February 2, 2010

CHICAGO – Lutherans in southern Africa and staff of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met in Johannesburg, South Africa, Jan. 11-15, to plan efforts to help prevent and control malaria, and to discuss building organizational capacity to meet the challenge.

The meeting was the first of a series of regional gatherings to plan for work in the "Lutheran Malaria Initiative (LMI)." The LMI is made possible in part through a partnership with the United Nations Foundation. The LMI is a partnership among the ELCA, Lutheran World Relief and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

The 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly authorized the continued development of LMI. It also asked that a report and recommendations for a possible churchwide LMI campaign be brought to the 2011 assembly. Pilot synods are currently engaging LMI, significant donors are being contacted, and global program aspects are being developed during this stage of the initiative, said the Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, ELCA coordinator for the LMI, Office of the Presiding Bishop.

Lutherans from ELCA partner churches in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe attended, along with program personnel and bishops, said Megan Bradfield, associate director, International Development and Disaster Response (IDDR), ELCA Global Mission. The Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa (LUCSA), a communion of 16 Lutheran churches, will coordinate the Lutheran response to malaria in the region.

The southern Africa gathering "stirs the momentum of the church to respond," Bradfield said. "Malaria is part of daily life in Africa. (People) often struggle with how they can respond. Parishioners die every year of malaria. This is a very real problem in their respective areas."

The ELCA is a partner with LUCSA, which will supply grants to churches to help their efforts to prevent and control malaria. LUCSA already has a strong HIV and AIDS program and the infrastructure to coordinate a regional response to malaria, Bradfield said. The ELCA, which has relationships with LUCSA members, will build awareness of the disease and work with LMI partners in the United States to raise funds.

The ELCA's involvement in LMI and with partner churches in Africa is an example of how the ELCA accompanies Lutherans in their own contexts, said DeGroot-Nesdahl. "The (ELCA) membership has grown in learning the meaning of accompaniment. Here is a chance for us to really help our companion churches make a difference in a combating a very significant illness in their lives."

Malaria is a serious public health threat, and a threat to human and economic development, particularly in Africa. The World Health Organization reports nearly 1 million people die from it each year. Ninety percent of the deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa.

"There is such a history of suffering with malaria," DeGroot-Nesdahl said. "Virtually everyone has a story of their own experience with it."

LUCSA will work with member churches to develop a plan for responding to malaria. A follow up consultation will be planned for later this year, Bradfield said.

ELCA Global Mission staff who attended the consultation included Louis Dorvilier, IDDR director; the Rev. Benyam Kassahun, program director for southern Africa; the Rev. Philip J. Knutson, regional program assistant for Southern Africa; Anne and Willibroad Langdji, ELCA global mission regional representatives, Senegal; and Bradfield.

Information about the Lutheran Malaria Initiative is at http://www.ELCA.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Responding-to-the-World/lutheran-malaria-initiative.aspx, on the ELCA Web site.

ELCA News Service