Members of the Presbyterian Church have given £0.5m to help two development charities helping Christian groups around the world in the fight against AIDS.
Tearfund and Christian Aid have both benefitted by £0.25m as a result of "Aids Matters", a hard hitting campaign run by the church during last Christmas which increased awareness of the extend of the AIDS problem and raised money for 10 AIDS education and healthcare projects in developing countries.
"HIV/AIDS has already claimed 22 million lives and the most recent estimate of the projected death toll exceeds 200 million," says Hazel McCall, convener of the Presbyterian Church's World Development Committee who promoted the campaign.
"90% of people with HIV live in developing countries and of course these are the countries with the least resources available to them to combat HIV/AIDS."
"When you're confronted with huge figures like the statistics on HIV/AIDS its easy to just say that the problem is so big that nothing I might do could make a difference," continues Hazel. "But what we've got to remember is that behind those statistics are people, individuals, and we can make things better for them, one by one."
"Once again the response of the Presbyterian Church has been amazing and I would thank everyone who has contributed to our appeal. Christian communities have been reluctant to talk openly about HIV/AIDS but now many churches in developing countries are implementing health education programmes. It is vital that churches here support their fellow Christians through informed prayer and direct financial giving and I was delighted to hand over £0.5m to our partner organisations."
While the Presbyterian Church has no projects of its own it channels its support for developing countries through Tearfund and Christian Aid. Through "Aids Matters" help will be given to 10 projects spread around the world including two in India and others in Ghana, Brazil, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Serbia and Thailand. These provide education about HIV/AIDS for communities and healthcare for individuals and families directly effected by it. Working through local churches they also provide general education to children and assisting people to grow more food.
Since beginning World Development appeals some years ago the Presbyterian church has given over £5m to Tearfund and Christian Aid. Last year's appeal raised £440,000 for agricultural and education projects in Egypt, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Bolivia and India.
Issued by Stephen Lynas, Presbyterian Information Services. Info@PresbyterianIreland.org
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