May 29, 2009 in Life
Great opportunity for youth groups to apply for grants from UN Habitat.
Opportunities fund for Urban Youth-Led Development
Check out the small grants catagory for $5,000 – Deadline is June 15!
May 27, 2009 in Church, Latin America/Carribean, LWF, Youth, Youth participation
Here is a report on the leadership conference of the LWF member churches in Latin America and the Carrabean that took place at the beginning of May. Hellen Rios Carrillo has written it. She is one of the young delegates to the LWF General Assembly in 2010: Read the rest of this entry →
May 18, 2009 in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, HIV/Aids, Justice, Latin America/Carribean, Life, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence, UN, Youth
“The scale of the HIV epidemic remains daunting and young people remain disproportionately affected, accounting for 45 per cent of new adult infections in 2007.” This one of the highlighted sentences in a report by UNICEF UK that was released last week. The title says already a lot: “Preventing HIV with young people: the key to tackling the epidemic.”
The report itself gives an overview of the challenges in different regions of the world. A striking finding is that in Africa young women and girls are much more likely to become HIV positive. That is not the case in other parts of the world. To cite again the report on page 8: “In Southern Africa, adolescent girls are 2 to 4.5 times more likely to get HIV than males of the same age.”
Many member churches of the LWF have HIV and Aids work and many also prevention campaigns. But obiviously, it is far from enough. Churches have to demand a clearer policy in their countries and young people themselves have to make it topic. Young people have to raise the issue for their own sake. That is also an act of Christian love. Those who are the most vulnerable to being infected are also those who are hard hit already: For examples those who don’t have parents. Christian love among people means also: More prevention efforts.
