wfn.org | Africa University directors thank General Conference for 'the vision'

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 3, 2004 GC04-048

By Melissa Lauber*

Sixteen years ago at General Conference, Louisiana Conference delegate Nancy
Carruth stood at the podium and proposed a United Methodist-related school
that could transform the continent of Africa. 

She returned to the podium May 3, to thank the denomination for making that
vision a reality.

"Africa University is committed to making a difference," said Bishop Nkulu
Ntanda Ntambo, the school's chancellor and chairman of its board of
directors. "Thank you, General Conference, for all you have done; already we
are changing Africa."

The school opened in Mutare, Zimbabwe, in 1992 with 40 students who met in
converted barns and chicken coops. Today, five faculties of education,
agriculture, business administration, health and science and theology, boast
1,283 students in 30 debt-free state-of-the-art buildings. A total of 1,059
people from 24 nations have graduated from that school. 

In the 2001-04 quadrennium, United Methodists pledged $2.5 million to the
Africa University Fund, representing 29 cents for each member of the
denomination. 

At this session of General Conference, Africa University is requesting the
same levels of funding. However, they are encouraging annual conferences to
pay their full apportionment. In past years, giving has only totaled 90
percent of what was budgeted, said Lloyd Rollins, director of development for
the school.

"If full apportionments (of $2.5 million) were paid, we would have, on
average, an additional quarter of a million dollars to spend on this
ministry," Rollins said. University officials say the church's support is
becoming even more essential as the school expands its programs.

General Conference saw a video and heard a report from James Salley,
associate vice chancellor for institutional advancement, about the school's
new programs. Those include a partnership that will address the AIDS pandemic
in Africa and the development of political leaders to direct the many African
nations devastated by famine and civil unrest.

Methodist Healthcare of Memphis and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in
Memphis, Tenn., have joined with Africa University to equip health care
professionals from Zimbabwe to deal with AIDS in their communities through
education, prevention, treatment and infection control efforts. 

Suzana Lourenco, a 2000 Africa University graduate and the first woman in her
family to graduate from college, told the delegates about how a 19-year old
woman recently died leaving two children, one of whom is HIV-positive.
Similar stories are told throughout Africa, where 7,000 people a day die from
AIDS. 

The school has also developed an Institute of Leadership and Government, to
which the U.S. government contributed $1.8 million. The U.S. ambassador to
Zimbabwe, Joseph Sullivan, told the delegates, via the video, that this
effort will provide a generation of people to "fulfill a vision of peace."

During the report on Africa University, Salley called the bishops of the
Northeast Jurisdiction forward, singling them out for their special
contributions to the school.

A 32-member Africa University choir was scheduled to sing at the morning
service. However, because of difficulties in receiving visas, only 16 were
able to attend. The choir members wandered throughout the hall shaking hands
with the bishops and delegates as they sang.

"It's not finished yet," said Salley, concluding the report. "There's a sense
in which we've just begun.

 # # #

*Lauber is associate editor for the United Methodist Church's
Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference.

News media contact: (412) 325-6080 during General Conference, April 27-May 7.
After May 10: (615) 742-5470. 

 
 

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