by Aisha Satterwhite

On April 7, 2002, a delegation from The Balm In Gilead left for a five-country African tour as part of its transatlantic partnership between African and African American religious leaders to effectively address the AIDS pandemic among Black people worldwide.

The Balm In Gilead's Africa HIV/AIDS Faith Initiative is aimed at building the capacity of faith organizations in Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, and Zimbabwe to become effective forces in AIDS prevention, service delivery, and dismantling the stigma of AIDS. With initial funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this mission, which includes planning, training and assessment, advances The Balm In Gilead's five-year African HIV/AIDS Faith Initiative. This Initiative was launched in January 2002 with The African Diaspora Faith Leaders Historical Summit on HIV/AIDS in Tarrytown, New York, where more than 60 heads of communions from Africa, the Caribbean and African American communities were in attendance.

The ultimate goals are to improve the capacity of faith communities throughout Africa, and to engage and encourage the religious leadership and denominational structures in the participating countries to: (1) speak out against the stigma of AIDS; (2) support and provide interventions that prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission; (3) support and provide faith-based voluntary HIV counseling and testing; and (4) provide long-term care and support for orphans.


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