ACHIVA Addressing the Challenge of HIV and AIDS

In March 2010 ACHIVA member Eleanor Williamson was working in the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman, South Africa, to assist in the setting up of the "Botshelo Life Link" in Taung - the peer education centre funded chiefly by people living in their link Diocese of Oxford. Eleanor also had opportunities to visit other Diocesan link programmes in the North West.

In March we also received news from Kate Wooding , who spoke at our morning meeting in June 2009, and who was now settled into her new life with her doctor husband and two children in Kampala, Uganda. See here for her report.

The Mercy AIDS Foundation, led by Masi Makhalemele (Cowper), has now begun introducing HIV and Life Skills Education with youth in the Mafikeng area, and is piloting a support scheme for the deprived schoolchildren in the surrounding rural area, based in local schools, where the average number of orphans due to AIDS hovers around 50%.

In January, Kathryn Ellis revisited the North West Province and Northern Cape of South Africa, and spent some time in Johannesburg with "Tsa Botsogo", a local HIV/AIDS community centre in Soweto, and the Mercy AIDS Foundation, which pioneers community progammes in many parts of South Africa. Kathryn works through the diocesan link and the parish link between Kidlington with Hampton Poyle and Montshiwa, and in her research also visited the National AIDS Consortium and provincial and municipal offices, to appeal for help.

During her visit she organised the coming distribution of the 220 promised footballs for "Fund a Football", to bring fun to the most deprived children in these provinces during the World Cup period, when the schools will be on holiday for two months. As the fund continued to bring in donations from individuals, clubs, churches and schools, future plans are to introduce football coaching. This will be integrated into a health campaign, using the opportunity to pass on essential lessons aimed at preventing the spread of HIV.

Canon Gideon Byamugisha made a visit to Oxford and Kidlington in the Spring, and as usual, made a huge impact with his inspirational speeches and sermons. Read about his ideas and policies on HIV/AIDS here and find out more about INERELA+ (which grew from ANERELA - the African Network for Religious Leaders Living With or Personally Affected by HIV/AIDS - which he founded).