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Compendium of Promising Practices of African Faith Community Interventions against Paediatric and Adolescent HIV

Executive Summary

UNAIDS and PEPFAR developed this compendium in 2023. WCC collaborated on translating the Executive Summary into French and Portuguese.

This vital report brings together essential lessons from faith communities’ exceptional leadership in addressing the challenge of HIV in children. It documents evidence from the core roles that faith communities have played in identifying undiagnosed children living with HIV, improving the continuity of treatment, and supporting adherence to care and treatment. It also documents lessons from how faith leaders have driven advocacy to tackle stigma and discrimination and push for targets to be achieved. It will help faith communities and those who support and partner with them to advance a step change in progress towards the goal of ending AIDS in children by 2030.

Ahead of Her Time

Pan-African Women of Faith and the Vision of Christian Unity, Mission, and Justice
Angélique Keturah Walker-Smith

The author shares the untold stories of several pan-African women of faith from Africa, North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe who provided local, national, and global ecumenical leadership during formative periods of the modern-day ecumenical movement.

In addition to the author’s personal experiences with these women, the publication offers an important rewriting of the ecumenical narrative from a pan-African Women’s lens. It is hoped that the publication will strengthen the ecumenical agenda of a more inclusive community that embraces the objectives of the pilgrimage of justice and peace as it embraces the experience of these women who have historically been marginalized and affected by racism and gender discrimination.

Witnessing the mighty river flow

What an incredible time to be living in! While skepticism and eco-anxiety tend to be the results we most see nowadays as we grow aware of the dimensions of the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity and the socio-environmental crisis, for me I can't help but feel the daring and stubborn Christian hope as I grow increasingly committed to ecumenical care for creation. 

Women’s wellness and mental health as part of the mission of the church – a wounded healer’s balm

I received a call from a friend of mine - we both work as medical doctors and had earlier realised that our husbands, who are ministers in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, had been friends for years —this is one of the reasons that drew us to each other.  She had been attending the February meeting of the Methodist Womens Prayer and Service Union (Manyano), Connexional Extended Executive Meeting. My friend said that the general president, Gretta Makhwenkwe, had appointed us to the Wellness Committee.

Women suffering from fistula need urgent help

Rose Mantey qualified as a state registered nurse in Ghana in 1996, and completed training in midwifery in 2002. In 2005 she started working in a maternal and child health community clinic, attached to the Mercy Women’s Catholic Hospital in Mankessin, Ghana. 

Borders and Migrants

On 20 May 2022, a group of us, 14 pilgrims from different parts of the world (Kenya, Brussels, Germany, Hong Kong, Philippines, Poland, Rome, Korea, Canada, Fiji, Australia, London, Scotland, and Geneva—a very diverse group) gathered in Palermo, Italy for a Pilgrim Team Visit on the theme of migration. 

Helping Children Out of the Shadows and Into the Light: Poster

Church Resources For Ending Sexual Violence Against Children

Part of the "Out of the Shadow"s toolkit.

A poster with contact information for the national Child Helpline partner, who takes calls and emails 24/7 from concerned adults or children. (For countries not listed in the toolkit, you may request a template for adaptation from [email protected]. The list of national Child Helplines can be found at https://www.childhelplineinternational.org/child-helplines/child-helpli…

Because God Loves Me - Affirming My Value in Christ

“Because God Loves Me—Affirming My Value in Christ,” a new curriculum written in French that is designed to help children ages 7-12 address gender-based violence.

Though the curriculum, edited by Yvette A. Kelem and Blandine E. Ackla, was developed for use primarily with churches and church groups in Africa, it is relevant and accessible for other French-speaking populations as well.

The Christian education programme encourages the full involvement of children, adolescents and youth in becoming early proponents of nonviolence. Developed for children's Bible study leaders, teachers, parish volunteers, and others who work with children, the curriculum serves as a guide to help churches live into their responsibility to protect all children, girls and women from gender-based violence.

Treatment Adherence and Faith Healing in the Context of HIV and AIDS in Africa

Training Manual for Religious Leaders

This series of manuals emerged out of the realization that exclusive claims of faith healing in the context of HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are compromising adherence to antiretroviral therapy. It recognizes that religious leaders are strategically placed to promote adherence (following through on the use of medication as suggested by a treating doctor) to antiretroviral therapy and to challenge stigma and discrimination.

The manual consists of practical, user-friendly units designed for use with faith communities, theological institutions, and theological education by extension. It is a living document and is adaptable to different contexts.

Positive Masculinities and Femininities

Handbook for Adolescents and Young People in Faith Communities in Nigeria

Continuing its mission of providing practical pastoral resources to counter HIV and AIDS, WCC’s Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Advocacy and Initiatives (WCC EHAIA) has published a half dozen manuals for addressing key concerns of those most affected by the disease. Context-driven and language-specific, the six pieces yet tackle topics pertinent to the whole of Africa and beyond and can be employed to structure workshops and to inform resource persons themselves. 

Healing Together

A Facilitator’s Resource for Ecumenical Faith and Community-Based Counselling
Fulata Lusungu Moyo

Up to 80 percent of Africans are estimated to be traumatized as a result of violence, poverty, disease, natural disasters, and other causes. As a continent where the majority of the population are young people, Africa’s adolescent population is particularly affected. Along with common causes of trauma, youth also experience many other struggles related to growing up. But this trauma often goes unaddressed, not only because sexual and gender-based violence become normalized, but also because of the lack of specific services and awareness. 

This book addresses this lack. It is an important gift to enhance the role of churches to provide wholeness.

Food and Finance

Toward Life-Enhancing Agriculture

The growing effects of global finance—both financial and philanthropic—on the sustainability of agriculture are explored in the new World Council of Churches publication “Food and Finance: Toward Life-Enhancing Agriculture,” developed together with "Bread for all" and edited by Athena Peralta.