Liz's visit to Rema Ministries
iThemba Field Director Dr Liz Ling recently visited one of Rema Ministries’ training programmes in Ulyankulu, a refugee camp in Tanzania. The training lasted a week and 40 church leaders from 17 different church backgrounds attended the course ...
“It was a real privilege to be with the Rema team. They were extremely committed, skilled at their work and professional in all that they did.
“Over the 5 days topics covered included: the biblical view of orphans and how Christians should respond; the practical, emotional and spiritual needs of orphans and their carers and the rights of children.
“The final session was an opportunity for local church leaders to decide how to respond to the needs of orphans in their community. It was amazing to see how attitudes changed during the course and at the end there was a real sense that people were ready to take action.”
The Ulyankulu pastors agreed to share what they had learnt with their churches. They divided up the refugee camp geographically, ensuring that a church member visited each household and that all orphans were identified. The pastors will meet again to discuss a unified response with support from Rema. In the meantime, many suffering children will begin to get the help they so desperately need.
Success follows training
Jonathan, one of the people trained by Rema ministries explains how the work is changing the lives of individuals and their communities …
“After the course, I spoke to a young Rwandan friend. He is HIV-positive and told me that he has been making sure that he spreads the virus to others. I explained he’s not only killing innocent people, but is also speeding up his own death. After a long session on how to live positively with HIV (as I do myself), he decided with tears in his eyes to stop his evil behaviour! What a privilege to be making a difference!”
Towards the end of the training, Thierry Bahizi was informed that his brother, his brother's wife and some of their children were HIV-positive. He explains how his training made a difference …
“Without my training, I would not know how to behave. I was able to go and visit my family in Burundi and I managed to encourage the infected and the affected family members. After this experience, I started teaching other refugees about how to handle trauma caused by HIV and AIDS in the family and community.”
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