"Across the Diocese of Montreal, parishes learned about the need that AIDS patients in Africa have for nutritious food to eat when they take their anti-retroviral medicines. Their Basket Fund, which focused on providing food baskets to AIDS patients for the first few months after they are diagnosed with the disease, raised $10,000, enough to provide 125 people with food to get themselves back on their feet and providing for their families again". [Text of entire article.]
"About 140 Circle members from 25 countries met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from August 4th to August 8th 2002. This publication is one of a series of books that were generated by the research papers presented at that conference. The Conference theme was`Sex: Stigma and HIV/AIDS: African Women Challenging Religion, Culture and Social Practices'."-- Preface, p. xi.
"This book is the beginning of a series of Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians books published by Cluster Publications. The series is on HIV/AIDS and African Women". -- verso of half title-page.
Contents: Preface : Breaking the Silence on HIV/AIDS : The Lament of Women of Africa / Musimbi Kanyoro -- African Women of Faith Speak Out in an HIV/AIDS Era / Isabel Apawo Phiri -- Lessons on Healing from Naaman (2 Kings 5:1-27): An African-American Perspective / Cheryl Barbara Anderson -- "The Mother's Cow" : A Study of Old Testament References to Virginity in the Context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa / Patricia Frances Bruce -- Talitha Cum ! Calling the Girl-Child and Women to Life in the HIV/AIDS and Globalization Era / Musa Dube -- The Attitude of Jesus to the `Anointing Prostitute' : A Model for Contemporary Churches in the Face of HIV/AIDS in Africa / Dorcas Olubanke Akintunde -- Trapped Between Two `Canons' : African-South African Christian Women in the HIV/AIDS Era / Madipoane Masenya (ngwana' Mphahlele) -- Theological Challenges and Ecclesiological Responses to Women Experiencing HIV/AIDS : A South Eastern Zimbabwe Context / Elesinah Chauke -- Choosing to Remain Silent : Links Between Gender Violence, HIV/AIDS and the South African Church / Beverley Haddad -- South African Jewish Women and HIV/AIDS / Azila Talit Reisenberger -- Spiritual Care-giving to Women Affected by HIV/AIDS / Christina Landman -- HIV and AIDS Curriculum for Theological Institutions in Africa / Musa Dube -- Utilization of Distance Learning Methods on Combating HIV/AIDS among Rural Christian Women in Africa / Lucy Kasyoka Kithome -- "This is My Body Broken for You" : Liturgical Resources for Dealing with HIV/AIDS / Devarakshanam Betty Govinden.
Anglican contributors include Devarakshanam Betty Govinden and Beverley Haddad.
"Mercy Amba Oduyoye, from Ghana, founded the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians and is the first African woman from south of the Sahara to have served as deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches. The essays in this volume describe the key contributions she has made to African theology in our time, and then apply her insights to issues of scripture, health and poverty, and women as peacemakers". -- back cover.
Contents divided into five main parts: Celebrating Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye -- African Women, the Bible and Health -- Women as Traditional Healers in Africa -- African Women's Experiences of Health and Healing, Endurance and Peacemaking -- Postscript.
Contents: Acknowledgements -- Preface / Elizabeth Amoah -- Introduction : "Treading Softly but Firmly": African Women, Religion and Health / Isabel Apawo Phiri and Sarojini Nadar -- Part I: Celebrating Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye -- 1. Beads and Strands: Threading More Beads in the Story of the Circle / Musimbi R.A. Kanyoro -- 2. Mercy Amba Oduyoye: Wise Woman Bearing Gifts / Letty M. Russell -- 3. Let's Celebrate the Power of Naming / Nyambura J. Njoroge -- Part II: African Women, the Bible and Health -- 4. "Texts of Terror": The Conspiracy of Rape in the Bible, Church, and Society: The Case of Esther 2:1-8 / Sarojini Nadar -- 5. Women and Health in Ghana and the Trokosi Practice: An Issue of Women's and Children's Rights in 2 Kings 4:1-7 / Dorothy B.E.A. Akoto -- Part III: Women as Traditional Healers in Africa -- 6. Dealing with the Trauma of Sexual Abuse: A Gender-based Analysis of the Testimonies of Female Traditional Healers in KwaZulu-Natal / Isabel Apawo Phiri -- 7. Adinkra !: Four Hearts Joined Together: On Becoming Healing-Teachers of African Indigenous Religion/s in HIV and AIDS Prevention / Musa W. Dube -- 8. Women as Healers: The Nigerian (Yoruba) Example / Dorcas Olubanke Akintunde -- Part IV: African Women's Experiences of Health and Healing, Endurance and Peacemaking -- 9. Women, Poverty, and HIV in Zimbabwe: An Exploration of Inequalities in Health Care / Sophia Chirongoma -- 10. Women and Peacemaking: The Challenge of a Non-Violent Life / Susan Rakoczy -- 11. Stand Up and Walk, Daughter of My People: Consecrated Sisters of the Church / Sr. M. Bernadette Mbuy Beya -- 12. From Mere Existence to Tenacious Endurance: Stigma, HIV/AIDS and a Feminist Theology of Praxis / Denise M. Ackermann -- 13. Navigating Experiences of Healing: A Narrative Theology of Eschatological Hope as Healing / Fulata Lusungu Moyo -- Part V: Postscript -- 14. Daughters of Ethiopia: Constructing a Feminist Discourse in Ebony Strokes / Ogbu U. Kalu -- Contributors.
"As late as the 1988 Lambeth Conference, bishops from Africa were denying that there was a disease called AIDS". The situation has changed now and the Cape Town joint meeting passed a resolution "that calls for a universal response to AIDS". Several African churches, including those of Uganda and Tanzania have developed AIDS education and prevention programs.
Luc Montagnier, one of the discoverers of the AIDS virus, has urged the Roman Catholic church to relax its ban on contraception. The French professor gave a Vatican conference on the child a moving description of the inroads of the disease among children in Uganda.
"HIV kills proportionally more men, women and children who are poor. The overwhelming majority of people with HIV, some 95 per cent of the global total, live in the developing world." "But the dour reality of AIDS in Africa is that it is intrinsically linked to poverty and in Africa, women are the poorest of the poor. All statistics agree: women are the group most affected by AIDS in Africa ... As well as poverty, their vulnerability to HIV infection is related to biological differences, the sexual behaviour of their partners, the exercise of power, social attitudes, and pressures in a context where poverty has a feminine face." "An important facet of AIDS in Africa is that women and girls are the primary caregivers for those suffering from AIDS". "With the economic fabric of Sub-Saharan Africa rapidly disintegrating due to the impact of AIDS, people are pushed towards riskier behaviour. Young girls with neither skills nor education step into the roles of their sick or dying mothers and look for ways of providing for families for whom they have become the sole breadwinners. .... The situation forces them into precarious lifestyles, often involving the sex trade. In such a context, they have little ground to negotiate for safer sexual practices."