• African Leaders Strengthen Church Response to AIDS
• IHM Begins New Year With New Leadership
• Needs of our partners seen first-hand In visits to Congo and Haiti
• New Missionaries Ready for Service Around the World
• Bill and Sue Sager serve in U.S. and in Africa
• IHM works with U.S. Churches at Mission Network Meetings
• NetWorkers Mother's Day Project Planned

Helping our church partners in Africa respond to the tragic toll of HIV/AIDS in their communities continues to be a top priority for International Health Ministries. This commitment is demonstrated through the facilitation of a major AIDS workshop in Malawi last fall, and in the planning for a future meeting of African church leaders.

Senior leaders of PC(USA) partner churches in Africa will be invited to attend a four-day meeting to discuss their ministries and share ideas around a range of AIDS-related topics. The agenda is expected to address issues that are critical for the development of an effective HIV/AIDS ministry, including:

More than two dozen church leaders, mostly General Secretaries of our denominational partners, will be invited to the meeting, in Africa.

Plans for the church leaders’ meeting follow a successful workshop last October, at which over 30 representatives of our African partners’ HIV/AIDS projects gathered in Malawi for ten days of training, sharing and fellowship. This was the first event of its kind, bringing together key personnel from HIV/AIDS projects in ten African nations.

The workshop was hosted by the Church of Central Africa-Presbyterian, and facilitated by Janet Guyer, PC(USA) AIDS Consultant for South and East Africa, who coordinated the activities, and by Caryl Weinberg, PC(USA) AIDS consultant for West and Central Africa, who graciously and tirelessly provided French-English translation.

Training activities in project planning, monitoring and evaluation were provided by consultants in Africa for the United States AID & International Development agency, USAID.

Participants shared their experiences with AIDS projects in their home communities, and exchanged ideas and lessons learned. Participants represented Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Participants from IHM were AIDS Project Manager Dorothy Hanson and then-IHM Coordinator Dr. Dorothy Brewster-Lee. Dorothy Brewster-Lee challenged the group to actively seek support and funding for their HIV/AIDS projects, using skills gained at the conference

The International Health Ministries Office has moved into 2004 under the leadership of long-time IHM Program Coordinator Bob Ellis, who was named Interim Coordinator for IHM following the resignation of Dr. Dorothy Brewster-Lee last fall. Bob will serve as Interim Coordinator until October.

During his tenure, IHM will complete a comprehensive program evaluation, as part of a strategic planning process begun under Dorothy Brewster-Lee.

The evaluation and planning is being facilitated by Dr. Beverley Booth, a PC(USA) mission co-worker, who led our partner, the United Mission to Nepal, through a two-year strategic planning process. It is expected that this process for IHM will produce a clear vision of what the office should be doing, what it is able to do well, and what IHM’s future direction will be.

Bob Ellis visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May. After visiting the health programs of the Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa (CPK), Bob, along with Larry Sthreshley, a PC(USA) health consultant in Africa, traveled to Kananga where they visited the mission hospitals of the Presbyterian Community of the Congo (CPC). Along with PC(USA) missionaries Dr. Michael and Nancy Haninger, they visited hospitals at Mutoto, Bulape, Luebo, Mbujimayi and Bibanga. Bob Ellis and Doug Welch, Area Coordinator for West and Central Africa, also participated in the annual meeting of the IMCK Hospital Board of Directors.

Nine committed and highly-qualified men and women completed Orientation this month as PC(USA) Mission Co-Workers, and will serve in international health roles. These new co-workers, which together represent the largest group of new missionaries ever affiliated with IHM, bring to their service outstanding professional credentials and, in many cases, extensive field experience. Several will go on to the mission field as soon as next month.

Please join us in praying for safe travels and God’s guidance as they begin their service.

Dorothy Hanson: RN, Regional AIDS Consultant-Africa

Katie Griggs: Partnership Facilitator, St. Croix Hospital, Haiti

Charlotte Gott: RN, Mulanje Hospital, Malawi

Barbara Nagy: MD, Nkhoma Hospital, Malawi

Jonna Reeder: Central Asia

Juno Lee: DDS, Amity Foundation, Shenyang China

Duk Yoon Chang: MD, Amity Foundation, Shenyang, China

Dr. Bill Sager, who with his wife, Sue, served as mission co-workers in Congo and Haiti, served last fall as a Missionary in Residence in the International Health Ministries Office.

Bill worked on the 0.7% Initiative, an advocacy program to increase awareness and support for international health and development, bringing to his efforts the same strong Christian compassion he demonstrated as a missionary physician.

The IHM staff has participated in an on-going series of Mission Network meetings, bringing together persons from Presbyteries and congregations with WMD staff and our overseas partners, to build relationships and share information that facilitates mission activities in specific countries.

Mission Network meetings have been held for Malawi, Guatemala, Congo, Kenya, Haiti and Sudan. Each meeting has been a valuable opportunity for WMD staff and participants from congregations and presbyteries to learn what each is doing, how our activities support the needs of our partners, and how we can work together toward common goals. At each meeting, participants shared their experiences

of successes and challenges in carrying out work team projects and other ministries, and learned of opportunities to match their interests and skills with specific needs of WMD partners.

Mission Network meetings for persons involved or interested in Ethiopia, Cameroon, Southern Africa and Thailand are being planned for this spring.

The NetWorkers Mother’s Day mission activity, through which U.S. Presbyterians help protect expectant mothers in Africa from malaria, will be facilitated again this spring by IHM. The 2004 NetWorkers Mother’s Day cards will be available March 1. Donations made to the NetWorkers Malaria Prevention Program in exchange for the cards help provide mosquito nets for pregnant women in Malawi.