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The Way Forward

After the consultation ended, the team drove back to Dar es Salaam. Speaking to an audience of about 40 journalists in Dar es Salaam, Seele urged the entire community to wage a total war against HIV/AIDS. "We black people are in the greatest crisis ever. If we keep wasting time, we will be wiped out."

In the U.S., one in every fifty black men is HIV-positive. In Tanzania, life expectancy has decreased from 61 to 46 years because of HIV/AIDS. The Balm's mission in Tanzania is to translate the success in the U.S. to this country by mobilizing churches and helping them build their capacity by educating their followers.

"There is no way we as a church can keep from joining this war," said Rev. Mugarura. "Most victims are our own members, the people we used to pray with." Judging from the media's coverage and the religious leaders' requests for information, it appears that everyone has put on their battle gear.

Before leaving for Zimbabwe, The Balm team gathered to reflect on the experiences in Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, and Tanzania and the extraordinary successes achieved thus far. Board Chair Erline Belton helped the team put the experiences in perspective, pulling out the points of pride as well as the challenges the team faced from personal and professional points of view. She also guided a very rich discussion on how to move forward, not only through Zimbabwe and Kenya but in future programming plans.

By pushing the team to think about the most critical steps to be taken over the next six months, Belton set the foundation for the team to deal with these issues thoughtfully and carefully. Unfortunately, she can't stay for the next two countries we visit, but she has provided clarity on how to sustain the momentum we've achieved thus far. As the team loses one member, it picks up another. Dr. Randall Bailey, The Balm's resident theological expert on HIV/AIDS, will be joining us as we travel through Zimbabwe and Kenya.

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