President Bush announced a $1.7 billion aid package for Africa devoted primarily to combating malaria, unveiling the initiatives yesterday in advance of an international summit next week dedicated to breaking the continent's perpetual cycle of poverty, disease and famine.
Calling on the world to move beyond 'empty symbolism and discredited policies,' Bush pledged that the United States will join other rich nations to help the poorest -- a rhetorical and financial commitment that surprised some advocacy groups, which had complained in recent weeks that he was not doing enough.
The bulk of the aid announced yesterday, $1.2 billion, is aimed at fighting malaria, with a target of cutting in half the death toll of a disease that annually kills more than 1 million Africans, hitting children hardest. Bush also repeated his vow to double total assistance to Africa by 2010.
'We seek progress in Africa and throughout the developing world because conscience demands it,' Bush said in a speech previewing the summit in Scotland of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations. 'Americans believe that human rights and the worth of human lives are not determined by race or nationality, or determined by distance. We believe that every life matters and every person counts.'
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