AIDS Resources
AIDS Fund Resource Published
"Saving Grace: AIDS in Africa" is the title of an
article written by Don Messer, RMC clergy member, which will be
helpful to those working to raise funds to fight AIDS through the
Global AIDS Fund (General Conference, 2004). The article appears
in the November-December 2004 issue of Circuit
Rider, and has suggestions that will be useful in sermons
and education efforts in each local church.
Christians face "an incredible moral challenge" in confronting
the worldwide AIDS pandemic. To care about Africa is to care about
AIDS: "Of the more than 40 million people currently infected with
HIV/AIDS, some 30 million are in sub-Saharan. Some 60% are women,
and the number of AIDS-related orphans in sub-Saharan Africa is
projected to be 50 million in 2010. In the world nine out of 10
children living with HIV/AIDS is African, as are eight of every
10 children who have lost parents to AIDS. The infection rates
continue to climb, death tolls escalate, and life expectancy rates
plummet throughout Africa" writed Messer. To break the cycle requires
churches to break the silence about AIDS: "The prevailing silence
in the church must be broken if persons are to understand and to
respond to the worst health crisis facing the world in 700 years." Messer
writes, "In South Africa I met pastors who told me they were conducting
15 to 20 funerals a week. In July, 2004, the New York Times reported
that in Durban the cemeteries are so full that gravediggers are
reopening existing graves and interring fresh bones atop the old
ones. This “recycling” is necessary because of 600
funerals a week in 2004 compared to 120 a few years ago."
"'HIV/AIDS is the new apartheid of discrimination and stigmatization,'
says Bishop Ivan M. Abrahams, who leads the Methodist Church of
Southern Africa. 'Previously apartheid meant lack of access to
opportunities and institutions; now it means lack of access to
the life-sustaining anti-retroviral medicines.' Over 93% of the
people of Africa, who need this treatment, are not getting it," writes
Dr. Messer.
The focus of this
issue of Circuit
Rider is on "Africa: God's Blessing."
Full Article: (Circuit
Rider PDF) (RMC PDF 240k)
(RTF)
HIV/AIDS Crisis: Vice Presidential Debate and the Rocky Mountain
Conference
In the televised 2004 Vice Presidential Debate, both Vice President
Cheney and Senator John Edwards failed miserably to respond to
the clear question posed by the African-American moderator, Gwen
Ifill:
" I want to talk to you about AIDS, and not about AIDS
in China or Africa, but AIDS right here in this country, where
black women
between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die
of the disease than their counterparts. What should the government's
role be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?"
The Vice President candidly acknowledged: “I have not heard
those numbers with respect to African-American women. I was not
aware that it was -- that they're in epidemic there,” and
then went on to talk in global terms and providing $15 billion
to help. I was hoping Senator John Edwards would speak directly
to the question, but he too seemed oblivious to the key part of
her question about African-American women, though he did promise
$30 billion.
We, in the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference, have not staked
out an answer to the question of what the government’s role should
be, but we have committed one-fourth of our limited funds to addressing
HIV/AIDS within Colorado, with a special emphasis on ethnic minority
communities. We recognize that behind Ms. Ifill’s probing
question are these shocking statistics:
African American women account for approximately two-thirds
(65%) of newly reported AIDS cases among women. HIV is the
#1 cause of
death for African American women between the ages of 25-34. Lacking
equal access to AIDS treatments and making up the majority of
new infections, African Americans account for more than half
(52%)
of deaths among people with AIDS; almost twice as many deaths
occurred among African Americans with AIDS than whites in 2002.**
Mother Teresa often reminded people that just because we cannot
determine political policies, we dare not use this as an excuse
for doing nothing. She said if she had not picked up the first
sick person suffering in the streets of India, she might have never
reached out to another. The day I visited her first home for the
destitute and dying in Calcutta, patient number 77, 441 had been
brought there for compassionate care. Even as we advocate for political
changes and funding, we have to find ways as Christians, in Mother
Teresa’s words, so that we can reach out “one by one
by one.”
The Rocky Mountain United Methodist Conference, along with three
predominately African-American churches in Denver and the General
Board of Global Ministries, sponsored one small, but important
effort, October 9-10, 2004. Rev. Eric Smith provided committee
leadership. The program included a health fair in a prominent public
place in a shopping area in Founder’s Green, a revitalized
area around the old Stapleton Airport. In this magnet location,
under an open tent, the church reached out to persons, particularly
from the African American community, to offer critical health information
and assistance.
Testing for HIV was not done on site, but coupons
for free anonymous testing were distributed. A variety of vendors
and community organizations such as the Colorado AIDS Project were
involved and contributed to the success of the program. The highlight
of
Sunday’s program was a coordinated meeting of young
people from the three churches. Rev. Carolyn Smith, a recognized
HIV/AIDS workshop trainer, worked with them.
Gifts Needed To Support Conference HIV/AIDS Outreach
In 2004, thanks to your gifts and a $10,000 apportionment the Rocky Mountain
Conference also supported programs that:
- Purchased medicine stopping 860 babies in India from getting
HIV.
- Started an AIDS prison ministry in Russia, where infection
has risen 300%.
- Provided support to Kenya mothers and fathers struggling
to live with HIV/AIDS.
We have more need and less money. Unless individuals and every
church contribute, we cannot carry on this ministry at a time God’s cry for
help is evident everywhere human beings are suffering.
World AIDS Day on December 1, 2004 focused on the special global
dilemma of Women, Children, and AIDS. At Annual Conference it
was suggested every church pick some special Sunday in the year
and
take up a special collection for AIDS.
Unlike the two vice-presidential candidates, we cannot promise
billions of dollars, but we can make a difference “one-by-one” if
we give what we can. For those who cannot speak their gratitude,
let me thank you for sending your individual and church gifts to:
Rocky
Mountain Conference UMC, c/o Wayne Bettendorf,
6110 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Greenwood Village, CO 80111
* Donald E. Messer is Henry
White Warren Professor of Practical Theology at The Iliff School
of Theology, and now a retired clergy member of
the Rocky Mountain Conference of The United Methodist Church.
**Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV/AIDS Surveillance
Report, Vol. 14, Addendum, (Accessed September 13,2004); National
Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Reports,
Vol. 52, No. 9, November 7, 2003; Shapiro, et.al., “Variations
in the Care of HIV-Infected Adults in the United States”,
Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 281, No. 24,
June 1999
.
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