National Mirror
Called to Witness
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Date: Wed, Apr 07, 2010
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Papers, Publications & Reports
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LET US GATHER TOGETHER TO SHARE, TO LEARN AND TO ENCOURAGE
Author(s): Rev Philip Sulumeti –Chairman of the KEC-Catholic Health Commission
Language: English
Abstract
First allow me to thank all the members of Kenya Catholic AIDS Taskforce- K-CHAT who, with the Kenya Episcopal Conference are the main conveners of this conference. K-CHAT has been mandated by the Catholic bishops of Kenya to:
1. Represent Church-related HIV/AIDS personnel, programmes and projects, to serve as a permanent forum where they can meet and let others know what they are doing, and to cluster them in a network of mutual support.
2. As a coalition within the Church, offer support to our Bishops, Priests and other Church leaders and ministers in their efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.
To carry out this mandate K- CHAT foresaw and worked towards a major gathering of various catholic stakeholders and service providers and thus to convene this conference whose objectives are:
• To learn about foundations of Catholic AIDS ministry.
• To review and celebrate the twenty years of Catholic AIDS ministry since The Challenge of AIDS released by KEC in 1987.
• To share what we are doing.
• To discover what others in Kenya are doing to stem the AIDS pandemic, especially government policy and practice.
• To launch This We Teach and Do throughout the Church in Kenya and to bring the Policy to all those carrying forward the Church’s AIDS ministry.
• To enhance collaboration and networking amongst everyone involved in the Church’s AIDS ministry.
• To communicate a more positive image of the Church’s loving and compassionate response to those infected and affected.
On behalf of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, I am happy to invite all of you to be part of various plenary sessions, the numerous special interest sessions as well as the break out sessions to discuss the Catholic AIDS Policy.
The Policy itself will be officially launched at the end of the Conference. We are encouraging the conference participants to “Know it thoroughly so that you can not only use it well, but be in a position to share its contents authoritatively with others.” Our message to them is, “the Church in Kenya has spoken, go and do whatever is necessary to bring about hope and relief to your fellow Kenyans.
It is true that most if not all our 44 major hospitals spread all over Kenya offer subsidized or free Anti-retrovirals; it is true that close to 100 Health Units including health centers offer services in the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV; it is true that many orphans find refuge in our children’s homes and child survival programs; it is true that many youth are given life affirming abstinence messages from our programs such us Education for Life and Abstinence and Behaviour-change for Youth (ABY). But all these are far from enough.
As a Church, we need to learn better ways of rolling out programs even faster to all who need our assistance. We need to challenge ourselves to build our capacities to provide more excellent services. We need to rededicate ourselves to provide services with ever greater compassion. We have come a long way but we need to go even further.
The needs of orphaned children get more acute every day. Many persons who need ART have yet to be reached. Many pregnant mothers are yet to be availed of the life saving service of PMTCT.
The conference provides us with an opportunity to stop a while, to share and celebrate our services, learn new and better methods of service delivery and then – move on with greater confidence.
As is stated in the National Catholic AIDS policy, “Thus the Church wants to reach out to PLWHA, whether Catholic or not, in an integral, evangelical and holistic way. The first step is to appreciate their situation and value the potential each one has. PLWHA need to be both challenged and helped to live positively and to play their role in the Church’s life and ministry. Attending greatly to children and youth who are our future and to families, we want to offer special attention and care to orphans and to child-headed households”.
Allow me in conclusion to thank all the conveners who have worked tirelessly to make this conference a reality, those who assisted materially and technically; African Jesuit Network (AJAN), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Trocaire, GTZ amongst others.
It is with their partnership and collaboration that we are able to make real our mission to respond with love to those infected and affected by HIV&AIDS.
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