WEEK SIX
Aids in Africa: A Generation At Risk
The African AIDS crisis staggers the imagination. Six thousand Africans die daily from AIDS, making it the
worst infectious disease calamity since the Plague of the Middle Ages. More persons will die from AIDS in Africa over the next decade than have died from all the world?s wars of the 20th century. Many AIDS victims have done nothing more harmful than enter the world - 12.1 million African children have been orphaned by AIDS. For them the tragedy is only beginning, since many have or are likely to contract the disease. As an entire generation disappears before our eyes, church groups, private agencies and caring people in Africa and around the world struggle to find effective responses to this catastrophe.
THE NATIONAL COMMUNITY OF WOMEN LIVING WITH AIDS This group in Uganda, East Africa created a special project ? the Memory Book. Mothers write their life story in the book with family photos and talk about where they came from, experiences they?ve had, ?And they talk about their children because, you see, they want to leave these books for their kids, so that when they are gone ? their children will have this memory book to look at. I sat on the porch there as two mothers read to me from their books. I realized than that I was in a nation that had turned into a hospice. Sen. Richard Durbin� ���� �
LEADING THE WAY Ethiopian community-based and religious organizations are at the forefront of the fight against AIDS in that country. For example, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (a CWS partner) organizes public rallies, youth workshops, and street theater to raise awareness and
encourage abstinence from premarital sex. The church has also initiated counseling for those already infected. Since those carrying the disease are often discriminated against, sometimes losing their employment, the church provides money and training for income-generating projects. They have joined forces with Catholics, Evangelicals and Muslims to create a joint interfaith effort to curb the disease.
SING OUT! In the rural farming area of Tzaneen, South Africa, traditionally dressed women from the Shangaan ethnic group, many of them widowed by HIV/AIDS or infected themselves, dance and sing songs they have composed about HIV at a meeting of their support group. They seek to educate those most vulnerable to the disease about the dangers of the epidemic.
Thought for the Day
Sunday: Africa has 10 percent of the world's� population, but 70 percent of global HIV/AIDS cases. UNAIDS
Monday: New AIDS cases diagnosed each year: USA - 40,000 Africa - 5.6 million NY Times 1/11/00
Tuesday: The U.S. Census Bureau estimates life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa will fall to around age 30 within a decade - the lowest in a century. CNN
Wednesday: In sub-Saharan Africa 470,000 children die each year from AIDS. Over 90 percent of them contracted the disease from their mother. CNN
Thursday: Today there are 23.5 million African women and men infected with HIV/AIDS, plus another one million children. UNAIDS/Washington Post
Friday: 85 percent of all AIDS-related deaths were in Africa last year, yet less than 5 percent of Africans know their HIV status. UNAIDS
Saturday: AIDS kills more Africans than war, and more wars are being fought there than on any other continent.
NY Times 1/11/00
Getting Involved
Support the healing ministries of
CHURCH WORLD SERVICE (CWS)
Give a gift of hope!
Remember friends and loved ones with a gift that teaches as it inspires - the CWS hand-beaded AIDS Pin fashioned by the women of SinikithembaChristianCareCenter in Durban, South Africa as part of an income generating project.
The pin comes attached to an attractive, full-color gift card (with envelope) that briefly describes the staggering challenge of the global AIDS crisis and the waysChurch World Service is responding. You can make a difference in the struggle against AIDS.
The CWS AIDS Pins are $5 each. Pins may be purchased online by logging onto the Church World Service website. Additional donations are also welcomed. Just log onto:
www.churchworldservice.org
If you would prefer to telephone your order, please use the CWS toll-free pledge line, 1-800-297-1516
Be sure to also ask about the CWS Video and Film Library.
For example.see Epidemic Africa (15 min)
For a complimentary catalogue of FREE loan videos,
(You pay only for return postage)
E-mail: ����[email protected]
or call: ����800-297-1516.
or write:��CWS Film Library
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
To go to the Cents-Ability Campaign Week Seven click here
To return to the Donegal Presbytery Hunger Program homepage click here
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