wfn.org | AANA BULLETIN No. 19/03 - May 19, 2003 (b)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

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AANA BULLETIN No. 19/03 - May 19, 2003 (b)

Global Volunteers Launch Initiative To Fill Teaching Gap

ACCRA (AANA) May 19 - A nation-wide voluntary project to employ the 
services of Ghanaian volunteers to teach in areas deprived of school 
teachers in Ghana, is expected to take off next month (June).

The project, which is being undertaken by the Voluntary Service Overseas 
(VSO) and the Ghana National Service Secretariat (GNSS), will begin with 80 
volunteers as a pilot project in the country's Upper East Region.

Dubbed Ghana National Volunteer Service (GNVS), the project will serve as a 
subsidiary of the National Service Scheme, which is mandatory for tertiary 
institutions.

On the other hand, the GNVS is a voluntary service and is expected to 
attract graduate teachers, ex-National Service personnel, the unemployed, 
retired workers whose services will be needed, as well as other Ghanaians 
living abroad.

According to Mr. Boniface Gambila of the National Service Scheme, the 
rationale for introducing the project is to help solve the problem of 
inadequate teaching staff in certain areas of the country, which sometimes 
adversely affect academic performance of students in those regions.

He said after its effective implementation, the exercise will be extended 
to other sectors like health, agriculture and community development.

The Acting Programme Director of VSO, Mr. Daniel Jones, gave the assurance 
in Accra that the organisation is determined to offer its assistance to the 
development of Ghana.

He said currently, the organisation has 41 foreign volunteers working in 
the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.

Out of the number, he said, 38 of the volunteers are in the teaching field, 
two in community development, while one is working in an organisation for 
the disabled.

Reported by Felix Amanfu

Fears Over Increasing Slum Houses Characterise Meeting

NAIROBI (AANA) May 19 - As the 19th Session of the United Nations 
Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) Governing Council opened here May 5, 
issues of growing slums in Africa and around the world took centre stage.

"World governments need to support programmes and partnerships striving to 
alleviate increasing poverty and slum conditions," appealed UN-Habitat 
Executive Director, Anna Tibaijuka, the Executive Director of the United 
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Klaus Toepfer, and the outgoing 
Governing Council President, Sid-Ali Ketrandji.

According to Kenya's Vice-President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana, human 
settlements in developing countries, especially in Africa, have continued 
to be negatively affected by numerous calamities, including civil strife, 
HIV/AIDS and high poverty levels.

"Civil conflicts have had a great toll on shelter and infrastructure 
development. There is need for peace, which is a pre-requisite for 
sustainable development. In this regard, the Declaration on Cities and 
other human settlements in the new millennium, which also calls for 
concerted efforts by the international community in conflict resolution, 
has special significance to our region," said Mr. Wamalwa.

In recognition of the magnitude of the worsening human settlement scenario, 
member countries last year elevated the UN-Habitat to a UN programme on 
human settlement.

Mrs. Tibaijuka told the gathering that the agency's new status was a clear 
signal from the international community that adequate shelter and the 
plight of the world's urban poor are irrevocable priorities on the world's 
development agenda.

"Since 2002, during the final phase of the revitalisation process, 
UN-Habitat and our Habitat Agenda partners, have refocused on slum 
upgrading, mounting a direct attack on this most squalid settings for human 
life," she stressed.

"By the year 2050, when two-thirds of the world's nine billion inhabitants 
will live in cities, we expect 3 billion urban slum dwellers.  Slums, 
especially in the developing world, are forming at a rate five to ten times 
faster than the rate targeted by the international community to upgrade 
them," Mrs. Tibaijuka said.

But UNEP boss, Klaus Toepfer, noted that the world should not urbanise at 
the expense of environment. He said environmental concerns were important 
in relation to urban growth.  Said he: "In order to put checks and 
balances, charity begins at home, and implementing partners should ensure 
synergy in common goals".

Reported by Henry Neondo

Rastafarians Lobby For Legalisation Of Narcotic Herb

BLANTYRE (AANA) May 19 - A Rastafarian group in Malawi is lobbying 
government to legalise Indian hemp.

The group, whose members spot dreadlocks, recently requested President 
Bakili Muluzi to legalise the use of hemp, a narcotic plant locally known 
as chamba, for religious and spiritual purposes.

They also asked the president to give them opportunity for education and 
jobs, saying they were being sidelined because of their dreadlocks.  Most 
employers and education institutions here do not condone such hair styles.

President Muluzi, while assuring the group, (Rastafarians for Unity) said 
the government will ensure they are not discriminated against.	He however, 
pointed out that he could not allow smoking of hemp.

"Surely, we shall accommodate you into society, but you must behave 
yourself and not resort to consumption of illegal stuff," charged Muluzi.

Rastafarians have been a constant target of surprise police swoops for 
illegal possession of chamba.  The latest incident involved Junior Manning, 
a Jamaican disc jockey with Power 101 radio station in Blantyre.  He fled 
the country after being accused of cultivating hemp.

  Ras Juda, one of the leaders of the group, told the press that they will 
continue to lobby parliament to  legitimise use of hemp.

  "We are not giving up. We will start our vigorous campaign soon," said
Juda.

