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SWAM policy on AIDS in Africa. Despite the fact that our region is marked by multiple crises like poverty, famine, crime and other injustice, it is also noted with concern that impact of AIDS on society is probably the most destructive. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is depriving many people in our region of happiness, hope, and a better quality of life. Indeed it is nothing to romanticize when you think of a possible 18 million children who will be orphaned by AIDS by the end of this decade. According to the United Nations, this will indeed be the case if no serious efforts are being made to fight the pandemic among the continents young population. [The British medical journal The Lancet cited estimates from the South African Medical Research Council showing that the number of deaths linked to HIV/Aids was likely to be twice as much as the one in the government statistical report. South Africa has the highest HIV/Aids caseload in the world, with 5.3 million people, or one in five adults, living with HIV and Aids, according to UN figures.] We are distressed by the impact of this all and has sympathy with victims. We commit ourselves once again to the SWAM region and are willing to be involved when and where possible. We assure of our prayers and affirm that our concern lies with all people and their needs regardless of political or ethnic background. As the local church indeed affirms that it will care with sympathy and love for individuals or families which are suffering because of AIDS, and in order to respect them and the authorities, we choose to support the local churches in their effort of teaching and caring in the process to fight AIDS and poverty. As we are regularly approached by congregations as to the employment of resources, we are serious about our recommendations. In spite of the disastrous AIDS statistics of our region, the church and it's teachings holds the key and solution to defeating this modern-day plague. Some Facts and Figures of the AIDS pandemic in the Sub Sahara Africa Region
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