Africa University directors thank General Conference for ‘the vision’ May 3, 2004 By Melissa Lauber*  | | The Africa University Choir sings during a session of General Conference 2004. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. |
Sixteen
years ago at General Conference, Louisiana Conference delegate Nancy
Carruth stood at the podium and proposed a United Methodist-related
school that could transform the continent of Africa. She returned to the podium May 3, to thank the denomination for making that vision a reality. "Africa
University is committed to making a difference," said Bishop Nkulu
Ntanda Ntambo, the school’s chancellor and chairman of its board of
directors. "Thank you, General Conference, for all you have done;
already we are changing Africa." The
school opened in Mutare, Zimbabwe, in 1992 with 40 students who met in
converted barns and chicken coops. Today, five faculties of education,
agriculture, business administration, health and science and theology,
boast 1,283 students in 30 debt-free state-of-the-art buildings. A total
of 1,059 people from 24 nations have graduated from that school. In
the 2001-04 quadrennium, United Methodists pledged $2.5 million to the
Africa University Fund, representing 29 cents for each member of the
denomination. At
this session of General Conference, Africa University is requesting the
same levels of funding. However, they are encouraging annual
conferences to pay their full apportionment. In past years, giving has
only totaled 90 percent of what was budgeted, said Lloyd Rollins,
director of development for the school. "If
full apportionments (of $2.5 million) were paid, we would have, on
average, an additional quarter of a million dollars to spend on this
ministry," Rollins said. University officials say the church’s support
is becoming even more essential as the school expands its programs. General
Conference saw a video and heard a report from James Salley, associate
vice chancellor for institutional advancement, about the school’s new
programs. Those include a partnership that will address the AIDS
pandemic in Africa and the development of political leaders to direct
the many African nations devastated by famine and civil unrest. Methodist
Healthcare of Memphis and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in
Memphis, Tenn., have joined with Africa University to equip health care
professionals from Zimbabwe to deal with AIDS in their communities
through education, prevention, treatment and infection control efforts. Suzana
Lourenco, a 2000 Africa University graduate and the first woman in her
family to graduate from college, told the delegates about how a 19-year
old woman recently died leaving two children, one of whom is
HIV-positive. Similar stories are told throughout Africa, where 7,000
people a day die from AIDS. The
school has also developed an Institute of Leadership and Government, to
which the U.S. government contributed $1.8 million. The U.S. ambassador
to Zimbabwe, Joseph Sullivan, told the delegates, via the video, that
this effort will provide a generation of people to "fulfill a vision of
peace." During
the report on Africa University, Salley called the bishops of the
Northeast Jurisdiction forward, singling them out for their special
contributions to the school. A
32-member Africa University choir was scheduled to sing at the morning
service. However, because of difficulties in receiving visas, only 16
were able to attend. The choir members wandered throughout the hall
shaking hands with the bishops and delegates as they sang. "It’s not finished yet," said Salley, concluding the report. "There’s a sense in which we’ve just begun. *Lauber is associate editor for the United Methodist Church’s Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference. News media contact: (412) 325-6080 during General Conference, April 27-May 7. After May 10: (615) 742-5470.
| 
Korean News
