Helping people - protect from discrimination

AIDS is a terrible disease and one of the greatest challenges the church has ever faced. Its effects are especially pronounced in Africa and Asia, where the infection rate is particularly high and hardly a week goes by without church congregation members dying of AIDS. The UEM members are at their side.

Activities

Ansprechpartner

Matthias Börner
Head of Training Centre Bethel and responsible for International Diaconia Program

Grete-Reich-Weg 9 33617 Bielefeld Germany

Tel.: +49 (0)521-144-4524
Fax: +49 (0)202 89004-805
E-Mail

UEM's work against Aids

We want to do more than “help the poor victims”. We want to empower people with AIDS to renounce their status as passive victims and we want to bridge the gap between “us” and “them” that is so widespread. People with AIDS should not be judged or stigmatized, but rather have their place in the community just like everybody else.

Focus of our work

Our anti-AIDS programme concentrates primarily on six points: Education and training for church workers, ecumenical learning, theological work, combating poverty, public advocacy for the rights of people with HIV/AIDS, and fundraising. The main activities are:

Education and training for church staff in Asia on communication and the management of AIDS projects, in particular with young people
Church exchanges, so that churches can learn from one another about good programmes and establish similar programmes at their own churches
Providing antiretroviral drugs
Workshops and training sessions on questions of practical theology (for example sermon and liturgy workshops) and theological reflection
Actively including people living with HIV/AIDS in church programmes
Promoting church HIV/AIDS prevention programmes for young people
Programmes to combat poverty

In the race against the spread of HIV/AIDS, churches need to work with one another and have much to learn from one another. We support an exchange of experiences between our member churches in Germany, Africa, and Asia.