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By Barbara Dunlap-Berg*
6:00 P.M. EST Oct. 1, 2010 | NASHVILLE (UMNS)
David Evans, left, manager for non-government donors with the Global
Fund, talks during a visit to United Methodist Communications with
colleague Nicolas Demey. UMNS photos by Ronny Perry.
View in Photo Gallery
The first time Nicolas Demey traveled to Africa for his work with
the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, he met a woman who put
his vocation into perspective.
“I went to Eritrea,” he recalled. He and a photographer were
supposed to meet with a woman who was living with HIV/AIDS. They
discovered the woman’s house had crumbled to the ground, and her son
had taken her in.
They learned the woman “was also co-infected with tuberculosis, and
she had lost three kids from malaria. So this was one woman whose life
was really ravaged by the three diseases,” he said.
The United Methodist Church is in the middle of an effort to raise
$75 million through Imagine No Malaria, a portion of which will go to
The Global Fund, a recognized global leader in the fight against
diseases of poverty. This is the first time the Global Fund will work
together with a faith-based organization.
“The fact that we can establish a partnership with The United
Methodist Church is really a first for the Global Fund,” said
partnerships officer Demey.
Founded in 2002, the Global Fund has committed $19.3 billion to
programs addressing AIDS, TB and malaria. The fund is at work in 144
countries.
The Rev. Cynthia Fierro Harvey, who heads the United Methodist Committee on Relief, is enthusiastic about the collaboration.
UMCOR has been involved in addressing global health issues
throughout much of its 70-year history. According to Harvey, the tasks
of the Global Fund and of UMCOR “mirror one another.” Through the
church network, she added, we have a trusted health-delivery system
that can go “to the end of the road”—even when that road is little more
than a narrow dirt path.
“There are places where no one else wants to go, and yet we are there.”
‘The goal is close’
Pittsburgh Area Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton, who heads the Imagine No
Malaria campaign, said that when the Millennium Development Goals were
adopted in 2000, statistics showed a child under 5 died from malaria
every 30 seconds. Today the death rate has slowed to one every 45
seconds in Africa, still an unacceptable situation when talking about a
preventable disease, Bickerton said.
The use of bed nets has increased tenfold in the last few years,
according to David Hayward Evans, Global Fund manager for
non-government donors.
“We believe since about 2002, about 750,000 children’s lives have
been saved through the interventions financed by the Global Fund and
other international partners,” he said. “And we believe that over the
next five years, a further 1 million or so children’s lives can be
saved—essentially, that malaria can cease to be a major health problem
in these countries.
“We have good medicines for malaria,” Evans continued. “We know bed
nets work. We know indoor residual spraying works. With AIDS, we have
(antiretroviral drugs) and other measures in education.
“But,” he cautioned, “we need to continue to scale up, particularly
on malaria. The goal is close, but we’ve got to close the deal.”
Harvey remembered a visit to United Methodist-related Ganta Hospital
in Liberia. She cradled a shivering baby, suffering from pneumonia and
malaria.
“You could just see this child gasping for every breath,” Harvey
said. With the mother’s permission, she held the baby and prayed for
her. And Harvey said she understood in her heart why UMCOR is present.
Left to right, David Evans, Nicolas Demey, the Rev. Cynthia Harvey and
the Rev. Larry Hollon discuss The United Methodist Church’s partnership
with the Global Fund.
View in Photo Gallery
The church network offers a trusted health-delivery system, she
added, that can go “to the end of the road”—even when that road is
little more than a narrow dirt path.
‘Called to be change agents’
Helping people to make an emotional connection between a disease
that no longer exists in the United States and one that annually kills
800,000 children in Africa is a challenge, Evans admits.
Telling the stories and encouraging action turn complacence into compassion.
“We’ve been fighting malaria for 160 years,” said the Rev. Larry
Hollon, United Methodist Communications’ top executive. “It’s not a new
issue, but the ways to combat it have changed.”
“The Global Fund is all about investing the world’s money to save
lives,” Demey said, to “give hope to people who otherwise basically have
a death sentence hanging above their head.”
Harvey explained the importance of capacity building. “Helping local
churches in Africa create health boards,” she said, builds
accountability for the health of their communities, encourages medical
personnel to take up posts in underserved areas and creates
“community-based health-care (volunteer) networks.”
UMCOR is not looking at isolated program areas such as “water and
sanitation, or hunger and poverty, or how to improve our clinics,” she
continued. Rather, UMCOR seeks to integrate the strategies of those
programs in ways that effectively fight diseases of poverty.
Reflecting on Matthew 25, Harvey said, “We are called to be change
agents.”When United Methodists learn that a child is dying of a
preventable disease like malaria, they are mandated by Wesleyan
tradition to take action and work to create change.
To learn more about the Imagine No Malaria campaign and to donate, go to www.imaginenomalaria.org
*Dunlap-Berg is internal content editor for United Methodist Communications.
News media contact: Barbara Dunlap-Berg, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5489 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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