As you all will know, the pandemic of HIV/AIDS has claimed 3.6 million lives and 40.3 million people are living with the virus worldwide in 2005. The brunt of this epidemic is pronounced in Sub- Saharan Africa. Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of death among people who are HIV-positive. Around 5,000 people die from Tuberculosis (TB) everyday. In many Sub-Saharan African countries the number of persons with TB has quadrupled since 1990 mainly because of HIV. Malaria is another leading cause of mortality within our communities especially in children below five years and pregnant mothers. Each year, there are around 500 million malaria infections, which cause between 0.7 to 2.7 million deaths, most of them in young children in Africa. It is estimated that children under 5 years of age account for 82% of all malaria deaths, everyday close to 3000 children die of malaria and malaria causes a fifth of all childhood deaths in Africa.We have lost million of young, able bodied Africans in their prime to the scourge of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. It's been said that these preventable and treatable diseases, though deadly, do not discriminate victims cut across religion and ethnic barriers.We thank all those who have risen to the challenge of combating the scourge at various levels of our society: govt, development organization, donor agencies etc.We as a Church cannot afford to be indifferent because Christ calls us to proclaim his saving love to a broken, fragmented, diseased world. A world in which, each of us is directly infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.That is why in 2001, we launched our initial response, in it, we sought to establish the necessary protocol and infrastructure that would enable each of our 12 Provinces to tackle the problem headlong by building human capacity and providing HIV/AIDS related services.Looking back, we thank God as all our Churches have not only become aware of the danger we are in, they have actually engaged with those who suffer from these infections, offering help within the scope of scanty available recourses.We are gathered today to introduce the second phase of our collective response in addressing HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria in Africa.We are here to launch CAPA 5 year (2007 - 2011) integrated Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. This document sets for us specific priority areas on interventions and activities including monitoring and evaluation of programmes, which seek to strengthen programme coordination and service delivery at all levels of the Church and communities.Our Ultimate goal is to have a world free from HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, especially Africa. Therefore working in collaboration with all men of goodwill like your good selves, we believe, solution is in sight and recovery for Africa is at hand. Ladies and gentlemen, with much prayers and godly hope for a better tomorrow, I present to you the CAPA Integrated Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria for 2007 -2011 and Desk Review of CAPA HIV/AIDS activities from 2001 - 2005.I thank you allMost. Rev Peter Jasper Akinola, DD; CONCAPA ChairmanEditors Note:
The Strategic Plan is available as a PDF document and can be found here or it can be read online here