Little Seeds update on church mobilisation
Little Seeds has been running a church mobilisation programme for HIV and AIDS in the mountain communities near the Blyde River Canyon, South Africa. This area is remote and cut off from urban centres. Churches are desperate for help in exploring ways to bring hope to their communities. Little Seeds has run a series of workshops for them to do just that.
Little Seeds trainer, Gertrude, explains more …
"The churches have responded well to the ideas presented in the workshops and it has been rewarding to see how church leaders from different denominations benefit by pulling together around a shared challenge.
"Our psychosocial training for groups of care-givers has highlighted the need for much more support to be offered to children, care-givers, and grannies in those communities. Little Seeds is planning to assist the local home-based care organisation and the church to start support groups for people affected by HIV and AIDS. We have developed relationships with the home-based care staff and social workers in order to introduce the involvement of the local church congregations in the right way. The church leaders are still at an early stage of working through the challenges, but will be setting up small task teams in their churches that will provide a framework to get the church more informed and comfortable in discussing the problems relating to HIV and AIDS."
One young pastor on the Church Mobilisation Course shared his own experience of stigma relating to HIV and AIDS:
"I had been away at a church centre for a week to pray and fast. After that fasting I was on my way home and stopped at a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. They wouldn’t serve me: because I looked thin they indicated that they thought I had AIDS. I was amazed at such a response. It was a ‘wake up call’ for him that there was such prejudice in his community."
The local church is well placed to not only educate and bring hope in practical and emotional ways, but also share the Bible message and provide spiritual support for those affected by HIV and AIDS. Following the mobilisation programme, churches will be equipped to run their own HIV and AIDS-related activities, complementing and supporting what is already happening in the area.
