Mozambican ministries receive HIV/AIDS program support
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A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose The United Methodist Global AIDS fund has awarded a grant to Chicuque Rural Hospital.
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The
United Methodist Global AIDS Fund has awarded a $10,000 grant to the
Chicuque Rural Hospital in Mozambique. The hospital is taking the lead
in establishing the church's response to AIDS in Mozambique, focusing on
education, advocacy, home-based care and prevention. In 2004, about
640,000 children under age 15 became infected with HIV, mainly through
mother-to-child transmission, according to world health agencies. An
estimated 40.3 million people, up from 37.5 million in 2003, are living
with HIV globally. More than 3 million people died of AIDS-related
illnesses in 2005, including more than 500,000 children. A UMNS file
photo by Mike DuBose. Photo#061270. Accompanies UMNS story #649. 11/1/06 |
Nov. 1, 2006
By Linda Green*
MAPUTO,
Mozambique (UMNS) — As many as 1.8 million people in this sub-Saharan
country are living with HIV and AIDS, and two United Methodist
ministries have received $20,000 in new grants to help citizens affected
by the disease.
Bishop Fritz Mutti
announced Oct. 31 that two grants of $10,000 each have been awarded to
the Chicuque Rural Hospital and the Belshe Orphanage at the Cambine
Mission Station.
Chicuque Hospital,
according to Bishop João Somane Machado, is a joint project of the
United Methodist Church and the Mozambican government.
The United Methodist
Church provides professional personnel through the United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries, additional help through the short-term
Volunteers in Mission program, and funds for running the hospital
through Advance Specials.
Mutti
presented the funds during a visit to the ministries prior to the Nov.
1-6 meeting of the Council of Bishops in Maputo. He and 10 students from
United Methodist-related Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City,
Mo., traveled to the hospital to meet with the program's administrators.
The
hospital is taking the lead in establishing the church's response to
AIDS in Mozambique, focusing on education, advocacy, home-based care and
prevention, Mutti said. "The hospital is doing wonderful work."
"I
deeply appreciate this great help," said Machado, who has led the
church in Mozambique since 1988. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very
much. Every day we face death at Chicuque, and we are trying our best to
not only take care of the people who are sick but to also educate the
people."
The
grants to the two ministries show that "we are one church. When ... one
part of the body is not well, the whole body suffers together," Machado
said. "The grants say to us that 'we are one with you in the ministry
of helping people.' This means a lot to our church."
Global AIDS Fund
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A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose A mother feeds her child in the pediatric ward at Chicuque Rural Hospital.
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A
mother feeds her child in the pediatric ward at the Chicuque Rural
Hospital in Mozambique. The hospital has been awarded a $10,000 grant
from the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund. The hospital is taking the
lead in establishing the church' response to AIDS in Mozambique,
focusing on education, advocacy, home-based care and prevention.
Chicuque has recently built extra space and devoted it to testing,
educating and counseling pregnant women with AIDS. If a woman tests
positive, she is put on a program to receive treatment for the rest of
her life. A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose. Photo#061269. Accompanies
UMNS story #649. 11/1/06 |
The money supporting the programs of care comes from the United
Methodist Global AIDS Fund. The 2004 General Conference established the
fund in an effort to raise $8 million in the next four years — an amount
roughly equivalent to every U.S. member of the church donating $1. The
fund supports education, prevention, care and treatment programs for
people living with HIV/AIDS.
Mutti,
chairperson of the fund, said he expects the fund to reach $1 million
by the end of this year and to be fully funded by the end of the 2008. He
urged the United Methodist bishops of Africa to name AIDS projects in
their conferences that need financial support and identify the
priorities. "We will try to broker contact with a U.S. (regional)
conference to provide the money for grants to your projects," he said.
The grant announcement
about the two ministries was made during the Oct. 30-31 meeting of the
United Methodist Holistic Strategy on Africa Committee. Executives
of churchwide boards and agencies reported on their agencies' work and
ministry in Africa, and the African bishops spoke of the continuing
tragedy of the global HIV/AIDS crisis.
"In
Africa, you can't pass by a family without finding people who have been
lost to AIDS," said East Africa Bishop Daniel Wandabula. "We also have a
lot of children caring for children whose parents have died from AIDS,"
he said.
