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2008 General Conference Focuses Part 4: Global Health leads church's agenda

By Christopher J. Troilo

UMConnection Correspondent

With the 2008 General Conference nearly upon us, ready to commence April 23 to May 2 in Fort Worth, Texas, the UMConnection is concluding its series examining the four focuses being proposed for the denomination.

This fourth initiative deals with global health, with a special emphasis on combating malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

Directly before General Conference, on April 22, The United Methodist Global AIDS Fund Committee will sponsor "Lighten the Burden II," a day-long event intended to heighten awareness among United Methodists about HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

The event, which will be held at First UMC in Fort Worth, Texas, will address the realities surrounding these diseases and how The United Methodist Church is responding. United Methodist Global AIDS Fund projects will also be featured.

While the specifics of all the programs to be further developed after General Conference has yet to be determined, there have been several United Methodist initiatives that have garnered attention recently due to the inroads they have been making.

In the fight against malaria, a simple and cost-efficient concept has made dramatic differences in

helping with prevention of the infectious disease.

The United Methodist Church has partnered with the group Nothing But Nets, an organization that

delivers mosquito-proof bed nets to impoverished families in Sub-Saharan Africa.

One bed net costs just $10 to buy, deliver and provide education for families on its use. This bed net can safely last a family for about four years, thanks to a long-lasting insecticide woven into the net fabric.

Studies show that use of insecticide-treated bed nets can reduce malaria transmission as much as 90 percent in areas with high coverage rates.

For information of how your $10 can help save lives, visit www.nothingbutnets.net.

In 2007, the Nothing But Nets campaign raised more than $18 million.

According to the United Nations Foundation, a partner with The United Methodist Church, the money came from 60,000 donors

during the first year of the campaign. This includes more than $9.4 million from individuals, $3 million in matching funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $5.7 million through "American Idol," the TV show.

More than 700,000 nets have been distributed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Chad, Mali, and Gabon, the United Methodist News Service reported.

"It's just phenomenal what we've been able to accomplish in such a short time," said Bishop Thomas Bickerton. "The reality is that we can save a child's life for such a small amount of money, and that message has really touched people's hearts and compelled them to get engaged.

Not all of the global health focus is related directly to infectious diseases. Many times, general health is proportional to the poverty and education levels of a specific area of the world.

Nyala, the capitol of South Darfur on the eastern side of Africa's continent, is home to many displaced refugees of the Darfur conflict.

For the past 29 years, Ginghamsburg UMC in Ohio, in collaboration with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), has been assisting this region by raising money to assist the plight surrounding the region.

The Ohio-based church uses education and awareness to ask its community to contribute to the cause, and then shows them the direct results: 90 new schools and 10 water facilities that provide more than 22,000 people with water.

The Ginghamburg Church and UMCOR feel this could be a model for developing relief in other areas of the world.

One of the real concerns regarding the new initiatives is a matter of available funding. While the recommended budget of $642 million for the 2009-12 quadrennium represents a 4.8 percent increase from the 2005-08 allotment, this is still significantly less than the churchwide agencies had hoped for.

The General Board of Global Ministries, responsible for addressing both the global health as well as the poverty initiative has received only

6 percent increase in its budget from last year. They had requested a 23 percent increase.

They will have to focus their resources very specifically in order to promote global health, board members report. As a result of the tight budget, fund allocation for initiatives to aid mental health and to promote education and awareness against human trafficking will be reassigned.

These are tough choices, church leaders say. But the denomination can not take on everything at once. The prayer is that, together, the denomination can start to make a significant difference in addressing critical life-and-death issues facing the world today.