Lesotho (MNN) — Millions or people are infected with HIV/AIDS in Africa. The infection rate continues to climb. AIDS is leaving behind millions of orphaned children and the future is bleak. However, Christians understand the need to get involved.
President of Mission Aviation Fellowship Kevin Swanson says Lesotho is a country especially hard hit. Since MAF has such an impact in many of these villages they’re doing something about HIV/AIDS. “We have been training national Christian nurses from Lesotho to go in and do AIDS education in these villages because so much of the spread of AIDS in Africa comes from ignorance.”
Swanson says AIDS education is just part of the program. They also, “Teach them how to take care of the critically ill people, teach them how to prevent the disease. Apparently in the native cultures there, there is a lot sexual promiscuity that goes on and they don’t understand that this is the heart of what’s spreading the disease.”
However, Swanson says MAF is also sharing the Gospel as part of the education process. “You can teach people, you can educate people, but if their hearts really don’t change the likelihood of anything significantly transformational is very, very slim.”
It’s working. Swanson says people are coming to Christ and they’re getting involved in the local church.
While the program is well established, they HIV/AIDS pandemic is creating more needs. “We actually need some additional staff people who can dedicate themselves to this program. And then, funding is needed as well as these nurses as they go out obviously they need to be paid and as we have more resources we can extend this to other parts of the country.”
You can help MAF’s HIV/AIDS program by going to their website.
