| Church executive witnesses AIDS ministries in Africa By Joretta Purdue United Methodist News Service  A United Methodist Church executive found disease-caused devastation in two countries of southern Africa, but she also found hope in the work the church is doing there.
Visiting Mozambique and Zimbabwe, Linda Bales of the denominations Board of Church and Society learned that up to one-fourth of the population of the two countries has HIV/AIDS and both are among the six countries in southern Africa that are facing widespread famine as a result of drought. The disasters are compounding each other. Bales visited the countries before attending the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development in the Republic of South Africa, Aug. 26-Sept. 4. AIDS has taken its highest toll among people in the prime of life the parents and workers often leaving a single parent or grandparent to care for a generation of children, some of whom also have AIDS. Often the single caretaker also is the family breadwinner in a situation where the crops have failed and there are no jobs. I saw two countries struggling with poverty, corruption and unstable economies as well as cultural norms that keep women subservient in many aspects of life, Bales said. During her brief visit, she gave particular attention to women and children. In Zimbabwe, I met a woman named Maria who had AIDS, Bales recounted. She had two children, 15 and 18 years of age, who fortunately were not infected. Her husband died in 1990, and, although Maria is certain she contracted the disease from him, he never confessed the fact. Maria is a bright, articulate, talented woman who is now attending a support program for women with AIDS and is eking out a living selling quilt patches. Bales, who is in charge of the Louise and Hugh Moore Population Project at the board, wants United Methodists to do more for people like Maria and Judith, a 15-year-old girl dying of tuberculosis a complication of HIV/AIDS. She contracted AIDS through her mother, Bales said. Judith wonders what she did wrong to get AIDS, and her mom has yet to explain that it wasnt her fault. HIV/AIDS prevention is one of the classes taught three times a week in an educational project supported by United Methodist Women. The project, Economia Domestica, teaches basic skills such as nutrition, sewing and cooking to high school-age girls during a six-month period. Located in Libertad, Mozambique, outside the capital of Maputo, the school is in an area where transportation is almost nonexistent, Bales noted, yet 15 young women have successfully completed the course. The need is great in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, but Bales takes hope in the fact that both countries have a significant number of United Methodists in growing and strong local congregations. The whole church must do more to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic, she said. She advocates educating ourselves, advocating for prevention and treatment programs, and working to eradicate poverty through systemic change and to mobilize resources financial and otherwise. Christ mandates us to do nothing less. | 
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