Global health and religious leaders meeting at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva have noted the essential role faith-based organizations play in providing health services.In a consultation entitled: “The future of faith-based health care provision”, participants related some of their experiences in responding to the global Ebola crisis.
The ACHAP has urged governments in the region to engage strongly with church-based health bodies as crucial partners in achieving Universal Health Care, at the conclusion of its biannual meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.
In Africa, where up to 40 percent of the health care facilities are provided by faith based organizations, Dr Mirfin Mpundu, executive director of the Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network, says that due to their unique position churches can play a special role in eliminating HIV and AIDS and bringing improvements in the lives of people living with the virus.
Early struggles in developing a response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic were remembered by African women church leaders who gathered in Nairobi, Kenya to celebrate more than 30 years of their Christian ministry in the churches of their region.
Women from churches across Africa have gathered in Kenya to focus on the achievements, challenges and opportunities of women's ministry in African churches over the past 30 years, as well as their responses to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.
African churches must confidently step into the lives of minority groups suffering from HIV and AIDS supporting them irrespective of their circumstances, said, author of A Walk at Midnight: Journeying with Abused Women and Girls towards inner Dignity and Wholeness, Catherine Mumbi Wanjohi, known for her work with sex workers facing the threat of HIV and AIDS in Kenya.
Hopes for strong expressions of women’s concerns for life, justice and peace at the WCC's upcoming assembly were expressed at the 90th anniversary of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) - Woman’s Guild, held recently in Kenya.