Search results

Getting more people tested and treated for HIV, caring for the sick, helping people understand how to care for themselves —these are the tasks of faith-based organizations (FBOs) helping people with HIV in local communities.

The World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors (FENSA), after more than two years of intergovernmental negotiations.

A clear, global interfaith call to action to end the AIDS epidemic will be unveiled at an interfaith service on 7 June at 5:30 p.m. in the Church Center of the United Nations, 777 United Nations Plaza in New York City. The service will precede an 8-10 June UN High Level Meeting on AIDS at which world leaders will adopt a concise, action-oriented Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. The declaration will express the commitment of nations to HIV response, and serve as a point of accountability for achieving the goals for ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030.

“Leave no one behind.” That’s the urgent message of the World Council of Churches’ general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in a video released in preparation for a United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS in New York, 8-10 June.

Last Sunday, the “Twin Consultation” on “Reformation – Education – Transformation” wrapped up at the Francke Foundations in Halle, Germany. Held six months after the first consultation in São Leopoldo, Brazil, the five-day session in Halle became a vibrant meeting point and a juncture between different religious contexts from the global North and South.

More than 120 people from throughout the world have gathered in the eastern German city of Halle to reflect on how insights from the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago can contribute to transforming the world today.

Between 7-27 March, more than 100 images with the hash tag #7Weeks4Water were posted by Instagram users who joined the World Council of Churches (WCC) contest. Most of them told stories about water justice, illustrating the Lenten campaign “Seven Weeks for Water,” promoted by the WCC Ecumenical Water Network annually since 2008.

After traveling to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv in the last week for a climate justice meeting, World Council of Churches staff and partners were detained or deported in a manner that WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit terms both unprecedented and intolerable.

“Act now, not later.” Dr David Barstow chose this message for a photo featured in the “100-day countdown” to a United Nations (UN) High Level Meeting on HIV in New York on 8-10 June.

World Health Day, 7 April, is focusing this year on diabetes. The World Health Organization has released its first Global Report on Diabetes, which reveals that the number of adults living with diabetes has almost quadrupled since 1980 to 422 million, or 8.5% of the world’s adult population.

On the world scale of countries with plentiful water, Brazil comes out in the top league. It has 12 percent of the world’s fresh water supplies. Yet Magali do Nascimento Cunha does not see her country scoring so well when it comes to water and sanitation distribution.

As summer approaches, the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (WCC-EAA) is now in full preparation for the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016), hosted in Durban 18-22 July 2016.

On 8 February, the WCC convened a strategy meeting between principals and senior staff of the ACT Alliance, Anglican Alliance, Caritas Internationalis, Globethics, Lutheran World Federation and WCC, to discuss communication and collaboration in policy engagement, advocacy and action.

Twenty-seven international students from the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, Switzerland, are embarking on a future of ecumenism, dialogue and unity that began with months of intense study and fellowship.

This Christmas the St Luke Clinic in Tirana has come of age. Twenty-one years after it was founded it offers specialized medical assistance in an array of medical fields and its founding was the foundation of expanded church-run medical services in Albania.

“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.

Hundreds of people from many nations and confessions, among them pastors, priests, laity, nuns, bishops, archbishops and cardinals, joined in a service for God’s Creation at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris during the United Nations climate conference (COP 21) being held in the city.

Faith campaigners have presented a total of 1,780,528 signatures gathered worldwide calling for decisive action to curb global warming. The petitions were delivered to leaders of the United Nations COP 21 climate conference beginning its work in Paris.