African Jesuit AIDS Network
| Abbreviation | AJAN |
|---|---|
| Established | 2002 |
| Purpose | Coordinate Jesuit efforts to fight AIDS in Africa |
| Location | |
Director | Fr. Paterne Mombé, SJ |
| Affiliations | Jesuit, Catholic |
| Website | AJAN |
African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN) consists of Jesuits and co-workers in sub-Saharan Africa involved in various aspects of AIDS care and HIV prevention. While Jesuit responses to the AIDS problem go back much further, it was in 2002, as the world's response was faltering, that the Jesuit superiors of Africa and Madagascar (JESAM) created AJAN to coordinate efforts.
Activities
AJAN strives to develop best practices and to help in the development of new programmes for the relief of those afflicted, their families, widows and orphans, and communities that continue to suffer from this on-going pandemic. AJAN assists AIDS centres that exist in all ten of the Jesuit regions and provinces in sub-Saharan Africa,[1] including advocacy, capacity-building, and resource mobilization. Services offered include pastoral counselling, home-based care, income-generating activities, and educational, medical, and nutritional support. Efforts also include prevention thorough value-based education, curtailing mother-to-child transmission, and testing services especially among the young.
While some initiatives are directed specifically to deal with HIV/AIDS, others are incorporated into Jesuit work with youth centres, parishes, school chaplaincies, orphanages, hospitals and dispensaries, and Christian Life Community (CLC), a sodality-like work of the Society of Jesus. Special Jesuit centres are run in Burundi, Congo, Madagascar, and Togo while in Zimbabwe the focus is more on youth prevention.[2] Advocacy is a part of most programs as public attention to this ongoing problem has fallen off, while the pandemic persists.
AJAN fosters a holistic approach that supports not only the persons affected but also their families and communities with counselling, income-generating and micro-credit programs, and aid to children and schools. The African Catholic Bishops, meeting in Rome in 2009, said of AIDS/HIV: “It is not to be looked at as either a medical-pharmaceutical problem or solely as an issue of a change in human behaviour. It is truly an issue of integral development and justice.” [3]
Ongoing need
The first diagnosis of AIDS was in 1981. While antiretroviral treatment (ART) can prolong the life of those affected and prevent its spread, it has only slowly become available in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.[4] According to the UN AIDS organization report in 2014, in sub-Saharan Africa there were an estimated 24.7 million people living with HIV in 2013, which is close to 71% of the global total. Treatment is now available to around 37% with HIV living in the region, while only 45% are aware of their condition, pointing to the need for more awareness campaigns and testing. New infections were estimated at between 1.3 million–1.6 million in 2013, though this shows a drop of about 33% since 2005, with AIDS related deaths also dropping by 39% in that period. All this points to the importance of organizations like AJAN, both for services and for advocacy efforts.[5]
References
Coordinates: 1°16′26.42″S 36°44′8.36″E / 1.2740056°S 36.7356556°E