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Untitled Document
Church leaders from 39 African countries, meeting in Nairobi, have declared
an all out war against HIV/AIDS and poverty, two problems threatening to annihilate the continent's
population.
" Africa has sounded a distress call to reverse depopulation of her people
by the HIV/AIDS pandemic," members of the All Africa Conference of Churches
(AACC) said in a statement at the end of a three-day summit on 11 June. "The
continent is in a chronic crisis of crippling poverty too."
The churches promised to close the gaps caused by denominationalism and develop
common policies to end the culture of silence, which promotes stigmatisation, inhibiting effective responses to
prevention, care and counselling.
The churches want to see financial resources channelled directly to them, instead
of always through non-governmental organizations since the reach of the religious
institutions is wider than that of NGOs. With the resources they hope to make
treatment available at church-supported hospitals, clinics, dispensaries and health posts.
" Everyone living with HIV/AIDS is a candidate for treatment. Today some
40 per cent of health delivery facilities in Africa are owned by the churches," the Rev. Nyansanko- Ni-Nku, the AACC president
who is a Presbyterian from Cameroon, told the media.
Promiscuity is not higher in Africa than in the rest of the world, but according
to the leaders, the continent is much poorer than other continents, lacking
the resources for HIV/AIDS intervention.
" We therefore condemn economic injustice and tendencies that reduce human
beings to non-persons such that in their poverty they have become more vulnerable to the scourge. HIV/AIDS create more poverty
while intensifying the existing one drastically," they observed.
Churches anticipate 40 million HIV/AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa, while
citizens are expected to lose an average of 17 years of their lives to the
disease in the early part of the 21st century. To remain focused on their war,
churches will mark the last Sunday of November each year, through fasting
and prayer for the rapid end of AIDS-related stigma, discrimination, denial
and inaction.
Used with permission. © Ecumenical News International
Date posted:
Jun 14, 2004
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