HOTLINE - week of November 27, 2006

As the world marks another World AIDS Day this December 1, Church World Service is helping partners in many areas around the globe to respond to and educate people and communities affected by HIV/AIDS.

For example, in East Africa--Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya--more than 17,500 HIV/AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children are gaining empowerment via the innovative Giving Hope program that addresses rights and needs, and equips them with agricultural, vocational, and life skills.

In November in Gitarama, Rwanda, 20 young people--19 girls and one boy--graduated from a CWS Giving Hope tailoring program. "Our goals as members of Giving Hope," says 19-year-old Mediatrice, "are to meet our own needs and to help each other. In brief, before Giving Hope, we didn't know each other. Some of us were street children, some were child laborers who worked for food. We were isolated, sad, broken-hearted, physically and sexually abused.

"Now," says Mediatrice, "we have organized into groups so we relate like new families. We help each family to have a dream and be integrated into the community, because they can contribute. We are teaching our neighbors to accept child rights, to prevent HIV, and to build relationships in the community."

Another group, the Nyarugari ("Let's improve together") group in Kibongo, is making greeting cards designed with banana leaves, woven bags, embroidery, and braided twine that make cords for holding animals. The children use their earnings for household needs, school fees, etc.

The Musumba working group, in Kibongo, numbers 22 and is named "holding hands." Because most of their members are in school, they meet on Sundays for sharing and a mutual help activity. They have invested in a restaurant managed by group member and treasurer Jean, who describes his group as "a new family." He dreams of going to Kigali, the capital, and opening a hotel. "I have learned what I can do! I also organized young people in my community in an anti-AIDS club for peer education. I am what I am thanks to Giving Hope," he says with a smile.

In Pakistan, some 200 adolescent students from various schools in Sindh province have participated in a CWS-sponsored speech, slogan, and quiz competition, as part of a first-of-its-kind interschool competition on HIV/AIDS education. Winning students received certificates and medals for their entries. CWS has been working with school children in Sindh province for three years on HIV awareness.

Women's groups in the El Bosque neighborhood of Santiago, Chile, are working with CWS partner EPES (People's Health Education Foundation) through the El Bosque Community Network and an AIDS prevention campaign to educate women on their risks and high vulnerability to HIV. EPES expects the women's groups to increase in number and to improve their capacity to educate about HIV.

Churches around the world are speaking out on HIV/AIDS, calling for an end to stigmatization and demanding access to treatment.

AIDS is the new enemy, says South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "Let's stop playing around and roll up our sleeves and invoke the spirit that fought apartheid," he says. "We did it with apartheid, we can repeat it with AIDS."

"This is God's work," says Wafa Goussous, director of long-time partner the Middle East Council of Churches Jordan office. CWS is providing Blankets, Baby Kits, and Kids Kits, valued at more than $49,000, for refugees from Iraq and other areas now living in Jordan. Many of the Iraqi refugees are from the minority Christian community.

To all our friends and partners, "Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!"

Your prayers and support - and your participation in CROP WALKS and the TOOLS & BLANKETS Program - make possible these and other life sustaining programs. For information on how to get involved, please call your Church World Service/CROP Regional Office toll-free at 1-888-CWS-CROP, that's 1-888-297-2767.

For information about free loan videos, please call 1-800-297-1516, ext. 338, or e-mail us at: videos@churchworldservice.org.

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