Partners Worldwide Provides Economic Support

The deadly disease of HIV/AIDS is taking a terrible toll on the teenagers of South Africa, a community educator who is herself infected with the AIDS virus recently told a group of people during a lunch meeting at the Christian Reformed Church office in Grand Rapids.

Nearly 17 percent of all South African teens are HIV positive. If things continue as they are, more than half of all teenagers now living in South Africa will one day contract HIV, the AIDS virus, said Angie Diale, who is a nurse and serves as a director of the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Coalition (SAHAC).

“It can be very depressing. Our young people are dying in great numbers,” Diale told representatives of various CRC agencies.

Along with Pastor Victor Khumalo, who is also a director of the South Africa HIV/AIDS Coalition in South Africa, Diale is in this country for six weeks to seek additional support for the work of their group. SAHAC’s budget for HIV/AIDS outreach this year is $200,000.

Outreach to Teens

SAHAC was founded in 2003 by the Association of Evangelical Relief and Development Organizations. The lead organization for this HIV/AIDS effort is Partners Worldwide, an international, business ministry that partners with the CRC and especially with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. Working in collaboration with Partners Worldwide on this initiative are several non-profit groups and churches, including Christ Memorial Church in Holland, the International Bible Society, and Mariemont Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“We want to develop peer-to-peer programs where peers can influence each other with a vision for a better and healthier life,” said Diale.

Teens aren’t the only ones at risk in Africa. Of the country’s 44 million people, more than 5.5 million are infected with HIV, and many of them are suffering from full-blown AIDS.

But it’s with teens where the real work needs to be done, says Pastor Victor Khumalo. “The power of change lies with our youth,” he says. “One choice for life today can change every tomorrow. The choice to save sex for marriage and remain faithful to one partner for life can stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in its tracks.”

Khumalo’s organization has launched its education and mentoring project among teens in one of the Soweto townships on the outskirts of Johannesburg. “We want to change the mindset of young people,” he said.

Job Creation Instills Hope

Building on lessons from its Million Mentors Initiative, Partners Worldwide is helping SAHAC with business and job creation initiatives that provide economic empowerment for communities and individuals impacted by HIV-AIDS.

The Million Mentors Initiative (MMI) began in 2003 with the help of a $700,000 grant from the United States’ USAID office. Focusing on Haiti, Nicaragua and Kenya, Partners Worldwide, in collaboration with CRWRC, used the federal grant to help establish business associations, give out loans, and create training and mentoring programs in which business people from North America traveled abroad to help others develop their business, create jobs and alleviate poverty.

Since its inception, the initiative helped to build 84 business groups, created 1,061 jobs, and retained some 8,269 jobs, says Roxanne Addink de Graaf, the MMI coordinator for Partners Worldwide. “What we have tried to do is instill hope in people. Hope is critical for transformation,” she says.

Having found success in Haiti, Nicaragua, and Kenya, the Million Mentors Initiative is likely to used as a model for economic development in other countries, among them South Africa. Partners Worldwide is based in Grand Rapids.

Causes for South Africa’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic

Several things have contributed to the skyrocketing HIV rate in South Africa. Causes include the political turmoil that came before and in the years after the fall of apartheid. During this period, neither the government nor other institutions paid much attention to the looming epidemic.

Increased freedom of choice and access to world media and the loose sexuality that it can encourage has played a role in the infection rate as well. Exploitation of women and children and ongoing poverty are also to blame, says Khumalo.

Worst of all, though, he says, is the prevailing attitude among teens that they are immune, even though they come from families in which their mothers and fathers have died from AIDS. What is needed, he says, is for families, churches, schools, hospitals, businesses and government offices to work together.

“With one clear voice, we need to equip the youth with knowledge, skills, character and courage they need to stand in the face of relentless pressure” to have sex before marriage and to engage in other risky behaviors, he says.