"Introducing The South Ridge ZimVision Team"

SRCC

"Frontline Report" (December 2010)

CORRECTION:

Julie VanZevern's grandchild soon to arrive and require surgical attention is a grandson, not a granddaughter, as was indicated in this report.


Frontline Report

"World AIDS Day"

It's WORLD AIDS DAY today.

Thank you for caring …

Thank you for sharing …

Thank you for praying.

Let's rise above the malaise of compassion fatigue and give a thought to the 35 million people who are living with HIV/AIDS today worldwide.

Statistics vary because so many population groups, particularly in Southern Africa, live in areas where stigma keeps many silent and where no accurate records are kept. Please take any statistic you read as a conservative estimate of the horrible reality.

As you notice the levelling off in the increase factor in some instances, remember the tragic damage to families (particularly children) and communities that's been left behind.



An estimated 23 million people died of AIDS between 1990 and 2007. In 2007 alone, more than 2 million people died from AIDS-related causes.
Source: 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic Executive Summary, page 18.
(www.UNAIDS.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Default.asp)

72% of the world’s AIDS-related deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, where 4-10% of the world's population lives.
Source: 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic Executive Summary, pages 5 & 18.
(www.UNAIDS.org/en’KnowledgeCentre/Default.asp)

In 2007, 1,000 new children (the majority, newborns) were infected with HIV each day.
Source: 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic Executive Summary, page 8
(www.UNAIDS.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Default.asp)

Every two minutes, a child under the age of 15 years dies of an AIDS-related illness.
Every minute, 14 seconds, a child is orphaned by AIDS.
Every minute, another child becomes HIV positive.
Source: UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2008, page 129
(www.unicef.org/publications/index_42623.html)
2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, Executive Summary, Page 9
(www.UNAIDS.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Default.asp)

Of the estimated 2 million HIV-infected children under the age of 15 years, 87% of them live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 22.1 milllion HV-positive people, 67% of the worldwide HIV-positive population.
Source: as above, pages 4,5& 9.

Only 20% of children with HIV are receiving antiretroviral therapy.
Source: As above, page 4.
www.WHO.org

"November 2010 Up-Date"

November Newsletter 2010

"Discipling for Development"

Discipling for Development is a key focus of the ministry of The Navigators in the African countries where they work (Burkina Faso, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda. The Navigators has no work in Zimbabwe).

Discipling for Development is a strategy The Navigators utilizes to impact poor, rural communities with a holistic Gospel.

Edward Mupada, Uganda country director for The Navigators, has said, “… I realized that we were on a new and exciting dispensation in the advancement of the Gospel. But how could we be relevant in a situation where unemployment levels are over 40% and many live in abject poverty?

“In November 2007 I attended the Discipling for Development training in Mbale, Uganda. I saw rural communities being transformed by the Gospel and livelihoods of people improving as they used local resources. The poor are given life skills and the Gospel is flowing freely through relational networks, impacting families and neighboring communities. I praise God for a new approach in discipleship that helps us reach the whole person and whole communities!”

The main focus of the work is among the rural poor in Africa. In countries where the church is well established, the Discipling for Development team enters into partnerships with in-country organizations that share our vision and commitment. They call these partnerships Discipling for Development mentoring projects. In these situations our mentors don’t live in the country where the training takes place; instead, they travel to the country about three times a year to train and coach indigenous missionaries and pastors. In countries (or people groups) where the church isn’t adequately established, The Navigators sends mentors to live among the people and implement the Discipling for Development process.

This approach is in line with the vision and strategy of the Zimbabwe ANESU Partnership. We invite you to watch this video clip, “What is Africa Yearning For?”, and rejoice in the good work being done through The Navigators in Africa, and pray that we too, might be effective in assisting the Church in Zimbabwe to meet the challenge Zimbabwe’s people face.

We believe that our relationship with Foundations in Farming (http://www.foundationsforfarming.org/) will greatly enhance this strategy, as we bring it to bear in Zimbabwe.

"AIDS And The Church"

The Church is people, not buildings and programs. The Church is God's people, dedicated to giving themselves to being God's hands and feet in a hurt and wounded world. TEAM's HIV/AIDS initiative is comprised of two main strategic church-based components. The ZITA Alliance is representative of the household of faith in North America ... local congregations or individual Christ followers who feel compelled to have a part in today's HIV/AIDS response. The ANESU Partnership is representative of front-line local-church based national initiatives and locally based global responses in Zimbabwe. This fellowship of people in Zimbabwe is working toward an ever more intentionally harmonized response to the human need caused by the human predicament of which poverty and HIV/AIDS is central.

