All African Anglican Conference on HIV/AIDS
13 August 2001
The aim; a generation without HIV/AIDS is what the delegates to the All-Africa Anglican Conference in Boksburg must work towards, according to Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane in his opening address.
The initiative to find an African solution to the pandemic has attracted international support and the conference - at the Birchwood Conference Centre in Boksburg from today (13th) until Thursday - is attended by 130 delegates representing 34 countries. Included are the Archbishops of Congo and Ghana as well as bishops from Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, Burundi and South Africa.
South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma will address the conference this afternoon (17:30) and the former State President’s wife, Mrs Graca Machel, will speak to the delegates on Wednesday morning.
“We have”, says Archbishop Ndungane,“ an alarming tendency to be dazzled by statistics and a great need to put a human face to the people who are infected and affected by AIDS. Our God-given responsibility as stewards of HIS creation is to care for the well being of our fellow humans. The greatest contribution each of us can make in life is to make a difference in another person’s life”.
Proceedings will include a parallel process whereby representatives of the African churches will be meeting to put together the beginnings of a strategy and action plan to beat HIV/AIDS in Africa. Simultaneously a group of partners representing 36 organizations, including donors, organizations involved HIV/AIDS work and pharmaceutical companies, will be meeting to workshop ways through which they and other affected parties can affect change. These partner organizations include Christian Aid, World Vision International, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, Action AID, MAP International, UNAIDS, US AIDS, USPG, the World Bank, and Episcopal Relief and Development.
The conference aims to change despair into hope by giving Africans the opportunity to create a uniquely African solution to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Archbishop Ndungane said, “It is actions, not words, that count the most and every little thing we do matters”
[Canon James Rosenthal, Director of Communications, Anglican Communion, Canterbury, contributed to this report.]