More news from Swaziland this morning. Derek is a very sober realist. When he speaks, we need to hear him. Follow the link for the rest of the story. As bad as things are in Swaziland, they are going to get worse before they get better. “Swaziland is to feel the full brunt of the HIV and AIDS pandemic from 2010 onwards, National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA) Director Derek von Wissel […]
This bit of news crossed the wires this morning. It appears that the sub-continent of India has the largest number of AIDS cases in the world, though the percentage of its population effected is still much lower than that found in sub-saharan Africa. The most worrying bit of news in the report is the admission by the UN AIDS office that we are still behind in our efforts to respond to the disease. “On Tuesday, […]
“The WFP estimates that 40% of Swaziland’s population ages 15-49 is infected with HIV. Most can’t work the fields or do other work to earn money to support their families or pay for treatment. That means infected people die relatively soon. So a country with a population of a little more than 1 million has to find food for about 80,000 AIDS orphans.” Full article here… We’re just about to begin a new “container project” […]
This brief article speaks to the challenges in Swaziland of providing care for the people who are suffering from HIV and AIDS. We met with some very heroic Christians when I traveled to Swaziland last year. The Diocese of Swaziland has a program to train and support parish health ministers to do the work described in the article Linked below. News, Health Systems Trust: “Swaziland’s home-based caregivers are too few and too poorly paid to […]
Church World Service Announces July U.S.-African Interfaith Summit in Washington: “WASHINGTON — More than 30 high level Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Jewish leaders from Africa will meet in Washington this July with Africa-vested American faith leaders, U.S. advocacy organizations, think tank analysts, academicians, and congressional policy makers focused on foreign policy, to dialogue concerning the continent’s major challenges in an effort to affect US Government policy and encourage the US Administration to make good on […]
SWAZILAND: Producing ethanol from sugar will rescue cane growers: “ Source: IRIN Swaziland’s troubled sugar industry is turning to ethanol production, a petroleum substitute distilled from molasses, as a way to rescue profitability and jobs.” (Via AlertNet Newsdesk.)
Link: Swaziland Journal – January 2005. Last year I spent a couple of weeks in Swaziland as part of a small team working to evaluate the communications needs of the Swazi Anglican Church and to increase the level of cooperation between the parish I serve and our sister parish in the capital of Swaziland. The communications secretary at my parish collected all my writing from that trip and posted them into one easy to access […]
Link: International News Article | Reuters.com. HARARE (Reuters) – A strong earthquake rocked large parts of Mozambique and Zimbabwe on Thursday, sending people into the streets as far away as Harare and Maputo, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. I’ve not heard any news yet from Swaziland about any effects this quake might have had there. (Mozambique borders Swaziland on the north east.) Either way this isn’t good. Mozambique isn’t in that much […]
Link: Reuters AlertNet – SWAZILAND: No end in sight to food shortages. JOHANNESBURG, 7 February (IRIN) – On the brink of its fifth consecutive harvest failure, concern is mounting in Swaziland as food shortages continue.”The World Food Programme (WFP) has moved from an emergency response to recovery, but there is still a huge demand for relief food distribution,” Catherine Feeney, WFP’s Deputy Country Director, told IRIN.The organisation is already feeding 250,000 people, nearly a quarter […]
Our Parish meeting is a time for us to take stock of where we are, and where it is that God is calling us to travel. How is God asking you to rethink your day to day living? http://www.audioblog.com/playweb?audioid=Pdf02a3becbc6bf584bb83822b76a730fZ1t7R1REYmJ8&buffer=5&fc=FFFFFF&pc=99CCFF&kc=0033CC&bc=FFFFFF&gateway=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.audioblog.com%2Fplaylist&player=ap21MP3 File
