CRWRC Receives $2.5 Million For AIDS Programs

December 4, 2006

The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) received two grants on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, for a total of almost $2.5 million (all figures US) for AIDS programs in East Africa.

CRWRC's first grant of $984,161 will be used to reduce the spread and impact of HIV in Kenya.  With these funds, CRWRC will build the capacity of Kenyan churches, community groups, and faith-based organizations to deliver quality prevention and care services to people impacted by HIV and AIDS. 

The grant comes from the U.S. Agency for International Aid under the New Partners Initiative of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and will be used over the course of the next three years.

CRWRC’s strategy is to empower community organizations to carry out programs that will lead to long-term change.  As a result, CRWRC will serve as an intermediary organization for the majority of these grant funds.  It will sub-grant nearly 80% of the money to three of its existing partners in Kenya – namely Western Region Christian Community Services (of the Anglican Church in Kenya), KAMATAKIMO Christian Community Services (also of the Anglican Church in Kenya), and Plateau Mission Hospital (an agency of the Reformed Church of East Africa).

Together, these organizations will use the grant funding to:

  • provide counseling and testing
  • work with women to prevent mother-to-child transmission
  • train religious and community leaders to provide support and home-based care to people living with AIDS
  • and create and implement various promotional programs that will reduce the stigma of AIDS in communities, while also encouraging people to choose abstinence and fidelity as a means of AIDS prevention.

CRWRC estimates that these programs will reach more than 200,000 people with prevention messages, and will help more than 11,000 AIDS orphans and 6,000 AIDS sufferers receive the support they need.

CRWRC will also receive $1.5 million of PEPFAR funding for its work in Zambia.  It comes as a sub-grant to CRWRC through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, and will be used for AIDS prevention and home-based care for people living with AIDS in Zambia.  These programs will be administered through CRWRC’s Zambian partners the Reformed Church in Zambia, the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, and Reformed Community Services.

CRWRC is grateful to the US government for its commitment to AIDS funding through the PEPFAR program and excited by the potential that this increased revenue will provide to its programs and partners as they work to combat AIDS.