He publishes an open letter in the British daily The Guardiantitled “The promise I made in Kyiv still stands, more than ever, I will be there for the Ukrainian people.”. Elton John, 75, speaks neither of politics nor of military strategy, but of care, of medical care, precisely for AIDS patients, since such was the promise he made on stage during a concert in 2007 in Kiev in front of 300,000 fans: overcoming the AIDS epidemic in Ukraine.
“At that timehe writes, the country was going through a silent storm, HIV infections were increasing exponentially and that’s why I decided to get involved” It was not a whim. AIDS is the fight of his life, he who saw the disease take away many of his friends, including the singer of Queen Freddy Mercury, he created his foundation there He was 30 at the same time as he became sober, and since then he has actively campaigned to facilitate care all over the world.
“Ending AIDS, in Ukraine as everywhere”
In Ukraine, in 2007, he began by talking about it on stage, in the middle of a concert, in front of everyone, on the principle that the first step is to verbalize, to put words to the unspeakable, and then over the years, it has funded more than fifty care programs. His foundation paid nine million pounds to buy and distribute tests and treatments. Fifteen years later, AIDS is no longer a shameful subject, drugs are available directly from pharmacies and the epidemic has slowed down, “but unfortunately, writes Elton John, the invasion of Ukraine swept away all these efforts“.
Of course, the conflict crushes all emergencies, there are the dead, the exiles, those who have lost everything, “but in the midst of all the accumulating needs, there are 600,000 people said to be at risk“, at risk of seriously developing the disease, of transmitting it, of dying from it. The singer therefore announces the financing of new reception points. load and thus support the most urgent, offering heating, beds, medicine, but also hope. Because as Elton John likes to recall in his interviews, “to overcome the disease, money is not everything, you need love, dignity“, there must be hope, not only to stop this war, but “to put an end to AIDS, in Ukraine as elsewhere, everywhere, for everyone, for good.“