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[ Back to index of January articles ]
Panel will focus on
efforts to fight AIDS
Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, primate of the Anglican province of Southern Africa, will urge Western nations to commit additional funds to the fight against AIDS in Africa during an upcoming presentation at Hearst Hall on the grounds of Washington National Cathedral. “HIV/AIDS is a global emergency, and for us in Africa, it is a matter of life and death,” Ndungane said. “But where resources have been made available, there has been great progress.” The African diplomatic corps has been invited to the archbishop’s presentation which is scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan. 29. Ndungane’s talk, A Partnership for Healing: Anglican Initiatives Against AIDS in Africa, will be followed by a panel discussion featuring leaders of the Anglican Communion’s efforts against AIDS. On the following evening, Ndungane will preach at the Eucharist celebrating the opening of the 109th Convention of the Diocese of Washington. At the convention, delegates are expected to pass a resolution establishing a five-year relationship between the Diocese of Washington and the Church of the Province of Southern Africa. The relationship is aimed at sharing resources and enhancing one another’s ministries. “We scheduled this discussion before the convention because we wanted to share the expertise of Archbishop Ndungane and his colleagues with as wide an audience as possible,” said Bishop John B. Chane. “We hope the people of our diocese will turn out in force, and help us get this partnership off to a roaring start.” Ndungane said he planned to “reinforce that HIV/AIDS is a global emergency.” “One of the major things I’ll be addressing is the importance of contributions to the Global Fund,” he said. The fund is a partnership that provides money for health projects in developing countries. Its members include governments and powerful international organizations such as the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. Ndungane would like to see Western nations follow the example of Japan, which recently announced it would double its contributions to the fund in 2004. Ndungane said he hoped also to focus attention on “the catastrophe of AIDS orphans.” Millions of children have lost both of their parents to AIDS, he said, and millions more are in danger of doing so. He said free retroviral drugs were needed “to help infected parents live longer,” but that programs were also necessary to insure that orphans “are properly cared for and their rights to education, food and secure futures are protected.” The archbishop said it remained necessary to speak out against stigmatization. “We should be shouting from the rooftops that HIV/AIDS is not a punishment from God but a disease like any other disease,” he said. Ndungane will be joined on the panel by the Rev. Canon John Kanyikwa, general secretary of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa and the Right Rev. David Beetge, bishop of the South African diocese of Highveld, and dean of the province of Southern Africa. The panel also includes Nema Aluku, director of HIV/AIDS programs for CAPA, and the Rev. Canon Colin Jones, director of HIV/AIDS programs for the province of Southern Africa. Contact Jim Naughton at jnaughton@edow.org [ Back to index of January articles ]
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