Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

"AIDS is not God's punishment for the wicked...AIDS is a disease." This quote from Anglican Archbishop, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane, is what scrolls across the home page of the new Anglican Church HIV & AIDS web site to be launched on Thursday this week [10 Feb].

Archbishop Ndungane will give a welcoming address at the "real" launch function in Kenilworth, Cape Town. A "virtual" launch all over the Church Province of Southern Africa - which includes South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique and the Island of St Helena - will take place at the same time. International "virtual" guests will also be present.

Consultant, Wendy Lewin, who helped set up the web site, says that the purpose of it is twofold. It is firstly to introduce what the Anglican Church is doing to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic and secondly to support people running the Anglican Church HIV/AIDS projects across Southern Africa. It will be a means of communication for funders and the HIV & AIDS office and also between people who are working on the ground, for whom it will be useful to compare notes and swap stories around their work.

The main programme run by the Anglican Church at present is called Isiseko Sokomeleza - "Building a Foundation". It is a partnership between the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (Anglican Church) and Christian Aid, funded by the British Government's Department for International Development (DFID).

Isiseko Sokomeleza provides monthly funding to each of the 23 Anglican dioceses to support HIV & AIDS co-ordinators across Southern Africa. It also provides additional funding to run projects that support home-based care, orphaned and vulnerable children, voluntary counselling and testing, wellness management, youth and the prevention of the spread of HIV.

The web site also contains details of all the other programmes being run. "We are working hard to get funding for even more programmes and we will bring news of them to people as they are confirmed in future," says Archbishop Ndungane.

"You do not have to be an Anglican - you do not even have to be a Christian...we hope this site will help and encourage you, whatever you need," says the Archbishop. "As you explore the site, you will find it has a huge range of resources. Whether you are looking for advice on how to make a funding proposal, or ideas for what a small rural church can do, or the best way to run financial management, or what to put in a love pack for babies - it is all here!" he says.

The Archbishop says "I am very excited by this project. It harnesses the very best of contemporary technology in ways that can be used even by the poorest of the poor, so that all possible resources can be brought together in the fight against HIV/AIDS."

The website address is http://www.anglicanaids.org