VATICAN CITY, OCT. 24, 2002 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican contributed to the struggle against AIDS in Uganda with a 500,000-euro donation and other initiatives.
The news was published today in a statement of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum,” the Vatican organization presided over by Archbishop Paul Cordes, which promotes and coordinates the Church’s charitable works in the world. Archbishop Cordes begins a visit to the African country on Friday.
The donation, made at the request of John Paul II in February 2001, is supporting the work of Ugandan Catholic nongovernmental organizations and of the Missionaries of Charity.
During his visit to Uganda, Archbishop Cordes will pay special attention to the situation of children.
“In Uganda, 50% of the children have lost at least one parent because of AIDS. The majority of them run the risk of ending up on the street” and becoming involved in crime, the press statement said.
“Cor Unum” said it has established five priorities in Uganda:
–to give orphans a family.
–to foster education through the construction and support of schools.
–to offer health education to prevent AIDS.
–to offer professional training, especially for boys who leave juvenile detention centers.
–to establish a home, run by the Missionaries of Charity, for children terminally ill with AIDS.
“This project is in the framework of the program for the struggle against AIDS undertaken at the national level,” and respecting “the parameters of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,” the press statement continued.
“Uganda has become the laboratory country in the struggle against AIDS: It is one of the few nations where the rate of infection of the HIV virus has registered a decrease: from 9.51% to 8.30%,” reported “Cor Unum.”
“However, these results must not be considered the point of arrival but the beginning of new interest and new projects,” the press statement explained.
On Oct. 25, Archbishop Cordes will visit Cowa, the professional training center in Kampala for boys who were formerly in a juvenile detention center.
The following day, the archbishop will be received by the Missionaries of Charity, to inaugurate a home for 60 children who are terminally ill with AIDS.
He then will visit the Nsambya Babies Home orphanage and Cowa’s school for the professional training of girls orphaned by AIDS.
On Oct. 27, Archbishop Cordes will attend a diocesan celebration in Kampala.
The following day, he will visit Gulu, in northern Uganda, where the Church is working for peace in an area near Rwanda that has been at war for 15 years.
On Oct. 29, the archbishop will meet with the Ugandan bishops’ conference and with Caritas-Uganda.
On Oct. 30, the president of “Cor Unum” will visit the martyrs shrine of Namugongo. Last Sunday, John Paul II beatified two Ugandan teen-agers — Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa — catechists who were martyred on Oct. 18, 1918.
