    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book II)]
    [November 12, 2008]
    [Pages 1360-1363]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the 2008 Bishop John T. Walker Memorial Dinner
    November 12, 2008

        Thank you, Frank, and thanks for this
    great honor. I accept it gratefully, but it ought to be offered to the
    American people.
        Laura and I are thrilled to be with you. I am
    always a better man when my wife is by my side.
        I want to thank Jules Coles, the
    president of Africare; Maria Walker, the widow
    of Bishop John Walker. I was thinking coming over, ``Let's see, I'm
    George Walker Bush''--[laughter]. I don't know, what do you think?
    [Laughter] Anyway, Madam--Ms. Walker, thank you very much for joining
    us.
        I want to thank the members of the Africare board of directors for
    this honor, but more importantly, for the work you do in Africa.
        I thank my friend, Congressman Don Payne, who's one of the leading--[applause]--the leading
    authorities in the United States Congress on African affairs. I'm
    pleased members of my administration have joined me and Laura here tonight.
        Henrietta Fore, Administrator of
    USAID; the head of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Ambassador John
    Danilovich; the U.S. Malaria Coordinator,
    Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer--thank you for
    coming, Admiral.
        I'm pleased to be here with Lloyd Pierson, President and CEO of African Development Foundation; Ron
    Tschetter, Director of the mighty Peace
    Corps.
        Laura and I have the privilege of hosting
    Bill Frist and his wife Karyn at the White House tonight. Make sure you make your
    bed, Senator, but we thank you for coming.
        I want to thank members of the diplomatic corps. We are proud you
    are here tonight.
        I'm in pretty good company when it comes to this Humanitarian
    Service Award. Jules said, ``Man, you're
    hanging out with some good folks.'' Last year's award winner went to--
    recipient was President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, a great woman. Last year's dinner speaker
    was, in fact, my wife Laura. And frankly, knowing
    both women, I am not sure which is a harder act to follow.
        I really am glad Laura is here because our
    work in Africa--and I say our collective work in Africa--is a labor of
    love for us. Laura and I have been to Africa a lot. She has worked in an
    effective way to help promote education and health. Our girls
    Barbara and Jenna
    have done a lot of work to help promote dignity on the continent of
    Africa, particularly with those folks living with HIV/AID. I am proud of
    their work, and I'm proud of the work of millions of our fellow
    citizens. It is amazing to me that when you go to Africa, the number of
    Americans you meet who are living out the universal call to love a
    neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself, who are hearing that
    admonition that to whom

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    much is given, much is required. America--[applause].
        I appreciate those who support Africare. I thank you for your work
    in caring for orphans in Uganda or fighting polio in Angola or
    resettling refugees from Sudan. I thank you for the work you do in 20
    nations on the continent of Africa. And in that work, you are carrying
    out the vision of the man we honor, Bishop John Walker.
        When he was a young clergyman in the sixties, he traveled to Uganda.
    He was welcomed in the homes of people who needed his message of love.
    That experience convinced Bishop Walker that Africa's greatest treasure
    is not its spectacular scenery or natural resources, but it is the
    determined spirit of its people.
        Bishop Walker understood that disease and poverty and injustice are
    great challenges. But he also knew that the people of Africa have the
    talent and ambition and resolve to overcome them. And frankly, that has
    been the heart of our policy toward Africa. We do not believe in
    paternalism, we believe in partnership, because we believe in the
    potential of the people on the continent of Africa.
        I've had a lot of uplifting experiences as the President. And one of
    the most uplifting experiences has been to witness a new and more
    hopeful era dawning on the continent. Over the past 8 years, it's been
    moving to watch courageous Africans root out corruption and open up
    their economies and invest in the prosperity of their people. The United
    States stands with these leaders as partners and friends and allies in
    hope through the work of the Millennium Challenge Account.
        On my trip to Africa this February, I joined President
    Kikwete of Tanzania to sign a 5-year,
    nearly $700 million Millennium Challenge compact, which will help build
    up Tanzania's infrastructure. And as part of this compact, Africare is
    helping to extend electricity to homes and businesses in some of the
    most remote areas of the country. My fellow citizens need to hear what
    President Kikwete said. He said that the Millennium Challenge program is
    a ``source of pride, making it possible for the people of Tanzania to
    chart a brighter future.''
        Notice he didn't say, making it
    possible for the American people to chart a brighter future for
    Tanzania. He said, making it possible for the citizens of Tanzania to
    chart their own future.
        It is uplifting to see people freed from hunger and thirst. And I'm
    proud of the fact that the American people have supported programs to
    help feed tens of millions of people on the continent. And I appreciate
    the work of people here in Africare for helping on that work. Your
    organization has partnered with our government to address the lack of
    clean and safe drinking water. This is one of the greatest challenges to
    development in African nations, and through your efforts this evening,
    you're helping to overcome it.
        On a way--one way our country is working with African governments is
    to provide safe water through private-public partnerships, and one such
    innovative program is called the PlayPumps Alliance. Mr. Dale
    Jones of PlayPumps International is with us
    today. You probably may not have heard of PlayPumps Alliance--it's kind
    of hard for me to say. [Laughter] But here's the way it works: PlayPumps
    are children's merry-go-rounds attached to a water pump and a storage
    tank, and so when the wheel turns, clean water is produced. Laura and Jenna helped to get one of
    these new pumps moving during their visit to a Zambian school. As the
    wheel spun, children on the merry-go-round shouted and laughed with joy.
    At the same time, they helped to keep their friends in good health.
        There are innovative ways to express the compassion of the American
    people on the continent of Africa. And I want to thank PlayPumps
    International for being one of the innovators.
        On my trips to Africa, it has been uplifting to see people
    fulfilling their God-given

