Churches get on their bikes to counter AIDS

THE New Jersey Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church has donated N$49 000 to the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN)’s HIV-AIDS home-based care programme.

The money will be used to buy bicycles for church HIV-AIDS volunteers. At present the volunteers have to walk long distances to counsel and assist families affected by AIDS.CCN General Secretary, the Revered Nangula Kathindi, who received the cheque from Reverend Bruce Ewen of the New Jersey Synod, told Nampa that the church plans to concentrate on home-based care for those infected and affected by HIV-AIDS.”We the family members have to care and assist our own people when they are struck by AIDS.Hospitals do not have the capacity to give this care anymore due the high number of HIV-AIDS cases in the country,” she said.Kathindi said the first batch of bicycles would be dispatched to the Oshiko settlement near Ongwediva in northern Namibia.Others would be distributed among volunteers of CCN member churches, as well as given to the Catholic AIDS Action and the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s AIDS Programme (ELCAP) Ewen said the money was raised by members of Lutheran churches in New Jersey.- NampaAt present the volunteers have to walk long distances to counsel and assist families affected by AIDS. CCN General Secretary, the Revered Nangula Kathindi, who received the cheque from Reverend Bruce Ewen of the New Jersey Synod, told Nampa that the church plans to concentrate on home-based care for those infected and affected by HIV-AIDS. “We the family members have to care and assist our own people when they are struck by AIDS. Hospitals do not have the capacity to give this care anymore due the high number of HIV-AIDS cases in the country,” she said. Kathindi said the first batch of bicycles would be dispatched to the Oshiko settlement near Ongwediva in northern Namibia. Others would be distributed among volunteers of CCN member churches, as well as given to the Catholic AIDS Action and the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s AIDS Programme (ELCAP) Ewen said the money was raised by members of Lutheran churches in New Jersey. – Nampa