Awareness and prevention
India church making major effort in country’s struggle against HIV/AIDS
Although relatively small in size, the Church of North India is making a major effort to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in the world’s second-largest country, said two church leaders who recently visited the Presbyterian Center in Louisville.
[Read this Presbyterian News Services article]
10 reasons to oppose criminalization of HIV/AIDS exposure or transmission
Some groups in Africa have begun to advocate for criminalization as a response to women being infected with HIV/AIDS through sexual violence or by partners who do not reveal their HIV diagnoses to them; however, criminalization is unlikely to prevent new infections or reduce women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. In fact, it may harm women rather than assist them and have a negative impact on both public health and human rights. Read this article.
Three PC(USA) program areas, International AIDS Ministry, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association partnered together for a two-week travel/study program to South Africa and Malawi. Participants learned from our church partners about the realities of HIV/AIDS in their context. The travel/study program was co-lead by Bob Schminkey, a member of the Presbyterian AIDS Network, and Janet Guyer, a mission co-worker serving as a regional AIDS consultant in Africa. The Peacemaking Program created a blog for you to follow this journey.
Learn more about the work of our church partners in Africa.
Tumekutana
"We have come together"
A conference of African women empowering each other as Christian leaders
Photo by Toya Hill.
Tumekutana is a Swahili word meaning “We have come together.” In September 2007, women from PC(USA) partner churches across Africa came together to discuss fundamental questions concerning the challenges they face. They shared their stories together. They prayed and worshiped together. They encouraged one another and found ways to meet their common challenges as Christian women in Africa. Learn more about the Tumekutana conference.
MAPUTO, Mozambique (Reuters) -- Mozambique is clamping down on human trafficking amid reports the southern African nation has become a key route for adults and children sold into forced labor and prostitution, a government spokesman said. [keep reading this story]
Kalanga Odette, who lives with HIV/AIDS, seeks guidance and counsel from Presbyterian-run women’s program in Congo. Photo by Toya Richards Hill
Inequality, lack of education way of life for Congo’s women, yet hope prevails PC(USA)-supported partners offer training, encouragement
Kalanga Odette was no more than 16 when she became a wife.
The expectation for her, like most married women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was to bear lots of children. Odette, the mother of nine, complied.
She also remained faithful to her husband, and even lived without him for two years when he left their home in Congo’s rural Kasai region to find work in the capital city of Kinshasa.
So when the 42-year-old learned she had HIV/AIDS, she knew it couldn’t be true. In fact, she took the test three times just to be sure. [Read this Presbyterian News Services article]
Complex Congo
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO – A thick, sticky heat enveloped the Presbyterians as they emerged after flying day and night to step foot on this rich, yet traumatized soil. [Read this Presbyterian News Services article]
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