AIDS in Africa 1998-2000

News Archives Year: | Current | 2001 Archives | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 |

   News, features, opinions, and facts from a variety of sources, including the General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church.

2000

December

• White House AIDS Summit a 'Breakthrough,' African Bishop Says, December 8, 2000
  U.S. officials are looking to religious groups like The United Methodist Church (UMC) to help stop the worldwide spread of AIDS and to care for adults and children who are suffering from effects of the pandemic.
• South Africa's Men of Peace Unite to Fight AIDS with Prayer and Compassion by Alex Duval Smith, Ecumenical News International, December 8, 2000
  South Africa's three Nobel peace prizewinners - Nelson Mandela, F.W De Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu - launched a "prayer for HIV/AIDS" and called for an end to the silence and stigmatisation surrounding the disease.
• Can You Hear It? by Sharon Maeda, December 7, 2000
  From December 4th through December 10th a series of test radio programs will be aired throughout sub-Saharan Africa on short wave.
• A Million Africans Newly Infected with HIV This Year, December 1, 2000

  November

• Sarah's Story: A Message of Hope for the Season, by Brenda Wilkinson, GBGM, November 27, 2000
• It Really Does Take A Village: Uzumba Orphan Trust Keeps AIDS Orphans in Their Own Homes, Interpreter, October-November 2000

  October

• HIV Epidemic Restructuring Africa's Population, Worldwatch, October 31, 2000
• HIV/AIDS Conference Held for United Methodist Youth in Zimbabwe, by Brenda Wilkinson, October 2, 2000

  September

• General Secretary of GBGM Praises Zimbabwe Youth Initiative on HIV/AIDS, by Brenda Wilkinson, September 28, 2000
• United Methodists Respond to a Nation with AIDS, by Paul Dirdak, UMCOR Update, Summer 2000

  July

• The US Offers $1 Billion in Loans to African Countries to Fight AIDS by Mulegwa Zihindula, GBGM, July 28, 2000
• UNICEF Calls for 'War of Liberation' Against HIV/AIDS, UNICEF Information Newsline, July 12, 2000
• Thousands at AIDS Conference Protest against Pharmaceutical Companies by Mulegwa Zihindula, GBGM, July 11, 2000
• AIDS Hindering Economic Growth, Worsening Poverty in Hard-hit Countries, UNAIDS/World Bank, July 11, 2000
• Mystery Factor Is Pondered at AIDS Talk: Circumcision, New York Times, July 11, 2000

  June

• Over One-third of Today’s 15-year-olds Will Die of AIDS in Worst-affected Countries by UNAIDS, June 27, 2000
• The Story of a Congolese Family Orphaned by AIDS, by Mulegwa Zihindula, GBGM, June 21, 2000
• AIDS Continues To Haunt Agricultural Communities, The Zimbabwe Standard, June 18, 2000
  At least one villager dies every week in Zimbabwe, where, according to statistics, one in four adults is infected with HIV, the Aids-related virus. The HIV virus, is often sexually transmitted, and strips the body of its ability to fight infection.
• Government Asks Religious Leaders To Fight AIDS, TOMRIC Agency, June 16, 2000
  Following reports that Tanzania rated among 15 countries severely hit by HIV/AIDS, the government has appealed to religious leaders in the country to join in the campaign against the soaring epidemic.
• Life is short in Sierra Leone, BBC, June 5, 2000
• AIDS Will Orphan a Million in Mozambique by 2004, Reuters, June 2, 2000
• Chastity Tests: Unusual Tool for Public Health, Christian Science Monitor, June 2, 2000
• UNICEF Study Says Violence Against Women, Girls Continues, Panafrican News Agency, June 1, 2000

  April

• Moringa tree could reduce malnutrition in Africa, UMNS, April 24, 2000
  
• The AIDS Epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo by Mulegwa Zihindula, GBGM, April 12, 2000
  An estimated 10 percent of the Congolese population (5 million people) is infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). More than a million people have already died since the first case of AIDS in the country was diagnosed in 1983.
• AIDS fears add to Ethiopia's misery, ITN Online, April 11, 2000
  Last year, nearly 300,000 people in Ethiopia died of AIDS-related illness - a rate of over 800 per day.
• Mission Board Will Use Wind-up Radios to Spread Information, UMNS, April 7, 2000
  In Zambia and Uganda, a massive public information campaign has helped "stem the tide" of HIV/AIDS cases. By providing the wind-up radios to small communities in other parts of Southern Africa, the mission agency hopes to provide facts and helpful information about HIV/AIDS.

