Donors urged on Liberia AIDS funding

A US-based AIDS NGO on Tuesday expressed concern over donor commitment due to the current rebel onslaught on Liberia's capital, Monrovia. The Nduaka Educational Foundation (NEF) recently donated HIV/AIDS test kits and laboratory equipment to two of the country's major hospitals to tackle the mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT). However, NEF president, Chudy Nduaka, said the soaring death toll in the capital could throw into doubt pledges by potential donors to sustain the project. "The success of our existing pilot MTCT project and expansion to parts of rural Liberia depends solely on the goodwill of our donors at this stage," Nduaka told the UN news service PlusNews. He urged NEF donors not to renege on their commitment, adding that while the country had a number of HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in place, none of them addressed the rising problem of MTCT.