NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
July 19, 2002
For more information contact Jonathan Frerichs at (410) 230-2802.
In this news release:
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LWR and Partners Fight AIDS Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa
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LWR Helps Four African Nations Deal With Emergencies
LWR AND PARTNERS FIGHT AIDS CRISIS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Baltimore, July 19, 2002 - Lutheran World Relief is working with partner organizations in Africa to address some of the problems caused by HIV/AIDS, the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa and the fourth-largest killer worldwide. A recent United Nations report says "AIDS has become the most devastating disease humankind has ever faced."
In the twenty years since AIDS was first reported, more than 60 million people have been infected and, at the end of last year, an estimated 40 million people around the world were living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
HIV/AIDS has hit sub-Saharan Africa harder than any region. Since the first report of the disease, 14 million Africans have been killed by HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that more than 28 million people south of the Sahara are now living with HIV/AIDS.
LWR, aware of the devastation HIV/AIDS causes to families, the workforce, and the general social fabric, intervenes through its partners to address three key issues:
- Ignorance and illiteracy, which make it harder to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS;
- Poverty, which weakens the ability of people to resist the disease or to have access to medicines or other supports;
- Access to clean water, the lack of which contributes to the spread of disease and hurts food production.
On behalf of U.S. Lutherans and working through its African partners in Mali, Burkina-Faso, and Niger, Lutheran World Relief builds awareness for HIV/AIDS prevention, provides counseling services and literacy training, and supports revolving credit funding for women's development enterprises. LWR and its partners also educate orphans in an area of Uganda where AIDS has killed the parents of more than 50,000 children, and provide clothing and Lutheran-made quilts to Zimbabwe from its material resources stocks. LWR and its partners are building a maternal and child health clinic in Mali, documenting successful prevention, care and support projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, and developing community-based and culturally appropriate strategies to stop the spread of AIDS in Senegal.
In addition, the Stand With Africa campaign of Lutheran World Relief, the ELCA World Hunger Program and LCMS World Relief supports projects to deal with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said that dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic requires spending of $10 billion annually. Currently, the United States provides about $1.5 billion to the international effort, an amount that LWR and other organizations believe should be increased to $2.5 billion to stimulate additional work to slow the spread of the disease and research toward a cure. Grassroots efforts can help achieve this. To find out more, visit www.lwr.org/advocacy.
Individuals can support LWR's work with gifts on the Web at www.lwr.org, by calling
1-800-LWR-LWR-2, or by sending a check or money order to:
Lutheran World Relief
P.O. Box 17061
Baltimore, MD 21298-9832.
LWR HELPS FOUR AFRICAN NATIONS DEAL WITH EMERGENCIES
Baltimore, July 19, 2002 - Lutheran World Relief (LWR) is helping in emergency situations in four countries in Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Liberia and Eritrea and urgently seeks contributions.
The food crisis facing Southern Africa is entering a critical stage. Malawi has the region's most serious problem due to an ongoing drought and declining purchasing power. LWR is helping to provide maize (corn), grain, and beans to help 18,000 hungry families survive in three districts in Malawi. Agriculture and animal husbandry training is included in the assistance program. Top priority is given to the elderly, families living with HIV/AIDS and looking after orphans, and female-headed households. More help is needed. LWR's cash assistance is coupled with a shipment of clothing, quilts and other material resources prepared by U.S. Lutherans.
In northwestern Kenya, LWR continues to address a famine caused by unrelenting drought. The current emergency funding provides assistance to get food provided by the World Food Programme distributed to some 47,000 vulnerable people. Training on nutrition and environmental issues also is provided to community relief committees.
LWR also sent a shipment of quilts for some 3,500 people who have lost their homes in recent landlord/tenant clashes in the Kiberia region of Kenya, southwest of Nairobi. LWR’s material resources support the regional peacebuilding program of American Friends Service Committee.
In northwestern Liberia, LWR is working to help persons and families displaced by recent fighting. The LWR emergency grant supports water and sanitation improvements, food, shelter, and health care (including HIV/AIDS awareness). As part of LWR's continuing work in Liberia, quilts, health and school kits, and clothing are distributed to some 30,000 internally displaced persons, as well as to hospital patients, orphans, refugees, and other vulnerable people. Beyond this major effort, LWR continues to provide seeds, tools, and agricultural training in areas of the country that are stable, through a grant from USAID.
Although peace has come to Eritrea, thousands remain displaced as a result of the war with Ethiopia. LWR is helping to provide tents for about 3,000 families, many of them headed by women. 65% of the more than 18,000 tents used by Eritrean families are in urgent need of replacement before the rainy season. The tents, which raise LWR's total assistance (including material resources such as clothing, quilts, and health and school kits made and given by U.S. Lutherans) to Eritrea to $466,587, will provide dependable shelter and help keep the families healthier by enhancing their resistance to disease.
LWR has allocated a total of $30,000 for emergency needs in these four African countries and welcomes contributions of further funds. In recent months LWR has provided more than $2.2 million worth of material resource shipments for needs in the four countries in addition to the cash contributions. As a member of Action by Churches Together (ACT), LWR is working with its partners Lutheran World Federation/Department of World Service in Liberia, Eritrea and Kenya, Norwegian Church Aid in Eritrea and the Evangelical Lutheran Development Program in Malawi.
You can support LWR's work in Africa and elsewhere with gifts on the Web at www.lwr.org, by calling 1-800-LWR-LWR-2, or by sending a check or money order to:
Lutheran World Relief
P.O. Box 17061
Baltimore, MD 21298-9832.
