To increase support for his proposed $30 billion five-year budget for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), United States President George W. Bush embarked on a six-day, five-country trip across sub-Saharan Africa, which he completed Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reports (latimes.com, 2/22).

Bush traveled to Liberia, Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana this week to fortify relations with the countries’ leaders and show his commitment to fighting disease and poverty in the struggling nations. According to the Times, Bush told reporters on the journey home that this trip to Africa offered “a chance to herald courageous people in their efforts to deal with hopelessness.”

He added, “I would hope [the United States] never says, ‘Well, it’s not worth it over there, what happens over there,’ or it says, ‘Well, we’ve got to take care of our own first, exclusively.’ My answer is, we can do both. We’re a generous country.”