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Churches and faith-based organizations

To commemorate our 1 million copies, many people in different parts of the world have sent us their comments on how SFH materials have helped to inform and strengthen their HIV-related work at community level. Here is a selection from churches and faith-based organizations.

“I have found that the SFH materials give authenticity to my work.  The Called to Care materials especially have helped me to initiate congregational responses through stimulating discussions in families and communities.  Many people who have read the Positive Voices book have been challenged as to how other people have managed to live positively despite being HIV-positive or affected by HIV.  This has made my work easier.”  (Rev Ephraim Disi, Brethren in Christ Church, Blantyre, Malawi)

“SFH has been a movement that has focused on mobilising the greatest resource this world has, namely, a hopeful and spirit-filled people.   It has shown us examples of successful, inspiring experiences, and has suggested practical and relevant strategies that invoke core human values.  SFH has made widely available critical resources in the form of books, training manuals and videos in more than 16 languages.  In doing so, it has brought the problem-solving and positive approaches of visionaries such as Alice Welbourn, Gideon Byamugisha, Noerine Kaleeba and Lucy Steinitz (to name but a few) to even the remotest community.  God bless SFH with many more years of fruitful service to communities!”  (Dr Manoj Kurian, World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland)

“Through its materials, Strategies of Hope has been able to convey much-needed messages of hope to a hurting world.  Its success is rooted in its simplicity and the ability to clearly articulate the heroic efforts and learnings of individuals, organisations and communities at the forefront of the global response to HIV and AIDS.  SFH recognises and communicates the passion and compassion of ordinary people in this fight, the unsung heroes who are making a difference.  This inspires us all to do more and to encourage others to join in.”  (Dr Marc Aguirre, HOPE Worldwide Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa)
 
“The words ‘strategies’ and ‘hope’ don’t often occur together.  But in the current global AIDS crisis, it’s not enough simply to preach hope.  Hope has to be based on a solid foundation.  What SFH does is to enrich hope with examples of experience, imagination, knowledge, dedication, commitment and action - in short, with love.”  (Fr Antoine Lion, Dominican priest, founder of ‘Chrétiens & sida’, Paris, France)

“I have learned so much from SFH resources about faith-based communities responding creatively and powerfully to HIV.  These stories and lessons have greatly assisted me and my friends in moving forward.”  (Dr Michael Burke, International Christian Medical and Dental Association, Sydney, Australia)

“A million thanks to you for your unique and innovative training materials.  For us, your simple, participatory approach to learning about HIV and AIDS helps to facilitate ‘person by person’ and ‘community by community’ learning experiences.  This enables individuals, families, churches and communities to address the issues of HIV prevention, support, treatment and positive living.   Your materials help us to create hope, which makes real change possible in our church, our communities and families, and in the lives of all off us affected by HIV.  Thank you for enabling us to do what we need to do, in order to serve our communities.”  (Dr Jenny Coley, Anglican Church, Province of West Africa, Accra, Ghana)

“I have benefited greatly by reading SFH materials, co-authoring some SFH publications and featuring in two SFH videos.  This has helped to increase my awareness of HIV and AIDS issues and develop my communication skills.  For people like me, living with HIV, SFH materials have increased our knowledge, shaped our attitudes, enhanced our self-esteem and built our advocacy and programming skills.  They have inspired me and given me direction in my HIV and AIDS ministry.  I will always be indebted to your Filling the Gaps booklet, which gave me the tools and the knowledge base that I needed to live positively and productively with HIV, at a time when I could have despaired and given up on life.”  (Rev Canon Gideon Byamugisha, Church of Uganda and Christian Aid, Kampala, Uganda)

“These materials speak into the lives of people and their communities just where they are, providing achievable goals for each one committed to embarking on a road to making a difference.”  (Rev Dr Daryl Hackland, International Christian Medical and Dental Association, Kloof, South Africa)

“The Strategies for Hope materials are very helpful and straightforward to use. The Bible readings are useful for our Community Care and HIV/AIDS Programme, as we are using Theological Reflection as a skill to make sense in the whole HIV/AIDS pandemic and to find God in this human suffering. The video What Can I do? is an extremely useful resource for teaching. We are encouraging a number of our students to get a personal copy for teaching purposes, and a number have done so.”  (Maryann Mwangi, St Paul’s United Theological College, Limuru, Kenya)

“When I began my involvement in HIV/AIDS work in 1994, I gleaned a lot of ideas from the SFH booklets detailing projects and work with different communities around the world.  I appreciate many of the practical ideas, personal testimonies and the participatory training materials such as Stepping Stones and the video, What can I do?, which is extremely helpful in stimulating discussion with faith-based organisations.”  (Kate Muammar, Youth With a Mission, Lusaka, Zambia)

“The Christian AIDS Network has been using the Strategies for Hope video, What can I do?, with churches in Mozambique.  It has helped to remove lots of taboos.  The material can be easily understood because it’s from sub-Saharan Africa.   People understand the relation between the messages and their lives.”  (Octavio Mabunda, Christian AIDS Network, Maputo, Mozambique)