AIDS message 'failing'.(ENI)--Church leaders in sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the world worst affected by the AIDS epidemic, say they appear to be failing to deliver the message about the disease to their people. "We don't seem to be winning the war," said Rev. Mvume Dandala, general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) is an ecumenical fellowship that represents more than 120 million African Christians in 169 national churches and regional Christian councils[1]. . UNAIDS UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS , a United Nations' program, estimates that while sub-Saharan Africa has just over 10 per cent of the world's population, it is home to two-thirds of all people living with HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. . Ignorance about the disease was contributing to its spread, Mr. Dandala told African church leaders gathered in Nairobi. The church leaders noted that key government programs aimed at rolling back the pandemic pandemic /pan·dem·ic/ (pan-dem´ik) 1. a widespread epidemic of a disease. 2. widely epidemic. pan·dem·ic adj. Epidemic over a wide geographic area. n. were now using churches as channels for treatment and care, but they expressed anxiety about the future of the donor-funded programs. "We should wake up or we are gone," Rev. Malebogo Mothibi of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa The United Congregational Church in Southern Africa began with the work of the London Missionary Society, who sent missionaries to the Cape colony in [1799]. Congregationalist missionaries from the American Board of Foreign Missions began work in KwaZulu-Natal in 1830, and several said. "We should think of alternatives in case the funds dry up." |
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