Dear all,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year "2006"

Thanking you.

"Asia Pacific Friends of the Global Fund" was launched in New Delhi. The Coordinator of "APAC Friends", Dr Bobby John, describes the new organization as a regional civil society platform for advocacy and communications around the Global Fund.

APAC Friends joins Friends of the Global Fight (US), Friends of the Global Fund Japan and Amis du Fonds Mondial Europe, in a growing network of organizations dedicated advocacy and support for the Global Fund.

In a message announcing the new organization,Dr John said that "the resolution to form the Asia Pacific Friends of the Global Fund ("APAC Friends") was taken at our meeting in New Delhi on the 6th of December, 2005, after understanding:

1.the catalytic and crucial role that the Global Fund has in shaping the response of our respective nations and of the asia pacific region as a whole to the challenges posed by HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, especially in involving the civil society
in this response;
2.that the asia pacific region is poised on the threshold of tremendous economic growth, and that the three diseases can retard the trajectory of the growth substantially;
3.that the responses of the nations in the region to tackle these diseases will determine the outcomes of the global war against them;
4.also that the region has within itself resources that can be committed to the fight, in addition to the resources being put forth by the global community;
5.that a regional civil society platform for advocacy was best placed to urge greater commitment of resources by the individual nations in the region to the fight against these 3 diseases; and
6.that a regional platform could articulate the concerns of civil society within the asia pacific region to the global community, especially the richer nations, and also to the Global Fund Board and its Secretariat.

We as a group look forward to expanding our membership rapidly within the region, and to work along with development partners operating in the region, so as to articulate a representative voice of the Asia Pacific civil society in support of the fight against
HIV, TB and Malaria so ably financed by the Global Fund."