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Bakwata joins anti-HIV/AIDS Faith grouping
by Simon Kivamwo
2.7.04
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/observer/2004/02/07/5183.html
The
Supreme Council of Tanzanian Muslims, Bakwata, has officially joined the
Balm In Gilead’s Africa HIV/AIDS Faith Initiatives.
Bakwata becomes the third religious group in Tanzania to join in the trans-continental
faith-based initiatives in the fight against HIV/AIDS pandemic, the
Sunday Observer learnt yesterday.
Other groups already in the campaign are The Tanzania Episcopal Conference
(TEC) and The Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT).
“We are proud to announce that during our just ended trip we have
secured a third Tanzanian partner. It is the Supreme Council of Tanzania
Muslims,” Samiya
Bashir, the Director of Communications of The Balm In Gilead told the
Sunday Observer in an e-mail message received yesterday.
Bashir said Bakwata’s move adds more weight to the organisation
which is striving to consolidate the anti- HIV/AIDS struggle.
She said one of the most important features of The Balm In Gilead’s
Africa HIV/AIDS Faith Initiative was the fact that “it is a completely
new model for faith community mobilization”.
“We are working together with one goal in mind — to halt the
spread of HIV/AIDS,” she stated, adding, ”after all Christians
and Muslims can work
together for a common cause.”
The Balm In Gilead is an organization founded by an African-American woman
and run and operated by staff members and consultants from across the
African Diaspora — staff and consultants representing Chicago
and Jamaica, Montserrat and Bamako, Lagos and Kampala, Kenya and Somalia,
North Carolina
and Accra, and many others.
The founder and Chief Executive Officer, Pernessa C. Seele, who began
the organization in 1989 in Harlem, New York, USA, has been working hard
over the past 15 years to create an international, inter-faith organization.
To date, Bashir noted, they had opened national offices within the long-established
faith community structures (Muslim and Christian, Catholic and Protestant)
within five countries—Tanzania, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire,
Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Three weeks ago, Balm In Gilead staff were in Dar es Salaam conducting
training programmes for their international staff in the areas of
organizational development, programme management and programme evaluation,
as well as conducting interviews with staff in order to develop the most
effective and culturally relevant resource materials for each country.
Over the past 15 years, the Balm In Gilead’s pioneering achievements
have enabled thousands of African-American churches to become leaders in
preventing HIV by providing comprehensive educational programmes and offering
compassionate support to encourage those infected to seek and maintain treatement.
Source: Sunday Observer
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