  February

• The Ethiopian Christian Orthodox Church Campaign Against HIV-AIDS by Mulegwa Zihindula, GBGM, February 17, 2000
  Of the 22 million people living in Africa with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health reports that 3 million of those infected are in Ethiopia. But Ethiopian HIV-AIDS activists say those infected may be as many as 10 million.
• Aids deaths overwhelm Zimbabwe's mortuaries, The Independent (United Kingdom) February 10, 2000
  In the mortuary of one of Zimbabwe's main hospitals, Paul Tabvemhiri faces a gruesome choice. In the under-cooled main refrigeration room, built for 21 corpses but generally housing up to 60, he can either stack the stinking bodies two to a shelf. Or he can lay them on the floor, so visitors have to step over them when they come to claim their dead.
• Zimbabwe United Methodists Confront AIDS Crisis, UMNS, February 9, 2000
• AIDS in Zimbabwe: Disrupting the Community's Social Fabric by Betty Gittens, GBGM, February 8, 2000

  January

• Scientists push HIV's origin back to '30s, Chicago Tribune, January 31, 2000
  Unsanitary vaccination campaigns by the French in central Africa in the early 1900s might have allowed HIV to take root.
• HIV found in formerly resistant Kenyan prostitutes, Reuters, January 27, 2000
• U.N. Designates January 2000 "Africa Month" by Mulegwa Zihindula, GBGM, January 24, 2000
  It is estimated that more than two-thirds of all humans infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, live in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Zambia study suggests Aids campaign success, BBC, January 13, 2000
  Research in Zambia shows a substantial decline in the number of women testing HIV positive between the ages of 15 and 19.
• AIDS Becoming Africa’s Top Human Security Issue, UN Warns , UNAIDS, January 10, 2000
  AIDS is the disease which in Africa kills ten times more people than war
• Annan Says AIDS Is Threat To Africa's Stability, PANA, January 10, 2000
• UN Council Sees AIDS As Threat to Peace in Africa, Reuters, January 10, 2000
• Aids robbing us of a whole generation (Commentary), The Nation (Nairobi, Kenya), January 7, 2000
  On Wednesday, Education Minister Kalonzo Musyoka disclosed that 20 per cent of school pupils in the 14-17 year age bracket are HIV positive. He said 20 per cent of girls in the age bracket 15-19 years have the killer virus as do four per cent of boys in the same age bracket.
• Namibian Wants Every Citizen To Fight AIDS In New Millennium, PANA, January 5, 2000

1999

• Children in War Situations by Brenda Wilkinson, GBGM, August 31, 1999
• AIDS Epidemic Leaves Half-million Orphans in Zambia, UMNS, August 6, 1999
• Presidential Mission on Children Orphaned by AIDS, UMNS, July 22, 1999
• Dendera Mission Offers Hope for Children of Zimbabwe , UMNS, July 12, 1999
• Toward Economic Justice in Africa: A Conference by Mulegwa Zihindula, GBGM, June 22, 1999
• Bishops Vote to Continue Initiative on Children, UMNS, May 7, 1999
• Africans Share Stories of Despair, Hope, UMNS News Feature, April 26, 1999
• Church Battles Zimbabwe's Worst Problems, UMNS News Feature, February 12, 1999

1998

• Street Children of Angola by Brenda Wilkinson, GBGM, December 22, 1998
• AIDS in Africa by Mulegwa Zihindula, GBGM, December 14, 1998
• Mission Trip Focuses on Zimbabwe's AIDS Crisis, UMNS, August 5, 1998

Please support UMCOR Advance #982345 "United Methodist Global AIDS Fund," Advance #101218, "AIDS Awareness and Children Impacted by HIV/AIDS in Africa," and Advance #982842 "AIDS Orphan Trust." UMCOR encourages you to give through your local United Methodist church. Gifts may also be sent to: UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068. To make a credit card donation, call (800) 554-8583.

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UNAIDS resources are not official United Methodist material. They are a valuable resource concerning HIV/AIDS but their content is not necessarily totally consistent with the policies and statements of the General Board of Global Ministries or The United Methodist Church. Only General Conference speaks for The United Methodist Church.