During the debate on human rights and obstetric fistula at the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, the World Council of Churches (WCC) with its ecumenical partners called upon governments to pay more attention to the prevention of obstetric fistula in their policies, strategic plans, and budgets.
Visiting Madagascar in partnership with the Catholic Spiritan brotherhood and the non-government organization Geneva for Human Rights last week, the World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation explored how the resources shared better equip churches to help women suffering from obstetric fistula – condition which impacts millions of women around the world, particularly in sub-saharan Africa.
As a crowd of more than 300 gathered, the St Paul’s University School of Theology officially launched Thursdays in Black, pledging to build an Africa without violence and to join together on a pilgrimage of justice, peace, and reconciliation.
On World Food Safety Day, clerics and farmers in Kenya reflected about aflatoxin—a group of poisons found in maize and peanuts—that continue to cause deaths and related diseases in the East African country.
In drought-stricken regions in eastern Africa, churches and church congregations continue to pray for rain, as the weather conditions leave millions of people without food, water and pasture for their animals.
Two World Council of Churches (WCC) HIV initiatives met to review and celebrate the critical and life-changing work of the initiatives and to continue planning for a strengthened WCC HIV response in the new WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing.
A symposium exploring the complex question of misleading theologies in Africa ended here on 24 November, amid concerns that the phenomenon was harming the efforts to combat coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and other diseases.
Rev. Dr Fidon Mwombeki, general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, has expressed hope that the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to new types of fellowship, where churches can build back better.
Esther Linda Kwamboka works with the Bible when she counsels sex workers and long-distance truck drivers, and those with HIV and AIDS. She also offers support to those of different faiths.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has brought on what many are calling a “shadow pandemic” of gender-based violence, African faith leaders are amplifying their call for increased action for prevention and support for those affected.
Amid growing concerns over runaway corruption and public debt in Africa, the All Africa Conference of Churches on 21 September launched a policy brief on the challenges, saying the two were now inseparable in the continent.
Frontline actions by African faith communities in mitigating against the novel coronavirus are being welcomed as timely, as groups move to support people left vulnerable by the pandemic.
Using lessons learned from building health-competent faith communities and responding to the HIV and AIDS epidemic, African church leaders are doing their best to help their communities cope with the novel coronavirus.
As the UN warns that the coronavirus pandemic is pushing millions to the brink if starvation in a “widespread famine of biblical proportions,” a senior Christian leader in Africa has emphasised that it is possible to beat hunger, a yoke that enslaves many in the continent.
The All Africa Conference of Churches joined many across the world in expressing shock and dismay at remarks from two French scientists during a live interview on the French television channel LCI, suggesting that Africa should be the testing ground for treatment for the coronavirus.
A recent seminar for adolescents and young people from the Nairobi city slum Schools of Hope Clubs invited participants to address their perceptions of what it means to be a man or a woman.
A series of four manuals produced by the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy were launched on 1 May in Nairobi, Kenya. The manuals address ecumenical needs for faith-based resources to treat and prevent the spread of HIV along with education on gender issues.
For HIV-infected people in Nairobi, the Eastern Deanery Aids Relief Program makes a difference. By providing a quarter of the antiretroviral therapy care, it helps around 26,000 HIV-infected people in the Kenyan capital to live normal lives.
“Having a sponsor.” “Prostitution.” “Rape.” Those are three among many grave issues that high school students face daily in Eastern Africa. Yet they have little or no safe space in which to share with adults or within churches.
