describe a recent trip to Kenya, which has increased its primary-school enrollment rates exponentially in recent years by eliminating school fees, a key step recommended by the new OVC law. "I've seen what a difference a caring doctor and the chance to go to school can make," she said. "We absolutely can help these children- and we must."

Griswold also provided a firsthand description of the crisis, recalling a trip to Uganda in which he visited the home of a fellow bishop who had invited 60 orphans to live with him. "These children are among the many faces of a pandemic that is destroying a generation, destabilizing nations, and exacerbating the grave crisis of global poverty," Griswold said, noting that more than 35 million Anglicans live in sub-Saharan Africa, the area of the world worst hit by the crisis.

A Crisis with Many Dimensions

The worldwide crisis of orphans and vulnerable children has its roots in the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, but its effects reach far beyond the disease itself. Orphans rarely are able to attend school because of an inability to afford school fees or because they are forced to support their families financially. These children are vulnerable to exploitation, including forced labor and physical and sexual abuse. Moreover, many international observers consider the orphans' crisis a security threat because children without hope are more likely to be recruited by militias, rebel armies, and terrorists.

"The newly enacted OVC Act seeks to provide a multi-faceted response to a multi-dimensional problem," Alex Baumgarten, international policy analyst for the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington, DC, said. "The Episcopal Church has championed this legislation on Capitol Hill for the past two years because it represents the first time U.S. lawmakers have sought to provide a response that is equal to the problem, both in its scope and in its specificity."

The new law requires the U.S. government to develop, within 180 days, a comprehensive strategy for coordinated action to meet the needs of orphans and vulnerable children around the world. The measure emphasizes both the immediate needs of food and medicine for the most vulnerable children as well as the elimination of school fees and other barriers to education. The intent, according to supporters of the legislation, is to offer children what they need to stay alive now along with means to build their lives and their communities in the future. Among the areas of response called for by the new law are community-based care and support for children; expanded educational opportunities; food security and nutrition; life and job-skill training; and child-health services, particularly antiretroviral treatment for HIV-infected children.

"For the world to meet the Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education and the eradication of HIV/AIDS and child mortality, our nation's leadership in the area of orphans and vulnerable children will be critical," Baumgarten said.

An aggressive campaign for the new OVC Act has been carried out over the last two years by Global Action for Children (GAC), an advocacy coalition organized in the fall of 2003 that now includes 20 diverse organizations. The Episcopal Church was a founding member of the coalition, whose other faith-based members include the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, American Jewish World Services, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, and Church Women United. The coalition is co-chaired by the Global AIDS Alliance and the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud (AFXB).

Many of the speakers at the November 17 press event credited the grassroots support of Americans all over the country who contacted their members of Congress in support of the legislation. "People in Washington [state], California, or Minnesota may not know anyone over [in Africa]," said Rep. McDermott, an Episcopalian, "but they understand the impact of the problem. They understand we can't have all that we have in this country and not do something."

Members of the Episcopal Public Policy Network have sent thousands of messages to their lawmakers over the past two years in support of the orphans' bill.

"Only a First Step"

While noting the historic significance of the newly enacted law, advocates stress it represents a starting point rather than a complete strategy.

"This new law is only a first step," Griswold emphasized. "Congress now must appropriate money to see that it is adequately funded, and the U.S. government must adopt specific strategies for implementing the law." Griswold noted that the Episcopal Church and several of the other organizations in the GAC coalition have submitted to the U.S. government a set of seven recommendations for developing the specific strategies required by the new law.

In addition to these specific recommendations, there is an immediate need for lawmakers to appropriate sufficient funds from the U.S. budget to pay for the law's implementation, a fact underscored by the presence at today's press event of several key members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. "The OVC act requires that ten percent of the U.S.'s annual spending on HIV-AIDS worldwide be directed at orphans and vulnerable children," explained Baumgarten, "but separate legislation is needed to appropriate those funds."

Others also pointed to the need for funding to accompany the new initiatives established by the OVC law. "Without investing much more in the health and well-being of orphans around the world we won't be able to seize the opportunity we now have," said Jolie. "Since Congress is expected to provide approximately $3.4 billion in funding for Global AIDS, our leaders should make sure that at least $340 million will be spent by the United States to help orphans in the coming year."

Griswold expressed optimism that U.S. lawmakers will continue on the trajectory set by the passage of the new OVC law. "It is my earnest prayer that our nation, which has been endowed by God with such extraordinary resources, may continue to walk this path of healing and reconciliation, always aspiring to be what the Scripture calls a "repairer of the breach and restorer of streets to dwell in."

The full text of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold's statement can be found online at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_69541_ENG_HTM.htm