wfn.org | HIV+ South African Choir, Tim Janis Slate Dec. 1-11 US Tour

["Church World Service News" <nccc_usa@ncccusa.org>]

Church World Service
MEDIA ALERT							FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE

SOUTH AFRICAS SINIKITHEMBA HIV+ CHOIR AND TIM JANIS ENSEMBLE
SLATE EAST COAST GIVE US HOPE CONCERT TOUR

World AIDS Day In New York, Harvard Medical School Event Highlight
Church World Service AIDS Fundraiser Series

New York, NY - 11/11/02- 28.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa infected
with HIV/AIDS and approximately 165,000 more people infected each month* are
statistics difficult to relate to on a human scale. But when South Africas
HIV+ Sinikithemba Choir performs in the U.S. in December, theyll be putting
a human face on the African AIDS pandemic and giving voice to hope.

As part of a U.S. Give Us Hope concert tour, The Sinikithemba Choir
arrives November 23 and will join top Billboard-charting U.S. composer Tim
Janis for the groups premiere concert on World AIDS Day, December 1, 4:00
PM, at New York Citys The Riverside Church.  In a groundswell of response
to the choirs U.S. visit, The Harvard Medical School Division of AIDS is
sponsoring a Give Us Hope concert Wednesday, December 4, at Harvard
Memorial Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 7:30 PM.

Hosted and sponsored by international humanitarian aid agency Church World
Service, the Give Us Hope concert series will raise funds for CWS
HIV/AIDS programs in Africa and for local AIDS charities. CWS, The Harvard
Medical School Division of AIDS, and the tours other co-sponsors also hope
to raise greater consciousness around the profound toll that AIDS is
exacting across Africa.

In Zulu, sinikithemba means, place of hope. The 20-person Sinikithemba
HIV+ Choir is part of a larger choir associated with the HIV/AIDS Care
Center and McCord Hospital, Durban.

Other Tim Janis Ensemble-Sinikithemba Choir performance dates and locations
include:

Monday December 2
The New Haven Lawn Club
New Haven, Connecticut
(Co-sponsored and hosted by the AIDS Interfaith Network)

Tuesday December 3
First Presbyterian Church
Greenwich, Connecticut
8:00 PM

Friday December 6
Portsmouth Unitarian Universalist Church
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
8:00 PM

Saturday December 7
Trinitarian Congregational Church
Concord, Massachusetts
 7:00 PM

Sunday December 8
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
[Location and time to be announced]

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[CHURCH WORLD SERVICE/TIM JANIS-SINIKITHEMBA HIV+ CHOIR . . . Page 2 of 2]

Tuesday December 10
Reception on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
The Gold Room/2168 Rayburn House Office Building
4:30 - 6:30 PM

Wednesday December 11
Washington, D.C.
[Location and time to be announced]

The choir performed with the Tim Janis Ensemble for the first time in Durban
in May. As part of a recording tour, Janis accompanied Church World Service
to South Africa and performed in Durban and Soweto, events aimed at
eradicating the stigma associated with being HIV/AIDS-infected in that
country.

Response to the Sinikithemba choir was so positive, Church World Service and
Janis helped raise funds to host the group in the U.S. for the Give Us
 Hope series. Most of the choir members have never visited the U.S.

Commenting on the impact of Janis concert in Durban with the Sinikithemba
Choir and in Soweto with the Imilonji KaNtu Choral Society, Archbishop
Desmond Tutu said, Music expresses the pain of HIV/AIDS sufferers, but it
also sings of hope.

In Africa, particularly South Africa, the stigma of HIV/AIDS has continued
to take a heavy toll on AIDS prevention, transmission and the willingness of
people to seek testing or treatment. One Sinikithemba choir member says,
There is no support for people who are HIV+ in the communities where we
live. People point fingers at others, condemning them for being HIV+.

They hate us for many reasons, notes another choir member. They say that
people dying of AIDS are filling up the cemeteries and the hospitals, that
they are a burden.

But Sinikithemba is fighting that stigma with health care and hope. Says
another choir member, Faith is so important.  It gives us something to
believe in.  AIDS is just another burden on top of lots of existing
problems, such as having no job, no nice house, worrying about your children
and their school reports and no money.	Faith helps you to keep going, step
by step, day by day.

As hosts of the Sinikithemba Choirs U.S. visit, Church World Service is a
$70 million a year, global humanitarian agency working in partnership with
NGOs and other local partners in more than 80 countries on behalf of its 36
U.S. Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican member denominations. CWS has broad
U.S. grassroots support-particularly through its nearly 2,000 annual CROP
WALKS, which last year raised more than $17 million to fight hunger in the
U.S. and around the world.

For more information about Give Us Hope Concerts, locations and ticketing
information, call Church World Service: (800) 297-1516, or visit
www.churchworldservice.org.

Source: USAID
###

INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST: SINIKITHEMBA CHOIR, TIM JANIS, CHURCH WORLD
SERVICE, AND HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL AIDS DIVISION SPOKESPERSONS

ELECTRONIC PHOTOS AND VIDEO B-ROLL AVAILABLE

CONTACT:	Carol Fouke/CWS Media Liaison
		New York: (212) 870-2252/2227

Jan Dragin/CWS Media Liaison
Boston: (781) 925-1526

Ronda Hughes/CWS, Phone: (800) 297-1516 			(S)