Reported by Hobbs Gama

FOCUS  ON  HIV/AIDS

NAIROBI (AANA) May 19: An International consultation on HIV/AIDS, organised 
by the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), brought together delegates 
from  faith-based organisations (FBOs) in Africa, the United Nations (UN) 
and ecumenical organisations.  Co-sponsored by the World Council of 
Churches (WCC), the World Conference on Religion and Peace  (WCRP) and 
Caritas Internationalis, the conference, which took place in tandem from 
May 7 to 12, deliberated  on effective partnerships between FBOs, UN and 
ecumenical agencies in the fight against the HIV/AIDS menace in 
Africa.  AANA correspondent, Osman Njuguna, attended the meeting, and filed 
the following reports.

Church Elder Expresses Concern For Elderly Caregivers

Churches in Africa have been challenged to also direct efforts towards 
addressing problems encountered by disadvantaged groups at grassroots 
level, as they battle HIV/AIDS.

President of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), The Most Rev. 
Prof. Kwesi Dickson, has observed that with some 70 percent of Africa's 
population living in rural areas, it would be appropriate that the battle 
against HIV/AIDS be effectively fought where the masses are.

He said this when delivering a keynote address during an international 
consultation on partnerships on HIV/AIDS in Africa (May 7-9).

Talking about AIDS orphans, Prof Dickson noted that while child-headed 
households were rare in Africa until after the Rwandan genocide of 
1994,  HIV/AIDS had caused child-headed households to be an increasing 
phenomenon in the continent.

He stressed that these children needed education, feeding and nurturing, 
saying, "The task is both a moral imperative and essential to Africa's 
development prospects".

"They are the forgotten, silent majority, who carry the real weight of 
HIV/AIDS"

The option, he explained, would be the emergence of a large proportion of 
societies who will have developed anti-social instincts because of hard life.

Prof. Dickson regretted that less attention had been paid to grandparents 
who had become caregivers, with challenging responsibility for the 40 
percent of AIDS orphans in Africa.

"They are the forgotten, silent majority, who carry the real weight of 
HIV/AIDS," he stressed.

Prof Dickson also noted stigmatisation as another area or concern, saying, 
"It frustrates awareness campaigns and encourages discrimination against 
people living with HIV/AIDS".

While calling upon churches to stand up against stigmatisation and 
discrimination, the Ghanaian Methodist Clergyman, disclosed that in 
November this year, church leaders in Africa, including women and youth, 
will gather in Yaounde, Cameroon for AACC's 8th General Assembly.

"We hope, among other concerns, to come up with an African covenant, 
committing all churches in Africa to total elimination of stigmatisation 
and discrimination," he concluded.

  Get Yourself Organised To Attract Funds, FBOs Told

Faith-based organisations (FBOs) in Africa have been urged to get 
themselves organised to attract more funds from international donor agencies.

Addressing an international consultation on HIV/AIDS in Africa here (May 
7-9), Senior Health Adviser for Geneva-based, Global Fund, Dr. Vinand 
Nantulya, regretted that FBOs on the continent were not as organised as 
other secular NGOs.

  "This is happening while they continue being a vital tool when it comes 
to delivering health care services to the community, and more so, in the 
new era of HIV/AIDS menace," he told the 150 delegates drawn from Africa 
and Europe.

According to him, FBOs in Africa are currently attracting only four percent 
of the funds destined for health care services on the continent. "This is 
partly because they are not organised," he said.

Dr. Nantulya added that the phenomenon was disturbing, taking into account 
that FBOs were commanding an estimated 60 percent of the entire health care 
services in Africa.

"I am here to confirm to you that if you get organised in terms of 
instituting workable structures, you will definitely attract more funds 
from the donor agencies, including from us," he stressed.

Addressing journalists at the end of the consultation, Dr. Nantulya, who is 
also Global Fund's director for Strategy and Evaluation, disclosed that 
most funds from his organisation get to the intended projects, through 
Country Co-ordinating Mechanisms (CCMs), and that states were mainly the 
benefactors.

"But as I am talking to you, even organised FBOs in needy areas, where 
civil conflicts have surfaced, could effectively attract donations from 
us," he pointed out.

Dr. Manoj Kurian, head of World Council of Churches (WCC) programme for 
health and healing, said his organisation had opted to work with FBOs in 
the area of health care due to their closeness to the community.

"There is no other kind of NGOs, which can claim to be closer to the 
community than FBOs," he stressed, while addressing newsmen at the end of 
the consultation.

Director of Advocacy and Partnerships in the department of HIV/AIDS at 
World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Winnie Mpanju Shumbusho, stressed the 
centrality of community, when it comes to putting out project proposals.

"But more often than not, they (communities) hardly appear as a vital 
component than simply as benefactors of the intended project. I am yet to 
come across a case where they are reflected as principal owners of the 
proposed projects," observed the WHO official.

National Health Agencies Challenged On Networking

Christian Health Associations (CHAs) in Africa have been challenged to 
effectively network among themselves on maters pertaining to HIV/AIDS.

This is the way out in this battle, according to delegates attending the 
May 10-12 meeting on Accountable Partnerships.
.
The meeting, which brought together 50 representatives of several CHAs in 
Africa, was part of the larger May 7-12 international Consultation on 
HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Participants stressed that the kind of networking being called for, would 
go a long way in helping FBOs in Africa share available resources in 
battling the HIV/AIDS menace on the continent.

A delegate observed: "We can hardly claim to be equal. There are those of 
us who are well equipped in terms of manpower and resources, while others 
are badly off. We need to support each other in this noble ministry".

The meeting agreed that since the continent was badly affected by HIV/AIDS, 
it was necessary to forget denominational differences and move in to offer 
services to the affected lot.