Stand With Africa

 

A Campaign of Hope

 

Stand With Africa is a three-year campaign to link programs in Africa with outreach to the U.S. Lutheran community in order to effect specific, positive and significant changes in three strategic areas of concern to Africans today. Stand With Africa will draw on the vitality of churches, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and communities to overcome HIV/AIDS, produce enough food to eat and sell, and build peace at the grassroots. The campaign will listen to the African partners, reflect their priorities, strengthen them, collaborate with them and support cooperation among them.

 

OVERCOMING HIV/AIDS

According to United Nations estimates, of the 34 million people living with AIDS worldwide, 24.5 million reside in sub-Sahara Africa. It is also home to some 12.4 million children left orphaned due to the AIDS pandemic – 94% of all AIDS orphans worldwide. In parts of Africa the rate of infection is at least a hundred times higher than in the United States and Europe. Life expectancy in the next ten to twenty years could decline to 35 years or less.

Stand With Africa will work with partners in Africa to prevent and treat AIDS and care for AIDS orphans.

SHARING BREAD FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW- Banishing Hunger

Growing prosperity in the northern Countries contrasts sharply with the dire economic condition of most African nations. Of the 40 nations identified by the World Bank’s recent report, as Heavily Indebted Poor Countries 32 are in Africa. Increasing desertification, natural disasters and mismanagement compound the conditions of poverty, as does corrupt leadership. With political independence gained forty years ago and the cold war politics ending a decade ago, Africa remains marginalized by the forces of globalization, national debt and a galloping technological development.

Stand With Africa will build on a solid record of progress toward food security and self-help at the local level. It will expand current programs of faith-based action for fair trade at the national and international level and work to see that promises of debt relief are fulfilled.

BUILDING PEACE

Most conflicts in Africa today are internal. Often and increasingly these conflicts center on access to arable land, water resources and mining, oil or diamond resources. Military dictatorships, oppression and corruption further aggravate conflicts in Africa. However, the analysis of recent conflicts in Africa has sometimes distorted issues of ethnicity, race, religion and ideology, depicting them as the sole causes of conflict and disregarding political manipulation of religious and ethnic differences. Continuous drought, floods and the debt burden compound the grim economic situation of countries resulting in further causes for conflict.

Stand With Africa will support specific projects of recovery from conflict, share new African models for building peace in families, communities and society, and promote broader understanding in the U.S. of progress toward peace and reconciliation in Africa.

 

 

 

 

Stand With Africa

is a joint campaign of Lutheran World Relief,

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America World Hunger Program

and The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod World Relief. 

 

 

 

Lutheran World Relief will launch a three- year

Stand With Africa campaign with a concert featuring

SAMITE of Uganda

at

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Terrace Theater

Thursday, March 15, 2001

7:30 PM

 

The New York Times said of Samite, "[When he] translated his songs, their serenity seemed almost miraculous." One of the most highly acclaimed flutists in East Africa, Samite fled Uganda in 1982 as a political refugee. Delivering his vocals in his mother tongue, Luganda, he has mesmerized audiences with original compositions played on traditional African instruments and various flutes. For the past 10 years, Samite has made his living as Uganda’s unofficial music ambassador to the USA. One of his goals is to open people’s minds and hearts to the common threads of human concerns, conveying optimism through stories and song. Samite’s latest album, a Windham Hill release, is "Stars to Share".

Stand With Africa works with churches and communities to overcome HIV/AIDS, produce enough food to eat and sell, and build peace at the grassroots. A three-year campaign of Lutheran World Relief, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America World Hunger Program and The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod World Relief, Stand With Africa will listen to the African partners, reflect their priorities, strengthen them, collaborate with them and support cooperation among them.

 

All proceeds from the Samite concert will benefit Lutheran World Relief’s

work on HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Price of Tickets is $30.

Tickets available at the box office or by phone after January 24th at

(202) 467-4600