The long awaited CUAHA new website is up and running! Please VISIT www.cuaha.org

We are currently working on updating the CUAHA website and should have it up before mid July!

CUAHA will be sending a small delegation to the International AIDS Conference in Vienna who will report back to CUAHA partners on lessons learned and networking collaboration.

In 2005 CUAHA published the first 2 books compiled by the 'Theology & Ethics' committee, which comprised of theologians and church leaders.  The thematic focus concentrated on dialogue on various theological issues surrounding HIV and AIDS.

Due to requests from our partners, we have now provided these publications electronically to be downloaded from the website for your perusal.

The "Grassroots Toolkit on HIV and AIDS" is a collection of questions and answers for common Christians, addressing many of the basic facts on HIV and AIDS. This toolkit is available in four languages:  English, Luganda, Portuguese and Swahili.

CUAHA has published the "Challenging the Current Understanding Around HIV and AIDS: an African Christian Perspective" in 2005.  The book consists of five articles directed for churches and theologians about HIV and AIDS.  The articles are: 1) God's mastery and mystery in the creation and history, 2) God, theodicy, HIV and AIDS, 3) Ethics of care and medical practice in their social context, 4) Confronting HIV and AIDS related stigma and its devastating consequences, 5) Healing in relation to HIV and AIDS.  The book is available in English and Portuguese which you can download here (c) CUAHA.

CUAHA's goal is to build the capacity of tis partners to be/become HIV and AIDS competent.  Therefore, CUAHA has recently published a book to be a tool by which churches are able to evaluate their HIV and AIDS competence.

The book 'Towards an HIV and AIDS Competent Church' has been in progress for several years to ensure taht it has received adequate input and revision by the experts committed and focused on being HIV and AIDS comptent from among our CUAHA members and other partners.

This book is a valid, sound and practical toolkit for every church leader.  It includes chapters on facts about HIV and AIDS, sexuality, prevention, stigma, advocacy, empowerment, leadership, healing, liturgy and sacraments, counseling, testing, networking and caring.  Throughout the book, there are sections where a reader can check their competence in the aforementioned topics.  In the course of this year, CUAHA is also developing a training toolkit which will accompany the book.

This book is CUAHA's contribution to the global discourse on HIV and AIDS.  You can download it here.

We wish all of you a Happy New Year! The new year is starting off well for CUAHA network! It is a busy time of closing last year's accounts and starting the activity plans for the year. We sent a newsletter at the end of last year to all on our mailing list. If you did not receive it and would like to, kindly contact us and we'll email it to you.

Why should we aim at having an HIV and AIDS competent church? The church has a unique position in African society. The church is everywhere. The potential is endless. The church and religious leaders can “alter the course of the epidemic.” 1 With all this potential comes great responsibility. How has the church responded? The response of the church has been inadequate and, in some cases, has made the problem even worse. Ignorance, lack of proficiency, and an inadequate response have been contributing factors. HIV and AIDS is not asking for something new from the churches. Rather, it is confronting the churches with the reality of becoming more fully the kind of people we have been called to be. This book is CUAHA’s contribution to this end.

CUAHA (Churches United Against HIV & AIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa) is a network that was initiated as an appeal from churches of various denominations seeking to find a common voice to share their concern and heart for reaching out to everyone in our world of HIV and AIDS. Since its inception in 2002, CUAHA has developed into a vibrant ecumenical network representing churches and faith-based organizations cooperating to face HIV and AIDS in their communities. The network includes over 40 churches and organizations of Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Orthodox and Pentecostal denominations in Finland and 13 African countries (Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).

As Christians we strive to live up to the imperatives of our faith through our spirituality and theology, the base for our decisions and activities. This life-long, on-going process is sometimes hindered by our doubts, our failures and our bewilderment, especially when new phenomena occur. In the beginning of the HIV pandemic many, especially in the secular world, saw our churches as part of the problem, and not as a part of the solution. Many forgot, and still forget, that it was Christian hospitals who cared for the people with AIDS, both in Kampala and New York, when secular hospitals shunned them and did not want them as patients. HIV has mobilized churches in many more ways than we know and understand. In many parts of Africa, where HIV has hit communities particularly hard, women are caring for orphans, both own relatives and other. They do this because of their faith. Community’s resilience against HIV is based on faith. More and more of all churches leaders are taking active part in HIV related issues, and there is a tremendous interfaith collaboration around HIV, something which is not very well known.

CUAHA has a new publication 'Towards an HIV and AIDS Competent Church' that will be launched next week in Nairobi, Kenya. Churches attain to be relevant to the communities God has called them to serve. HIV and AIDS have offered the church a challenge as well as an opportunity to be and function more fully as the people of God. CUAHA has published a new book to help churches to evaluate their own competency in this area.
Watch this space for when the book along with a training manual will be available.

The International Olympic Committee is an international non-governmental non-profit organization and the creator of the Olympic Movement. The IOC exists to serve as an umbrella organization of the Olympic Movement. Its primary responsibility is to supervise and coordinate sports activities within the organization.The International Olympic Committee is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. Its membership consists of the 205 National Olympic Committees.

In December 2006, IOC developed partnership with CUAHA to respond to HIV&AIDS through sports activities targeting sports men as well as the youth. Since then, CUAHA and IOC have implemented joint sports programmes especially in Tanzania. IOC together with UNAIDS produced a standard sports tool kit and has worked with CUAHA because of its potential networks to distribute the toolkit in different parts of Tanzania. A series of meetings between CUAHA and IOC have been organized to fully discuss how the programme could be effectively implemented in the country as well as replicated in other countries especially where CUAHA operates. A TOT seminar for 22 participants to familiarize them with the tool kit content was conducted in Tanzania. The trained 22 participants were asked to train other colleagues and team up with them to distribute the tool kit which CUAHA Tanzania team assisted to translate into Swahili! It is estimated that over 11,600 copies of the tool kit were distributed through CUAHA partner churches and organizations to the targeted groups in different parts of Tanzania.