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How do parents disclose to their children that they are HIV positive? That is the challenge a participant at a recent consultation on 25-27 November on HIV and adolescents in Limuru, Kenya, faced for years. The middle-aged woman, who probably contracted HIV when it first emerged in Zambia, talked about just how difficult it was for her to disclose her serostatus to her children.

“Disability does not mean inability! Human rights for all! Equality and access to good health care! Leave no one behind!” Slogans were plentiful at the 18th International Conference on AIDS and STIs. Some participants felt that the conference venue sadly belied these clarion calls as it was ill-equipped to handle the mobility and access needs of persons with disabilities.

When 505 percent more girls than boys get infected with HIV, the virus that is in its fourth decade can, indeed, be said to wear a woman’s face.

Climate change poses serious environmental challenges to meet current and future demands for food. The poorest communities, having the smallest carbon footprint on the planet, are facing the greatest impact of climate change. For many years, the right to food has been a key issue and priority for many parties, churches and ecumenical delegations involved in climate talks.

Climate-induced loss and damage is one of the key points being raised by faith groups during COP21. A discussion panel and a demonstration held at COP21 in early December brought to light many facets of this issue.

Over 20 faith leaders, with youth, political and civil society representatives sat down for a unique lunch at COP21 at a table with knives and forks but no food, in a public demonstration of their hunger for climate justice. The stunt was part of the Fast for the Climate initiatives on December 1st in Paris.

As we mark World AIDS Day 2015, the World Council of Churches-Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (WCC-EAA) welcomes a license agreement between the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) for daclatasvir, an important direct acting antiviral that is proven to help cure multiple genotypes of the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

“Stigma, discrimination, lack of access to information and appropriate prevention measures aggravate the spread of HIV and AIDS,” says Samuel Matsikure, who participated in a dialogue sponsored by Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy of the WCC.

Economic empowerment and a thriving positive engagement in community life for women affected by HIV and AIDS was the focus of a training sponsored by the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy of the WCC in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Trained by the WCC programme EHAIA, church leaders and activists in Kenya are working hard to address HIV and AIDS. They focus on HIV prevention measures, accessibility to the treatment and most importantly eliminating the discrimination and stigma attached to HIV, prevalent even within church communities.

At the 42nd Committee on World Food Security in Rome on 12-15 October, the intergovernmental body continued its quest to coordinate a global approach to food security.

Tackling the tragedy of hunger in a world of abundance, the Churches’ Week of Action on Food (11-18 October) is an opportunity for Christians, communities and all people around the world to act together for food justice.

A special service organized by the WCC at the Ecumenical Centre chapel in Geneva, Switzerland, dedicated prayers to the United Nations post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, meant to eliminate extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change and water scarcity by 2030.

Affordability of water and sanitation as a human right were deliberated at a side-event during the 30th Session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland.

The World Water Week is a “stepping stone” in accomplishing Sustainable Development Goals related to water and sanitation – and the faith communities must be actively engaged in achieving this vision, according to Dinesh Suna, coordinator of the Ecumenical Water Network of the WCC. Suna shared these reflections following his participation at the 2015 World Water Week Stockholm held in Sweden.

Joined in prayer, Christian churches around the world will again observe the ecumenical “Time for Creation” (1 September to 4 October), this year bolstered by Pope Francis’s recent proclamation of 1 September as the “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.”

A declaration emphasizing the need for greater convergence in the struggles for justice and rights of communities, particularly for land, water, forests, natural resources, livelihood and identity, was the outcome of a meeting in Nepal, involving civil society organizations and social movements.

The International Reference Group of the Ecumenical Water Network of the WCC, at the conclusion of its recent meeting in Geneva, urged churches and ecumenical organizations in Europe and North America to consider eliminating the use of bottled water due to its adverse impact on the environment and because it is an impediment to realizing the human right to water.

Focusing on issues related to sexuality, gender based violence and HIV and AIDS, leaders from African churches and civil society organizations engaged in lively discussions at a WCC workshop in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

When a WCC meeting on ecumenical HIV and AIDS response concluded last week in Limuru, Kenya, its message to the global HIV and AIDS community was terse: traditional ways of tackling the pandemic have failed.