wfn.org | IOCC, ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH EXPAND ANTI-AIDS CAMPAIGN

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

SCOBA
The Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas
8 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10021

For Immediate Release
February 4, 2004

Contact:
Stephen Huba
1-877-803-4622
shuba@iocc.org

IOCC, ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH EXPAND ANTI-AIDS CAMPAIGN
New $6 million agreement with USAID will strengthen efforts

Baltimore (IOCC) - In Ethiopia, a country with an ancient Christian
heritage and the third largest number of HIV-positive people in the world,
the customary greeting from an Orthodox priest to his parishioners has
become, "May God save you and your family from AIDS."  The HIV/AIDS
epidemic has affected Ethiopia like few other countries in Africa,
prompting an increasingly vigorous effort by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
to educate the nation about the disease and to care for the afflicted.

Now, that campaign is getting a boost from International Orthodox Christian
Charities (IOCC), the humanitarian aid agency of Orthodox Christians. The
new IOCC program will strengthen the anti-AIDS efforts of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church and its humanitarian arm, the Development and Inter-Church
Aid Commission (DICAC).  "This battle requires the cooperation of everyone
within Ethiopia, and from outside, who has the resources and expertise to
help," said His Holiness Abune Paulos, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church. "The Church by itself cannot do it all. IOCC is our natural ally."

The three-year, $6 million project, supported by the U.S. Agency for
International Development, will build the Church's capacity to care for
AIDS orphans and to give palliative and hospice care to people living with
HIV/AIDS.  By 2006, the project plans to extend faith-based community care
to nearly 9,000 orphans and vulnerable children, providing them with adult
supervision and access to education, health care, food, shelter and other
forms of assistance.  The project also seeks to reduce the incidence of
HIV/AIDS infections in Ethiopia through an educational campaign that
promotes the importance of abstinence and/or faithfulness to one partner,
especially among young people ages 15 to 24.

"IOCC is honored to be collaborating with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in
this critical HIV/AIDS prevention campaign, and in its efforts to care for
people suffering with the disease," said IOCC Executive Director
Constantine M. Triantafilou. "Our mission and our faith require us to be
engaged in this fight for the future of Ethiopia and for her people."  IOCC
has been active in Ethiopia since 2001, when it began supporting
small-scale agricultural projects in partnership with DICAC.	The Church
and IOCC will implement the AIDS project in the 11 largest urban centers in
the Southern Nationalities & Nation-People Region and the regions of
Oromiya and Tigray. An estimated 2.2 million people in Ethiopia are
HIV-positive, including 250,000 children under age 5. An estimated 1.2
million Ethiopian children have been orphaned by AIDS.	Ninety percent of
the reported AIDS cases in Ethiopia affect people between the ages of 20
and 49. "This is the most productive segment of the population," said Tedla
Teshome, vice chairman of DICAC. "Our job is really to save a generation.
The very existence of the nation is at stake."

Patriarch Paulos has become an outspoken leader on the challenge of
HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia, holding large "Save the People" rallies each year.
The Church also regularly promotes its anti-AIDS message in worship
services, Bible studies and Sunday school classes.  Because of its size,
the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is uniquely equipped to deliver this message
to a large segment of the population, Teshome said. With 35,000 churches
and monasteries, and 500,000 clergy, including priests, deacons and monks,
the Church has access to the most remote parts of Ethiopia, he said.

IOCC and DICAC, with a joint contribution valued at $1 million, will
conduct the HIV/AIDS education campaign through public rallies, peer
counseling, posters, literature, T-shirts, skits and musical productions.
Another component of the project is the training of counselors who will
spread the message of AIDS prevention beyond the life of the program, and
who will train others. With this model of "trained trainers," thousands of
counselors will be available to support the anti-AIDS campaign by 2006.
The project also will expand the Church's network of "Hope Centers" for
AIDS orphans - increasing the number of centers from the current 13 to 200
- and will expand hospice care for people living with HIV/AIDS - increasing
the number of community-based programs to 250 by the year 2006.  USAID
administers the U.S. foreign assistance program, providing economic and
humanitarian assistance in more than 80 countries worldwide.

For more information about IOCC and its humanitarian programs in Ethiopia
and 13 other countries, please visit www.iocc.org.