Worldwide,
more than 40 million people are infected with AIDS, and more than 25
million people have died from it since the disease came to the public's
attention 25 years ago. The people of Africa have been especially
impacted, with nearly 30 million people infected. About 58 percent of
those infected in sub-Saharan Africa are women, Mutti said.
"Life expectancies are dropping dramatically, and economic development essential for overcoming poverty is threatened," he said.
'Not keeping pace'
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A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose Students
stroll the grounds in front of the remains of the building where,
during the early 1900s, the first Bibles were printed in the tribal
language Xitswa at the Cambine Mission Center in Mozambique.
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Students
stroll the grounds in front of the remains of the building where,
during the early 1900s, the first Bibles were printed in the tribal
language Xitswa at the Cambine Mission Center in Cambine, Mozambique.
The Belshe Orphanage on the grounds of the center has been awarded a
$10,000 grant from the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund. Ravaged by
civil war, the United Methodist center is rising from the ashes and
training close to 2,000 girls and boys, grades 6-12, to be the future of
Mozambique. A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #061271.
Accompanies UMNS story #649. 11/1/06 |
Mutti told the committee that it was fitting for the Council of Bishops
to meet on the continent of Africa for the first time because the United
Methodist Church is needed to "act compassionately to the continuing
tragedy of the global HIV and AIDS crisis."
Repeating the numbers impacted by AIDS, Mutti said, "we are doing some good things but we are not keeping pace."
To
put a human face on the scourge, he spoke of two of his sons who died
from AIDS or complications from AIDS, and how he and his wife, Etta Mae,
were compelled to talk about AIDS across the church as a result.
"The personal reality is different from statistics," he said. "We try to talk about the rollercoaster that AIDS is."
In
Uganda, fighting AIDS is done through "sensitization," the bombardment
of AIDS messages on radio, television and roadside ads, and education,
Wandabula said.
The
African culture is "one of shame," Wandabula said, noting that people
do not talk about uncomfortable things. "We have moved to tell the story
about AIDS and that it is OK to talk about it," he said.
The
conference promotes abstinence through the schools, and it is caring
for 190 orphans at a school supported by the North Georgia Annual
Conference and Crossroads United Methodist Church in Virginia, he said.
The
Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive of the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship, introduced a new devotional guide for people dealing with
HIV/AIDS. The devotional will be available at the end of the year and is
designed to be "helpful to families, friends and people living with
AIDS," she said.
Preventive vaccine
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A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose A long dirt road lined with trees leads to the Cambine Mission Center.
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A
long dirt road lined with trees leads to the Cambine Mission Center,
once the showcase of United Methodism in Cambine, Mozambique. Ravaged by
war, the center is rising from the ashes and training nearly 2,000
girls and boys, grades 6-12, to be the future of Mozambique. The Belshe
Orphanage on the grounds of the center is the recipient of a $10,000
grant from the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund. The fund supports
education, prevention, care and treatment for people living with and
affected by AIDS. A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #061272.
Accompanies UMNS story #649.11/1/06 |
Rukudzo Murapa, vice chancellor at Africa University in Mutare,
Zimbabwe, provided the committee with an update on a continuing
relationship with St. Jude's Children Research Hospital in Memphis,
Tenn., to develop a preventive vaccine for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
He
told the committee that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved
phase one of the project for testing in Memphis, and phase two of the
program is to be carried out at Africa University. The project, he said,
received endorsement from the Zimbabwean government in July to proceed
with the testing of the proposed vaccine with volunteers.
"About
a year from now, the testing of the vaccine will be in Zimbabwe," he
said. "It is the only one of its kind focusing on prevention, not cure."
Bishop
Felton May, the committee chairperson, said, "This is good news... (It)
is a story that should be told after all the protocols have been
cleared by the FDA because we do not want another Tuskegee Institute
debacle in their testing processes that were inhumane... We are doing
the right thing at the right time and in the right way." For 40 years
ending in 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a controversial
syphilis study on African-American men at the Tuskegee Institute in
Tuskegee, Ala.
Contributions
to the Global HIV/AIDS Program may be sent through a local United
Methodist church, annual conference or by mailing a check to Advance
GCFA, P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068. Checks should be made
to "Advance GCFA" and designated in the memo for Global HIV/AIDS
Program, Advance #982345. Call (888) 252-6174 to give by credit card.
More details are available at the Advance Web site.
*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
Council of Bishops
Chicuque Rural Hospital
UMCOR: HIV/AIDS Ministries
Mozambique country profile
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