A predominantly white congregation in South Africa has been awarded top honors for its fight against AIDS among blacks by two U.S.-based religious groups.
Fish Hoek Baptist Church received the Courageous Leadership Award, a joint project by the Willow Creek Association (an extension of the Willow Creek megachurch near Chicago) and the Christian development organization World Vision. The South African congregation was selected from a pool of 100 entries and will receive $120,000 for its HIV-AIDS efforts.
The award aims to honor local churches attempting to “meet the holistic needs” of impoverished communities around the world.
The congregation composed largely of white and wealthy residents of Fish Hoek — a coastal community about an hour’s train ride south of Cape Town — was honored for its success in battling “increasing HIV-AIDS compassion fatigue,” as well as for its HIV-AIDS treatment and prevention efforts.
According to U.N. health officials, South Africa claims the largest HIV-positive population in the world; about 20 percent of adults there have now contracted the virus.
In 1999, the church established Living Hope Community Centre to combat the Cape Peninsula’s mounting health crisis. Initially funded by the church itself, the center now receives significant financial support from a number of donors, including the Bush administration’s international AIDS relief program.
Still the church continues to contribute to the ministry by offering volunteers, staff salaries and monthly operational expenses.
Living Hope today employs 147 paid staff members and has spread into six communities, offering hospice and home-based care, food distribution, HIV testing and a range of counseling services.
At the same time, it has occasionally come under stinging criticism from South Africa’s leading anti-AIDS lobby group, Treatment Action Campaign, for its insistence upon mixing evangelism with HIV-AIDS treatment and training. (RNS)
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