For more information about the ZITA Alliance, or for information about becoming part of the ZITA Alliance response team on behalf of Zimbabwe's people, please contact Dave Davis, TEAM's Global Projects Director at d.davis@teamworld.org.

The article, "Aids And The Church", appeared in a previous edition of TEAM's Horizons magazine. It is included here for your interest and edification.



AIDS and the Church

"Church Families on The Front Lines"

A strategic team from Clinton, New Jersey will be in Zimbabwe in January, and another will following a few months later.

Pastor Ron Christiansen and the East Troy Bible Church family have launched Africa Impact 2011, a team vision trip being planned for March, 2011.


We're pleased to offer this unedited PowerPoint presentation that speaks to the heart of what is driving this intentional group of people to be involved.

If you and your church family would like to be part of what God is doing in Zimbabwe through the ANESU Partnership, we invite you to write to Dave Davis at ddavis@teamworld.org, or jrathbun@teamworld.org. Ask about the ZITA Alliance of individuals and church families that you could become a part of.



Africa Impact 2011 -

"Zimbabwe/Mozambique News"

Today we post the first Zimbabwe/Mozambique Newsletter. The ANESU Partnership lies within the embrace of the broader involvement of TEAM in Zimbabwe. We ask you to consider the whole picture as you partner and pray for what God is doing in and through the people of Southern Africa.


2010 November Newsletter and Prayer Focus

"A Global View of HIV/AIDS"

This is a repeat post for those who may have missed it the forst time around.

In February, 2009, Hans Rosling explained the HIV/AIDS pandemic with the aid of fabulous new shifting graphics.

He has converted the best available data from UNAIDS and WHO into understandable Gapminder bubbles.

While the statistics are difficult to accurately quantify in some areas of the world, especially sub Saharan Africa, this does illustrate the reality as we know it.

The two key messages that the global HIV epidemic has reached a “steady state” with 1% of the adult world population infected and that there are huge differences in HIV occurrence between and within African countries.

Many African countries have the same, relatively low, HIV levels as can be found in most of the world, whereas 50% of the world’s HIV infected persons live in a few countries in Eastern and Southern Africa (with 4% of the world population).

You will notice that Zimbabwe’s HIV rate of infection soared at one stage, but has been reduced quite dramatically in recent years.  While the rate of infection is still alarmingly high, we would suggest that one of the key factors in the turn-around had to do with government’s shift in policy that went from denying the existence of HIV to recognizing its reality and beginning to allow something to be done about it.  

Hans Rosling closes his speech by summarizing probable reasons for the high HIV burden in parts of Eastern and Southern Africa and he claims that the focus must be on preventing further HIV transmission in these highly affected populations.

I encourage you to watch this clip, and go to http://www.gapminder.org/videos/ted-talk-2009-hans-rosling-hiv-facts/ where you will be able to download the movie FREE in order to pass it on. 

"AIDSlink Newsletter October 2010"

Diane Marshall, International Aids Consultant for SIM, does an excellent job of contributing to the global HIV/AIDS conversation. We're pleased to offer here her most recent AIDSlink newsletter. The article on "Ethical Photography" is a good reminder for us as the ANESU Alliance carefully balances the dignity of the individual with the necessity to keep compassionate and caring people informed.


AIDSLINK96

"September/October 2010 Up-Date"

October Newsletter 2010

"International Prayer Day for Zimbabwe"

Please make note of September 26, 2010.

That day has been set aside as a day of prayer for Zimbabwe.

While there is much uncertainty in that nation, this call for Prayer is not being made in a vacuum.

The ANESU Partnership is partnering with Foundations in Farming in Zimbabwe, and believe in the vision that drives that ministry. Please have a look at http://www.lovezim.org/ where you will be able to read more.

Essentially, gatherings in Zimbabwe are being organized for that day by Trumpet Call for Transformation, a partnership between the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and Foundations for Farming. This partnership aims to equip the Church with agricultural skills in order to feed Zimbabwe and set her on her feet to recovery.

"July/August Up-Date"

July/August Up-Date

"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.

"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.