NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
December 1, 2004
For more information contact contact Lisa Baumgartner Bonds at lbonds@lwr.org or 410-230-2814.
In this news release:
- HIV/AIDS Day a Day Like Any Other at Lutheran World Relief
HIV/AIDS DAY A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER AT LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
Baltimore, December 1, 2004 — “Every day is HIV/AIDS day at Lutheran World Relief,” says LWR President Kathryn Wolford. “LWR devotes considerable time and resources to our HIV/AIDS work,” she adds, “particularly in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in East Africa. So not a day goes by where this pandemic doesn’t receive a significant amount of our attention…and our prayers.”
LWR’s work with communities infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS runs the gamut from educating adults about the causes of HIV’s spread to working with children orphaned by the disease. It also encompasses advocating for protection of human rights that lead some people into high-risk lifestyles such as prostitution when no other income-generating options are left available to them. “Our approach to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa is comprehensive, to say the least,” says Wolford. “We work with partners there with the knowledge of the social and economic conditions that make some people more vulnerable to it, and with other partners that specialize in supporting the nine and ten and eleven year-olds who find themselves thrust into the role of parent to their younger siblings when their parents succumb to the disease.”
More than 12 million children in Africa have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS – a number that could double by 2010, according to some estimates. Children affected by HIV/AIDS almost always have to abandon a hard-fought chance at an education to instead raise their younger brothers and sisters. “In some communities where LWR works, there are no other adult family members for these children to turn to,” says Evariste Karangwa, LWR Program Director for Africa. “Uncles are raising eight or ten or fourteen children, grandparents are raising grandchildren and neighbors’ children, and when some kids’ parents die, there simply is no one left to help them.”
LWR’s successful work with AIDS orphans pairs them with mentors from their community who give them guidance and teach them efficient ways to manage their household. Many LWR projects include vocational and other training and small loans that enable them to start small businesses for much-needed income. Just as important, orphans are taught how to juggle their added responsibilities while still allowing them the time they need to stay in school.
“We’re making real strides in the battle against HIV/AIDS in east Africa,” notes Wolford. “They’re small strides, but they’re encouraging nonetheless.” LWR’s efforts, and those of 19 other faith-based organizations, recently were formalized with the recent signing of the Code of Good Practice for NGOs Responding to HIV/AIDS. “This is an important initiative and I hope and trust it will receive broad support,” says Wolford. “LWR, and many other faith-based organizations are already incorporating best practices on HIV/AIDS into humanitarian programs. The Code will help equip others to do likewise.”
LWR’s new alternative giving initiative, called the Lutheran World Relief Community Quilt, gives people, as Lisa Bonds, LWR Vice President for External Relations says, “a creative way to support our life-saving work with communities around the world. Especially on HIV/AIDS Day, supporters of our work can make a symbolic gift in memory or in honor of someone affected by the disease. Funding the HIV/AIDS Gift Square in the LWR Community Quilt means valuable resources that LWR can add to existing resources to continue our work in Africa and elsewhere with communities living under the specter of HIV/AIDS.”
The LWR Community Quilt enables supporters to make online gifts in any of twelve different areas of LWR’s work, including HIV/AIDS. Recipients learn of the gift made in their honor with a gift card they receive instantly via email, or when they receive a printed card in the mail. “The LWR Community Quilt,” concludes Bonds, “is another vital tool in our growing collection of responses to HIV/AIDS around the world.”
Learn more about LWR’s HIVAIDS work or the LWR Community Quilt at quilt.lwr.org.
Contact Lisa Bonds for further information at 410-230-2814 or via email at lbonds@lwr.org.
