wfn.org | 'Communities are Dealing Daily with Poverty, Violence and HIV/AIDS'

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

FEATURE: "Communities are Dealing Daily with Poverty, Violence and
HIV/AIDS"
Diakonia Consultation Participants' Exposure Visits to LWF Country
Programs

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa/GENEVA, 11 November 2002 (LWI) - "It
was the worst experience of poverty I have ever seen. In a village
we visited in Malawi there was not one complete item of clothing
but all the signs of malnutrition." - "Now I believe that peace in
Angola is real." - "I learned about the difficulties experienced
by church leaders in traditional African communities to talk about
sexual matters in an appropriate manner."

These were remarks by participants in a four-day Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) consultation on diakonia - church social service
- that ended in Johannesburg on November 7. They were sharing
their experiences following exposure visits to LWF country
programs in the southern African region prior to the conference.
At the consultation, over 80 representatives of Lutheran churches
and partner organizations were examining the different
understandings of diakonia in the context of the global challenges
of violence, poverty and HIV/AIDS.

During the field visits, participants were confronted with
country-specific social issues that call for the active response
of churches. They went to different LWF projects and diaconal
institutions in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and
Zimbabwe, and were thus provided with local perspectives of the
most urgent challenges in the future.

Although most participants have worked in diaconal projects, they
considered the field visits as an eye-opener. In many cases the
exposure changed their focus with respect to the extent and nature
of critical issues and ways of addressing them. For example, in
South Africa, 21 million people live in poverty, and it is
estimated that by the year 2010, seven million people in the
country will have died of HIV/AIDS. In Swaziland, more than 25
percent of the population is living with HIV/AIDS, and in Zimbabwe
half the population is said to be on the edge of starvation.

Participants from outside Africa were often impressed by the
seriousness with which people tackle their own problems. Dr. Tapio
Saraneva, Director of FinnChurchAid, visited a camp of former
soldiers of the Union for the Total Independence of Angola, UNITA,
in a country that had been ravaged by civil war for more than 25
years. "I now believe that peace is real and that the people are
very committed to the peace process," he said. "The government is
doing its best to integrate UNITA soldiers into society, I hope,
and now it is our time to help this peace process and not drop
Angola from our agenda."

Rev. Klaus Daniel, president of a diaconal institution in Brasov,
Romania, recalled his visit to a street children's project in
Johannesburg. "I saw a house, which was completely open, and
children can come and go. In spite of this, a nucleus of children
has formed, who are staying in the home and have become
multipliers. They go out to other street kids and tell them how
important it is to have a place where you can feel at home."

Several participants realized how closely related the three issues
of the diakonia conference were. Rev. Silvio Schneider, executive
secretary of a Lutheran church diaconal foundation in Brazil,
visited two projects in Mozambique. "This was remarkable," he
said. "These communities are dealing with all three issues daily -
poverty, violence and HIV/AIDS. To be able to visit these
communities ... gave the group a more solid understanding of what
is going on and how complicated issues are."

Ms Naomi Hansen from Malaysia spoke of a similar experience. At an
agricultural project in Zimbabwe, she was confronted with the very
poor living conditions of people working and living on a farm.
"What made it worse was that in the evening, after work, women had
to do all the housework, while the men visited the beer halls. The
women told us that half of the money they earned is spent on
beer," Hansen said. "If they complain, they are beaten up or the
husband takes another wife as punishment. In this way HIV/AIDS is
brought into the families - I saw violence, poverty and AIDS all
together in one place," she said.

For Dr. Lake Lambert of Wartburg College in Waverly, USA, visiting
a Roman Catholic church AIDS hospice and HIV/AIDS clinic for
affected women in Durban, South Africa, "highlighted the close
connection of HIV/AIDS to poverty. And I learnt about the
difficulties experienced by church leaders of African traditional
communities to talk about sexual matters. Zulu-speaking pastors
told us that there [is no] vocabulary in their language that is
appropriate for a pastor to use. This makes it very difficult to
speak about HIV/AIDS and sexuality."

Participants from neighboring African countries such as Namibia
were able to share their own experiences during the field visits.
Rev. Magdalena Ya-Shaloango, Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Namibia, met with pastors and congregations in Moxico, Angola.
Noticing that both pastors and people in the communities seemed to
be reluctant to talk about HIV/AIDS, she cautioned them to act
before it is too late. "I don't want them to repeat what church
leaders in my country did. It was too late and is still too late
in Namibia. We are burying two to four people a week and this is
really very serious. If the Angolan people are not taking this
seriously, they will be in a position that my church is in now."
By 2001 Angola, with a population of 10.3 million, still had a
relatively low HIV/AIDS rate of 5.5 percent while Namibia's was
22.5 percent in a population of over 1.7 million people.

Ms Pamela Meggit, Lutheran Development Service, Swaziland, was
both shocked and impressed, when she visited a village in Malawi.
"I experienced the worst poverty I have ever seen. Children were
clothed in rags and had potbellies. There were no smiles. That
really shows poverty, if a child does not react." On the other
hand, she appreciated the extent of the involvement of the
Malawian churches in a number of projects through the Evangelical
Lutheran Development Program, the LWF Department for World Service
(DWS) country program there.

All conference participants agreed that the field visits were an
integral and indispensable part of the consultation. "The field
visits gave the conference, which in principle could be anywhere
in the world, its local stamp and embedded it into the South
African context," one participant summed up his experience.

The diakonia consultation was organized by the LWF-DWS in
collaboration with the Departments for Mission and Development as
well as Theology and Studies. It was hosted by four LWF member
churches in Southern Africa namely, the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Southern Africa, Evangelical Lutheran Churches in
Southern Africa (Cape Church) and (Natal-Transvaal), and Moravian
Church in South Africa.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 mllion Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted,
material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the
LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article
contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

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