NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
November 27, 2002
For more information contact Jonathan Frerichs at (410) 230-2802.
In this news release:
- On World AIDS Day This Year, 15 Chuech Leaders Pledge to Fight H.I.V. in Africa
ON WORLD AIDS DAY THIS YEAR, 15 CHURCH LEADERS PLEDGE TO FIGHT H.I.V. IN AFRICA
Baltimore, November 27, 2002 -- "I want to affirm that my life is changed," said a church leader from Kenya. "[You] have given us enough experience to open up and excel in the fight against H.I.V./AIDS."
"[This trip] brought me to terms with the magnitude and ingredients of the H.I.V./AIDS pandemic in Africa and what the churches" responses should be to stifle the scourge," said a Nigerian church health official. "One million and one best practices learnt will live with me now and forever."
"This study tour has made me to understand that one does not need all the money in the world to start an H.I.V./AIDS project. All I need are these simple things: (1) time, (2) motivation, (3) talk about H.I.V./AIDS, (4) commitment. Already, Lutheran World Relief has given me the motivation through this study tour and the other three are mine to take up," said Ini-Idiok Williams, a leader of church women in Nigeria.
"Church leaders from Nigeria and Sudan were completely disarmed as they listened to the Imam of the Nubian Muslim Mosque in Kisii, [western Kenya,] as he extolled the virtue of the Muslims working hand in hand with Christians for the common good of all," according to a church aid official who planned the trip.
In the week before World AIDS Day, leaders from eight Lutheran churches in seven African countries completed a mission to learn best practices in stopping the AIDS pandemic. After 11 days visiting Lutheran World Relief projects and Kenyan and Ugandan churches, the leaders drafted action plans to take home to their churches in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Sudan.
The catalytic encounters of the trip were face-to-face with an H.I.V.-positive priest in Uganda and a roomful of parishioners living with AIDS in Kenya, according to participants. "The group identified passionately with a problem they thought was outside their congregations, because they saw it in one of their own," said Solomon Nzyuko, an LWR staffer who accompanied the group.
"The visiting church leaders learned how H.I.V.-positive and H.I.V.-negative church leaders are using their time, money and resources to help fight the disease" and the stigma that goes with it," said Asenath Omwega, director of LWR's East Africa office.
The H.I.V.-positive priest whom they met, Canon Gideon Byamugisha of the Church of Uganda, is one of the first clergy in Africa to identify himself as a person living with AIDS. In addition to his pioneering AIDS ministry, Canon Gideon, as he is known, explained how he includes the issue of AIDS in church liturgy.
The roomful of parishioners were part of Bosongo Community Health Outreach Service, an LWR project in Kenya that mobilizes Lutherans, Catholics, Seventh Day Adventists, Baptists, and Muslims. "Bosongo provided a glimpse of the real power of the church to fight H.I.V./AIDS. It demonstrated the gains that can be made from very humble beginnings," Omwega said.
Meeting a roomful of widows and orphans made it painfully clear to the group how critical it is to act early, Nzyuko said, before their own churches have that many orphans and widow.
The list of best practices observed included starting small, staying committed and not giving up; working across denominational and religious lines; a primer on carrying out home-based care for people living with AIDS; how churches can work well with non-governmental organizations; the importance of developing church policy on AIDS; and the training of pastors in and out of theological colleges on H.I.V./AIDS.
Most basic of all steps and one still necessary despite decades of this disease is seeing and believing for oneself. The "best practices" group also realized that people like themselves who are living with AIDS are leading the fight against the virus.
The group met with people infected for more than a decade and still active in stopping the virus, including Rowland Lenya, the director of The Association of People With AIDS in Kenya. There were also members of the group who had never met a person with a case of full-blown AIDS until this trip.
LWR is sharing best practices and facilitating pilot projects with churches and community organizations in Africa. New projects developed as a result of this trip will receive seed money from LWR, if they meet the kind of criteria observed on the trip. The "best practices" visits are part of a special initiative which USAID has helped shape and has pledged to support.
Church groups and LWR partner organizations visited were MAP International, Bosongo Community Health Outreach Service, and The Association of People With AIDS in Kenya. In Uganda, the itinerary included the Lutheran World Federation's Uganda program, Lutheran Media Ministry Uganda, the Church of Uganda, Friends of Canon Gideon, the Catholic Church of Uganda, the Sisters of Mercy, and The Association of People Living with AIDS in Uganda.
The 15 participants came from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ghana, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya, Lutheran Church of Southern Africa, Lutheran Church of Nigeria, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, Lutheran Media Ministry Uganda, and three Sudanese congregations in Kenya and Sudan.
In his farewell to participants, Rev. John Halakhe, group leader and general secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya, said: "Please, make sure this is not in vain. It is a purpose from God."
LWR works in overseas relief and development on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
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