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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.

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.

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.

“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.

The WCC, World Evangelical Alliance and All Africa Conference of Churches, along with church-related humanitarian organizations and a coalition of church-related networks and organizations and partners, are planning 10 June 2018 as a second Global Day of Prayer to End Famine to be observed in faith congregations worldwide.

Rev. Pauline Wanjiru Njiru, eastern Africa regional coordinator for the World Council of Churches Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy (EHAIA), has worked with young people, church leaders and parents for several years now.

On 12 March, Jane Murenga, a head teacher at a local Anglican Church-sponsored primary school, was raped and murdered in Githure village, Kirinyaga County in Kenya. She was hosting her younger sister at her home. She left the main house to take a shower in the bathroom which is detached from the house. Her sister decided to check on her, only to find her on the ground lifeless with a man on top of her, raping her.

“Is there a way we can address stigma and discrimination among faith communities, to set an example, so that those who are there to provide services, to give care, do not themselves stigmatize? Because when it comes to HIV and AIDS, it doesn’t matter if we are Christians or Muslims, women or men. With HIV and AIDS, we need to deal with it as human beings.”

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.

A WCC group concluded a three-day meeting by acknowledging achievements that have been made in addressing HIV and AIDS.

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.

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.