In May 2006 the PC(USA) will partner with GHA to conduct this workshop in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Central to this workshop will be the goal to empower women and youth to transform their lives and the lives of their communities as they relate to HIV/AIDS. A generous grant from the Presbyterian Women and funds from International Health Ministries are making this possible. PC(USA) partners, the Presbyterian Church of Congo and the Presbyterian Church of Kinshasa, will be each sending 13 members to participate. Though not all the participants will be women, the leaders of the Department of Women and Families for each denomination will identify those key people who are in positions to engage communities affected by and/or are at risk for HIV/AIDS.
Statistics show that HIV/AIDS is on the rise in DRC. Continuing turmoil and the presence of rebels and soldiers leads to high infection rates because of rape and sexual abuse. Extreme poverty leads women to sell themselves in order to feed their families and send their children to school. This same poverty limits access to health care. Culturally, women have an often unheard voice. Decisions for their lives are made for them instead of with them. The youth find pressure to sleep with professors at school in order to make passing grades. And once they graduate from University, they find there is no work. They are left to survive any way they can, and trying to fill time that should be spent working/earning a living. Transformation for Health takes these factors into account, empowering the powerless, giving direction to those feeling lost, providing a method to create lasting change for the better.
Transformation for Health is not a “Christian workshop” in and of itself, but it readily facilitates the aspects of faith that the PC(USA) and its partners, as well as the individual participants, bring to it. There will be morning devotions and time for prayer and worship in the structure. And the participants will be equipped to incorporate their Christian faith and beliefs into the strategies they take back with them to their constituencies and communities. We pray this time together will also be a time of mutual encouragement, resting in the common hope that we have in Jesus Christ and in what he has to say to each of us in the midst of HIV/AIDS.
Please follow along with us and pray with us as plans for the workshop develop and as the workshop is carried out. And pray for the work to be done by the participants once they return to their communities. May God use this to transform the lives and health of many.
—Caryl Weinberg, missionary-in-residence in Worldwide Ministries'
International Health Ministries Office and the Area Office for Central and West Africa, formerly AIDS consultant for Central and West Africa and regional liaison for West Africa. |
