African Jesuit AIDS Network

African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN) is a network of organizations that fight against HIV/AIDS, created on June 21, 2002 by Jesuits from Africa and Madagascar.[1] Based in Nairobi, it operates in several countries around the world,[2] being present in 20 countries in 2017.[3] It has on several occasions championed the funding deficit to fight against VIH/AIDS in Africa.[4] It is one of the entities in the Catholic Church that handles about 25% of AIDS patients worldwide and can reach 100% of Africa in remote areas, according to the Vatican studies.[5]

African Jesuit AIDS Network
FormationJune 21, 2002 (2002-06-21)
FounderMichael Czerny
Founded atNairobi, Kenya
Location
  • 20 countries (2017)
Websiteajan.africa

Michael Czerny SJ founded and headed the entity from 2002 to 2010.[6] The reason for the organization's creation was "to encourage the Jesuits in Africa and Madagascar to find and develop projects" related to the fight against AIDS. These entities can be groups of people infected with the virus or affected by the virus, including those who fight against stigmatization and discrimination, who promote responsibility and prevention, and who are sensitive to the culture, faith, and spirituality of the people.[7] Czerny argues that limiting the fight against AIDS to condom use is not enough, and conveys that the selfishness seen in the pandemic is alien to African values, and is a subconscious reaction against imposed, foreign values.[8] At the end of the 2010s, Paterne Mombe, an AIDS expert in Africa trained in Biology at Burkina Faso, headed the network. He decided to take up the fight against AIDS after helping AIDS patients from Uganda. "It is not about telling them to use the condom or not to do it, but to form a critical conscience so that they can make an informed choice and choose what they think is best for them," he said in an interview.[3]

References
  1. Europa Press (2007-06-28). "Sida.- El sida causará la muerte de 55 millones de africanos entre 2000 y 2020, según la Red de los Jesuitas Africanos". Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  2. "La Iglesia, en primera línea contra el sida" (in Spanish). 2013-11-29. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  3. Negro, Publicado por Mundo (2017-01-09). ""La Iglesia ha jugado un papel muy importante frente al sida en África"" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  4. "El desinterés mundial amenaza a la lucha contra el sida según jesuitas de África" (in Spanish). 2010-12-01. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  5. Javier de la Torre Díaz, 9 October 2013, page 138
  6. Robert Blair Kaiser (23 May 2014). Inside the Jesuits: How Pope Francis Is Changing the Church and the World. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 137–139. ISBN 978-1-4422-2902-0.
  7. Javier de la Torre Díaz (9 October 2013). 30 años de VIH-SIDA: Balance y nuevas perspectivas de prevención. Universidad Pontifica Comillas. pp. 506–. ISBN 978-84-8468-477-0.
  8. Austen Ivereigh; Yago de la Cierva; Jack Valero. Cómo defender la fe sin levantar la voz: Más respuestas a las preguntas desafiantes de hoy. Palabra. pp. 179–. ISBN 978-84-9061-838-7.
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