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"Assembly of African Religious Leaders" focus on HIV/AIDS
Paddy Meskin. WCRP
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In June 2002, the World Council of Religion and Peace (WCRP) International facilitated an "Assembly of Religious Leaders" from all over Africa. The Assembly represented the HOPE FOR AFRICAN CHILDREN INITIATIVE (HACI), a community-based pan-African effort created to address the enormous challenges faced by more than 113 million children who have been orphaned by the AIDS pandemic in Africa and the millions more whose parents are sick and dying.
HACI was established in 2000 and brings togther five organisations that share an international focus, namely CARE, Plan International, WCRP, Save the Children Fund and Women and AIDS in Africa. HACI received a $10 million start-up grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to strengthen and expand effective community-based programmes.
The Assembly was attended by faith-based communities from all religions and all parts of Africa, as well as American representatives. The opening session was made especially moving by the recitation by Salim Yasim of his poem, "Pepo La Tumaini in Isiolo Kenya". Seven-year-old Salim is an orphan living with AIDS and being cared for by a community AIDS project.
Another highlight was the address of Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and a Canadian Jew. He spoke about the overwhelming infection rate driving the virus forward and the magnitude of the needs being generated by the epidemic, particularly for women and children, who carry the burden of abandonment, vulnerability, stigma, shame, poverty and desperation.
The Assembly resolved, in the name of all infected and affected children, to take charge in re-energising the struggle against AIDS. Religious leaders are in a unique position to influence communities through their daily and weekly contact with followers in and around places of worship.
At the closing ceremony of the Assembly, each faith-group wrote a letter on behalf of their communities to the children of Africa, calling for a committed and united response to the pandemic from all their followers.
For more information on the Assembly and related queries, contact Paddy Meskin via e-mail on:[email protected].
To download the Final Declaration of the Assembly, Salim Yasim's poem and/or the text of the letter composed by the Jewish delegates at the Assembly, click on the hyperlinks in the righthand column. |
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