U.N. Foundation helps fund United Methodist health summit
Oct. 11, 2006
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The United Nations Foundation is providing a $100,000 grant to help underwrite a meeting of United Methodist leaders that will focus on a possible churchwide response to global health care challenges.
The grant, made to the Foundation for United Methodist Communications, was announced Oct. 10. Leaders from around the denomination will meet in Washington in December to address urgent issues such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, particularly on the continent of Africa.
"We believe God is pushing us to move forward with this healing ministry," said the Rev. Larry Hollon, top staff executive of United Methodist Communications. "We are bringing together United Methodist leaders to lay out a strategy to raise awareness of global health issues and mobilize United Methodists into action."
The communications agency is partnering with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and the U.N. Foundation in organizing the Washington meeting.
The U.N. Foundation works with organizations around the globe to address the world's most pressing problems, particularly health care. According to the foundation, a million children die from malaria each year.
"We believe that the United Methodist Church is paving the way the way for others to join in addressing these critical health issues," said Michael Madnick, senior vice president of the Washington-based U.N. Foundation. "This is an important partnership for the U.N. Foundation. We know and appreciate the role the faith community plays in working to solve major health challenges around the globe."
'No one needs to die'
An important step in the process leading to the relationship with the U.N. Foundation came last November, when Bishop João Somane Machado of Mozambique, and the Rev. R. Randy Day, top staff executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, joined with other leaders from the global community at the TIME Global Health Summit in New York City to focus on health issues around the world.
Machado told of his personal experience with repeated bouts of malaria, and of watching members of his family and parishioners die from the disease. One way to save lives, he said, is to provide hand-crank radios so people can listen to indigenous programs on health care and disease prevention.
Day noted that malaria affects 40 percent of the world's population, and that 90 percent of those cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa. "No one, absolutely no one, needs to die of malaria in the world today," he told the summit.
The summit led to a series of conversations resulting in the contact with the U.N. Foundation.
Possible steps
The meeting in Washington will bring together bishops, pastors, lay leaders, experts in global health care and top staff executives of United Methodist agencies.
They will discuss several possible steps, Hollon said. Those could include:
* Mobilizing the church in Africa, with assistance in providing education, prevention and treatment programs that reduce illness and mortality related to major health concerns such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. * Challenging the church in the United States to develop and expand global health education, including advocacy and fundraising programs that increase United Methodist participation and that support global health initiatives. * Creating opportunities for congregations in the United States to partner with churches and individuals in Africa and with global health advocates around the world to save lives on that continent.
The next step in the process, Hollon said, will be a meeting of an advisory council comprising bishops, pastors and key lay leadership from conferences, and staff from general agencies who work in the United States and Africa.
The advisory group's work will complement efforts by a task force of United Methodist agencies focusing on health and wholeness issues, Hollon said. That group includes representatives of United Methodist Communications and the boards of Church and Society, Global Ministries, Higher Education and Ministry, and Pension and Health Benefits.
The groups also will work with the denomination's Central Conference Communications Initiative, which is focused on expanding communications capacity in Africa, the Philippines and parts of Europe.
This report is based on a press release from United Methodist Communications. United Methodist News Service is a unit of the communications agency.
News media contact: Ginny Underwood, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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