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    potential, thanks to a good education. The African Education Initiative
    was mentioned, but a part of that initiative is the fact that we've
    trained 700,000 teachers, distributed more than 10 million textbooks,
    and provided hundreds of thousands of scholarships to help girls go to
    school.
        In Liberia, I met a woman named Deddeh Zaizay, who told me that her husband had abandoned her and her
    three children because she was illiterate. Deddeh is learning to read.
    She proudly declared in front of the President of Liberia that she plans to go to college. And she has
    set her sights high; she wants to be the President of Liberia one day.
        I do not see how you can have a hopeful life if your mother and
    father is dying of HIV/AIDS or your baby is dying needlessly because of
    a mosquito bite. And so we have taken a strong stand against deadly
    disease. Through the malaria initiative, we've partnered with African
    nations to dramatically reduce infection rates and save lives.
    Laura and I saw the good work of the American
    people and the good work of Africare at firsthand in Tanzania's Meru
    District Hospital. New mothers bring their babies into the hospital;
    they have them tested for malaria and HIV. Nurses distribute bed net
    vouchers, where mothers can use to buy insecticide-treated bed nets.
        Laura and I met the mothers. I cannot tell
    you the expression of pride they had on their face when they held their
    babies up and said, ``My baby is healthy.'' Nothing more hopeful than to
    see the joy on a mother's face, realizing that her baby has escaped the
    scourge of the deadly disease of malaria. I thank all those in this
    audience and around our Nation who have helped this malaria initiative
    become robust and effective.
        And then, of course, there's the extraordinary story--stories
    related to PEPFAR. We launched the initiative in 2003; only 50,000
    people in sub-Sahara Africa were receiving antiretroviral treatment.
    Today, as was mentioned, we support treatment for nearly 1.7 million
    people in the region. Africare is making vital contributions to this
    effort. And with your help, people across Africa now speak of a Lazarus
    effect: Communities once given up for dead are being brought back to
    life.
        Laura and I have seen this miracle with our
    own eyes. I'm sure many of you have as well. She traveled to South
    Africa in 2005; Laura visited a PEPFAR-supported clinic for HIV-positive
    pregnant women. There she met Kunene Tantoh. When Kunene first arrived at the clinic, she virtually
    had no immune system left. But with the treatment she received, Kunene
    survived. Not only did she survive, 2 years later she was in the Rose
    Garden at the White House. She brought with him--she brought with her
    her son Baron. She wanted Laura
    and me to see an HIV-free baby. Baron is a reminder of the many lives
    that have been touched and saved by the compassion of the American
    people. And he represents the bright and promising future awaiting the
    folks in Africa.
        In our visits to the continent, we have been overwhelmed by the
    affection and gratitude that the African people show to the American
    people. Oh, a lot of people are out there saying: ``Why should I care
    about Africa? What good does it do me, Mr. President, for our Government
    to support Africa?'' Well, I'll tell you what good it does. One, it is
    in our national security interest that we defeat hopelessness. It is in
    our economic interest that we help economies grow. And it is in our
    moral interest that when we find hunger and suffering, the United States
    of America responds in a robust and effective way.
        I thank Africare for being on the leading edge of this
    transformative series of initiatives. I hope you feel as good about your
    contribution as I feel as good about our Government's contribution to
    doing what's right. I'm honored to receive this award. I am honored to
    be the President of the most compassion, greatest nation on the

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    face of the Earth. God bless you, and God bless the people of America
    and Africa.
        Thank you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 7:19 p.m. at the Washington Hilton Hotel.
    In his remarks, he referred to W. Frank Fountain, chairman, Africare;
    former Sen. William H. Frist; and Dale E. Jones, chief executive
    officer, PlayPumps International.