Saturday, July 31, 2010

"Please Remember The Children"




Journalist Fidelis Zvomuya, of Inter Service News Agency (http://allafrica.com/stories/201007280006.html), recently wrote, “According to UNAIDS, Zimbabwe has over 1,3 million AIDS orphans. About 100,000 of them live on their own while others live with their extended families.

It estimates that between 110,000 and 140,000 children aged between 0 to 14 years are living with HIV - who mostly live in rural areas.

And the country does not have enough antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to comply with World Health Organisation recommendations on providing treatment to people with HIV. According to Dr Tapuwa Magure, CEO of the Zimbabwe National AIDS Council, the number of Zimbabweans in need of ARVs has increased to 570,000 from 350,000.”


“Currently about 200,000 people whose immune systems have been severely weakened are on ARVs. This number includes children”, Magure said.

“But Tanya Weaver of the American Foundation for Children with AIDS, said Zimbabwe receives little HIV/AIDS funding support from any of the major donor initiatives. The country receives approximately four dollars per HIV-positive person per year.”

“In contrast, neighbouring Zambia, which has a similar rate of HIV prevalence, receives around 187 dollars per HIV-positive person annually from foreign donors,”
states Weaver.”

Zvomuya quoted a medical doctor at Guruve Hospital who said, “In most rural areas, children with AIDS are generally considered a lost cause.

Treatment, to the extent it exists, is limited to adults, for whom antiretroviral therapy is cheaper and easier.

Specialized and costly tests are needed to determine whether a child under 18 months is infected, although treatment can begin based on symptoms alone.

Children are also more complicated to treat, partly because their medication must be constantly adjusted as their height and weight change. And paediatric drugs cost more than adult medication until recently, up to three times as much.

The doctor added, Half of all untreated HIV-positive infants die before the age of two for lack of medication that can produce transformations seemingly overnight.”


These are some of the realities of the situation responders in Zimbabwe are dealing with.

The challenge is multi-tiered and so must the response be. We are doing what our partners equip us to do by means of a Home Based Care program operating out of a hospital in the rural Northeast of Zimbabwe.

Our vision is to broaden that response into other affected areas of the country.

One of the ways that will be accomplished will be by means of networking and strategic partnerships with sister HIV/AIDS response initiatives presently underway within Zimbabwe.

Internationally, one of the most vital components to response expansion will be the ZITA Alliance that is being formed in North America.

For more information, please write budwestcoast@shaw.ca.

Monday, July 19, 2010

"From The Heart of a Pastor"




The ZITA Alliance is a gathering of representatives from the North American household of faith who feel compelled to join forces with the Zimbabwean Church in the fight against the human predicament that is exacerbating the impact of HIV/AIDS.

We are profoundly grateful for the pastors who have caught the vision and are challenging men and women of God toward sensitivity to the heart beat of God, so that they will hear the voice of God when He whispers, "I need you to be part of this ..."

Please read this prayerfully, and consider the role God would have you fill as we respond to the challenge He places before us. It is something a ZITA Alliance pastor shared with a team of individuals from the congregation he serves, who are contemplating being part of a trip to Zimbabwe early next year.

"This vision trip is a pro-active step to peel back the insulation from the wires of our faith and connect us with the power of God's vision for the nations.

You may or may not be affected by the HIV crisis in Zimbabwe, but if you go on this trip, you will return changed. We live such protected and insulated lives in our communities in America. To really grasp the purposes of God for our lives, we need to make conscious and energtic steps to expose ourselves to the pain and suffering of this world. Honestly, this trip is more about your walk with God than it is about the millions of Africans dying with HIV.

HIV is an agent that focuses the intensity of the curse on mankind. Just as the earthquake focused the intensity of the curse upon Haiti. But after the devastation of the curse, what remains is the beautiful image of the body of Christ.

The polished and materialistic wrapper of religion is removed and the living, breathing, active people of God empowered by His Spirit remain to bring glory, honor and praise to the name of Jesus Christ.

There is a frantic global effort to address HIV AIDS. But any efforts to erradicate AIDS will only prolong the inevitable - death - not just death but spiritual death - separation from the Life Giver. ARVs, money, orphanages, nutrition are all an effort to bring a slice of heaven to earth so that people will want to join God in His kingdom. If they never experience a little heaven in the middle of the curse, they will never thirst for heaven, but instead some other vain thing or idol.

Our job is to get back down to the level of the curse and look at it, see it, smell it, taste it and grieve over it. In the midst of the grief, we can bring the glory and hope of Jesus Christ by caring, listening and comforting. We bear the image of God. We bear His Word. We bear the Spirit of God. We bear the hope of Eternity. We bear the name above all names - Jesus Christ. We are His ambassadors, His priesthood, His body, His bride, His family, His rulers, His hands and His voice.

This trip will scrape the scab off of our hardened hearts and help expose us to the groaning creation as it waits for the redemption of Christ."


We will be hosting vision trips on the part of two churches in January and March of 2011. God is raising up individuals with specific professional and individual gifting that we so desperately need for the counsel they will be able to offer us. More importantly these people will be going with a right heart, committed to finding the real pulse of the Zimbabwean reality.

Each of these individuals is as much a part of the team as is any individual on the front lines.