More than 600 international activists staged a protest rally in Bulgaria's capital Sofia where the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria is holding a meeting.

The Fund's Board will be sitting in Sofia until December 15. Most of the foreign activists who rallied in Sofia together with Bulgarians arrived from Serbia.

They were protesting primarily against the decision of the Fund to withdraw within one year its funding from the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia even though this is the region with the fastest growing AIDS population in the world.

The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS is meeting in Sofia to reconsider the criteria that countries need to meet to qualify for the assistance from it.

"Keep it global," chanted the protesters of the peaceful rally who were met by the leadership of the Fund, and handed a petition to its Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine and its Board Chair Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Minister of Health of Ethiopia.

Both Kazatchkine and Ghebreyesus thanked the protesters for their activism.

"Thank you for being here, and I would like to let you know that nothing has been decided yet," Kazatchkine said.

"By the way, we decided to hold this meeting in Sofia so that the Board members can see the situation in the region first hand," explained Ghebreyesus.

"The decision to be made by the Fund's Board will affect most countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia which have started not to meet the existing criteria for funding. At the same time, they have a fast-growing HIV pandemic and are unable to cope with it. I hope they will take into account our activism. I know there are heated debates in the board about whether to review the criteria but we have hope," explained Ana Lyubenova from the "Initiative for Health" Foundation, as cited by BGNES.

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