Ministering to Those Suffering From AIDS

MALAWI (INS)—The AIDS pandemic has swept through central and southern Africa, leaving thousands of widows and orphans in its wake. Sub-Saharan Africa is more affected by AIDS than any other region in the world: only 12 percent of the world’s population, yet more than 60 percent of the world’s AIDS-infected population. Twelve million children in sub-Saharan Africa have been orphaned by AIDS. How do Christian ministries deal with this challenge? Three indigenous ministries partnered with Intercede International are bringing wholistic solutions to Africans suffering from HIV/AIDS.

Helping AIDS Orphans in Malawi

Malawi now has about one million orphans out of a population of 12 million. Many of these orphans have lost their parents because of AIDS. Forward in Faith for Malawi has responded to the plight of children with particular emphasis on orphans, to alleviate their suffering. In December 2005, FIF started a three-year project called the Vocational and Enterprise Development and HIV and AIDS Reduction for Orphans (VEDHAR). Its purpose is to provide social and health care and economic empowerment for orphans and neglected children in dire need in order to rehabilitate them into the mainstream of community life, so that they can help with their own development. FIF intends to help 3,600 orphans in nine districts of southern Malawi.

FIF started as a local church, meeting both spiritual and physical needs of rural and urban communities in the 1980s. Owing to its strong outreach programs, the ministry has been able to respond to increasing needs arising from the prevalence of AIDS and the widespread poverty in the country. In particular, the ministry has targeted abused and neglected children and orphans.

FIF leader Bishop Dackson Chitheka observes that orphans in Malawi frequently suffer from acute malnutrition, low food intake and poor health, illiteracy, poor education or none at all. VEDHAR is working to alleviate these problems by:

• Launching a vocational skills training program to teach occupational skills and enable orphans and needy children to start working,

• Setting up Drop-In Feeding and Services Centres for orphans,

• Offering formal education assistance to orphans and underprivileged children,

• Offering relief and emergency aid to orphans,

• Promoting HIV- and AIDS-prevention activities in communities, and caring for orphans that are HIV-positive,

• Reducing malnutrition cases among orphans and neglected children,

• Offering them moral and spiritual counselling.

Currently, FIF is assisting 629 children, mostly orphans, in five areas of Malawi.

“It is our prayer for God to raise up helpers that can stand with us to care for these orphans by providing food, clothing, and personal hygiene items,” asserts Chitheka. “We really need to reach out to these helpless, needy people. This is an enormous responsibility requiring concerted effort and support from the donor community. Requirements include food items, clothes, shelter, and water facilities.”

FIF also plans to help out 2,150 widows, who are caring for some of these children.

Helping Widows and Single Mothers

In Kenya, there are many widows and single mothers who have been made outcasts because of conflicts between cultures and religions. Many had spouses who weren’t saved and eventually acquired HIV/AIDS. When these women are sick, they come to church. “We are here to minister the love of Jesus to a hurting world,” says Winnie Owiti, director of Ebenezer Life Centre.

Many of the 100+ widows helped by ELC have AIDS, and most are caring for their grandchildren, because their own children have died of the disease. ELC is also home to 300 orphaned or abandoned children. More than 600 school-age children attend ELC schools.





Intercede recently provided funds for a vocational training centre to equip the widows with income-generating skills. Owiti is now praying for sewing machines for the tailoring shop. She also hopes to raise livestock, fruits and vegetables to help feed the growing number of widows and orphans seeking shelter at ELC. As food is scarce for the 100 widows, 600 children enrolled in Ebenezer’s primary and secondary schools, 300 young orphans and 67 street boys, Owiti is praying about new ways to generate income. She hopes ELC will be able to provide each widow with a cow (at a cost of $145 each) for milk to drink or sell.

Many of the widows currently help the children at Ebenezer, and participate in weekly meetings for prayer and fellowship.

These women are temporarily accommodated at the centre and then discharged. Women are counselled, treated, and trained. It is the prayer of the ministry that after the trauma of bereavement, some of the women will go back into society as a testimony of what God has done for them.

Owiti is in the process of raising funds to build modest compounds of mud and iron sheets to house widows, some of whom are now sleeping in her office, or on her floors and porch. Many of these widows are taking care of their grandchildren, as their children have already died of AIDS. Some— such as one widow who was beaten by her alcoholic son—are in abusive situations with nowhere else to go.

Recently, Owiti reported, “We had started the building of widows’ huts. One of the huts we started with has reached the lintel. The widows are grateful to you for considering them.”

Education and Jobs

Claude Sossa, leader of Intercede-assisted Christ Power Ministries, has an excellent reputation in Benin, in part because of his work among orphans and widows. Nationally recognized in the field of education, Sossa established five Christian schools in which children attend free.

With support from Intercede, Sossa started Community Transformation Project, providing medical assistance to AIDS victims, caring for AIDS orphans and providing income-producing projects.

Educational programs are fundamental to the project. Although some view teachings on sexual purity as an attack on their culture, AIDS victims are extremely open to the Gospel message, as their own mortality is forefront in their minds. CPM uses the topic of AIDS to enter schools with the Gospel. Within the first five months, 100 families expressed an interest in follow-up.

Many AIDS victims are homeless, cast out by their families. CPM missionaries educate these families, encouraging them to welcome the exiled family member home.

CPM enables AIDS victims to become self-sufficient by raising livestock and crops. Among the Toli tribe, husbands expect wives to be the breadwinners. Unable to find work, many resort to prostitution to feed their families, resulting in a high incidence of AIDS. CPM has stopped this cycle by teaching them to cultivate cassava to sell. Many families have become Christians because of this kindness.

These ministries, each of which partners with Intercede international, need continued prayer as they minister to many hurting people in Christ’s Name.