Reps Circular
From Sheenagh Burrell ALMA Communications Officer
sb@burrell1980.freeserve.co.uk T: 020 8567 7400
Dear ALMA Reps,
This mailing contains:
It was good to see so many of you on 27th Feb at the meeting where we said goodbye to Hugh Watkins, the ALMA link officer since ALMA’s inception in 1998, and where we welcomed several new ALMA reps on board. Hugh’s St Mellitus medal for service to the Diocese and his Africa cake with Angola and Mozambique highlighted reflect dual aspects which characterise our link - hospitality and loving service. At the meeting we heard from John Philpott on the St James & St John’s, Friern Barnet, visit to Mozambique in summer 2005. A report of this will be on the visits section of the web site along with some photos. Alas the DVD of the community based water project in Luanda had volume problems but hopefully we will be able to spare a few minutes at a further meeting to revisit this one. Apologies.
Our final item was a report on the new link between St Mary’s, Hampton, and Mandimba in Niassa. Francesca Keating, Carrie Lees and Revd Derek Winterburn took us on their journey- from the idea of of starting a link to turning it into reality. We saw pictures of their initial visit to Mandimba and Carrie’s subsequent visit to launch the sewing project.We look forward with them to Pastor David Geraldo’s visit to Hampton in May and to the continued development of this special relationship.
Ann Peterken and I are in the process of updating and extending the ALMA website - nb: this is work in process and not a launch just yet! We are keen to compile a list of visits since ALMA began in 1998. Please if your church / school has been to Angola or Mozambique or had visitors from Angola or Mozambique would you let us know the dates? If you have visit reports or photos we’d love to receive these too.
(why not send yours for the next email circular!)
(twinned with St Mary’s Ealing)
Communications are much better and we have received some really good pictures of the weekly bible study group, the church, the pastor's house and the wall that we are now building. St Mary’s Lent appeal is for them as they desperately need to finish this huge wall around the church so that no-one can build on their land - there being no building regulations. We are also going to support a lady in the church who is going to have Theology training as an ordinand. On Sunday following the first appeal for Lent someone gave £500 for this. God is really blessing them and us. Praise the Lord!!
nr Maputo, Mozambique (twinned with St John-the-Baptist, Greenhill, Harrow)
Has launched a social project, aiming to prevent vertical transmission of HIV/AIDS (from mother to baby). Their team visits Maternity to invite pregnant and breastfeeding women to the church, and the Voluntary Testing Station refers infected women to them. The St Barnabas’ team receives about four new cases each day. At church they provide counseling, talks, cooking demonstrations, sewing, singing and prayer. Four women from the parish prepare soup from vegetables in the church garden and supplemented with food purchased from the parish collection. They regularly also need to buy additional cooking pans, plates, spoons, mats, buckets and soap as well as food. Each (unpaid) volunteer works 5 days a week, going to the hospital to give talks, making home visits or staying at church for counseling, sewing and prayers. The mother receives ante- and post-natal care; she also receives home visits until her baby’s HIV status can be determined at 18 months old. The church hopes to raise funds to train of 2 women who will come back and teach the HIV/AIDS victims how to become empowered and self-sustainable. The parish priest, Fr Juliao Mutemba, says, “We are doing sacrifice to answer the needs of these suffering people”. [ St John’s is contributing towards the running costs of the service, by assisting with the purchase of essential materials and training fees. UNICEF reports, “Women living with HIV/AIDS can transmit the virus to their unborn or newborn baby during pregnancy, delivery or through breastfeeding (vertical transmission). Most of the 90,000 Mozambican children under the age of 15 living with HIV/AIDS were infected through vertical transmission. More than half of them die before their first birthday. About 140,000 HIV-positive women in Mozambique become pregnant each year. At least 3 in every 10 of them will transmit the virus to their child, if no intervention takes place. If a pregnant woman living with HIV/AIDS participates in programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission, the risk of transmission can be halved.”
Is to become a twinned parish. Well done to their new ALMA Rep Jonathan Palmer -watch this space!
Save the Children Fund have published a report called ‘Missing on Mother’s Day’ highlighting the nine million African children who have lost mothers to AIDS (they also point out that 9 million is the total number of children in the UK under the age of 13). The report gives statistics for both Angola and Mozambique which I copy below:
| Angola | Mozambique | |
|---|---|---|
| Female Population | 8 million | 10.2 million |
| Number of Women with HIV | 175,000 | 690,000 |
| Children who have lost a mother to to AIDS 2005 | 103,000 | 420,000 |
| Children who will have lost a mother to AIDS 2010 | 177,000 | 621,000 |
One of the young girls the charity has been working with in Mozambique, nine-year-old Graca, listed the household chores she has to undertake every day. “I look after my mum every day,” she said. “I go and fetch water, I clean the house and wash the plates. I prepare food for her when she’s sick. My mum can walk, but if she does, for two days afterwards she can’t walk or go to the fields.”
Henrique Candeeiro, of the local Orphans and Vulnerable Children Volunteers Committee, visits twice a week to help out. He brings food, cleans the house or fetches medicine: “The children benefit not just from the moral support but also practically because they are too young to take care of their mother.” The report warns: “When a mother is sick, and after she dies, it is often the extended family and local community support the family and care for her children. With the rising numbers of affected children, communities are struggling to provide support from their own resources. As well as focusing on children who have been orphaned by Aids, priority must be given to children living in families with a sick or dying parent.”
See the full report on Save the Children
Ian Leitch has sent me further news on the earthquake which had happened just prior to the Reps meeting:
'A massive earthquake shook Mozambique at 12:19 a.m. on Thursday, 23 February. Tall buildings in Maputo and Beira swayed, causing dizziness and some people fainted. Most residents were forced to share public places with street children and vagrants as they competed for a space to spend the night. The epicentre of the ‘quake was located near the village of Espungabera, in Mozambique's western province of Manica (which borders Zimbabwe), 135 miles (215 km) south-west of Beira and 335 miles (535 km) north of Maputo. With magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale, it was the largest earthquake ever recorded in Mozambique and was felt in South Africa, Zambia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Despite the intensity of the earthquake, the latest information indicates that only five people were killed and 40 seriously injured. A preliminary report states that 400 houses destroyed, along with six schools, a water tank, three water points and two bridges. Five major aftershocks were experienced during the next day, followed by many smaller aftershocks which continued for several days.
11.30-4.00: CELEBRATION WITH +Dinis, +Mark & +Andre (Eucharist at 12- bring lunch!)
MANNA (the national group linked with Angola and Mozambique) invites ALMA reps to join with them in celebrating 100 years of support for the Anglican church in Mozambique and Angola with a day of celebration at St John’s Church, Waterloo (right by the station) on Saturday 16 September 2006 beginning at 11.30am. There will be a Eucharist at 12 and opportunities for questions, stories and sharing afterwards. Please bring lunch with you. All three Bishops will be in attendance - Bishop Dinis Sengulane of Lebombo, Bishop Mark Van Koevering of Niassa and Bishop André Soares of the Missionary Diocese of Angola. It promises to be a very special day indeed!
Many thanks to John Tasker and William Clarence-Smith, New ALMA rep for Holy Trinity Northwood, for sharing these websites with us:
Hope you have fun with some of these.
Please send any contributions you have for the next circular or for the website project!
with best wishes to you all
Sheenagh