The HIV/AIDS pandemic is the greatest global threat in the world today. Africa is ground zero of the crisis – home to just over 10% of the world’s population, but nearly two-thirds of those living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. The pattern of the HIV/AIDS pandemic reveals clearly a system of global apartheid, where access to wealth and basic human rights, like the right to health, is dictated largely by race and place. A recent UNAIDS report projects that up to 80 million Africans may die of HIV/AIDS in the next two decades, if greater action is not taken to change the course of this pandemic.

Africa has been hardest hit by HIV/AIDS because poverty has left its people most vulnerable, and inadequate access to health care and other basic needs has fueled the spread of the disease. Now, African efforts to defeat HIV/AIDS are hindered by insufficient resources, by the crippling debt burden, and by U.S. and international policies that restrict access to essential treatment and comprehensive health care.

HIV/AIDS can be defeated, and millions of lives can still be saved in Africa and globally, if the U.S. and other countries mount an urgent international response to support African efforts to beat this pandemic.

Our scriptures teach us that all of God’s creation is interconnected. When one member suffers, we all suffer. Our covenant with God and God’s people calls us to comfort and heal the sick and to address the injustice that underlies the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Throughout Africa, communities, organizations and activists are doing what they can to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and to provide care to those living with the disease. But because most of those affected by the disease to date are poor and Black, in Africa and here in the U.S., the response of policymakers to the HIV/AIDS crisis has been slow and absolutely inadequate. Health is a fundamental human right. CONGREGATION NAME HERE joins Africa Action’s Religious Action Network in the Campaign to End HIV/AIDS in Africa. You can learn more about this issue and take action at www.africaaction.org.

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