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Tsunami happening every day in African country
Dec 3, 2007 By: By Keith GilliganDURHAM -- Out of a population of 14 million, there are about one million orphans in the African country of Malawi.
About half the orphaned children are left without parents because of HIV and AIDS.
Mark MacKnight, pastor at the Christian Life Centre in Ajax, saw first-hand the situation while there in the early fall.
“The median age in Malawi is 16.7 years,” Pastor MacKnight says, adding the average life expectancy is about 43 years.
In Canada, the average life expectancy is approaching 80.
Children in the orphanages range in age from babies to teenagers, Pastor MacKnight says.
Malawi is in southeast Africa, bordered by Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania.
About 267 people become infected by AIDS on a daily basis, while 139 die each day from the disease, he says. “So, it’s happening in a huge way.”
When the 2004 tsunami hit southern Asia, the world responded, the pastor notes. With HIV and AIDS, “there’s a tsunami happening everyday, the impact is so great.
“You notice very few old men. There are few men our age,” the 46-year-old says.
“It’s typical of what happens in Africa because of HIV and AIDS. Fifty per cent of orphans are from AIDS,” he adds.
“Some kids are lucky if they get fed once a day,” he notes.
In one instance, a newborn girl was left in garbage and someone found her, Pastor MacKnight stated. “Malawi women help raise these children.”
Pastor MacKnight made his first trip to the country from Sept. 29 to Oct. 12. Among those he travelled with was Gary Nettleship, the head pastor at Trinity Pentecostal Church in Oshawa.
“The reason I went to Africa specifically, I was invited to attend a pastors’ conference,” he says. “While there, I had the chance to visit and go into a village.”
Orphanages are being built, which then become community property.
Orphans, he says, face the options of being on their own, helping to raise their families, they don’t get to go to school and they have to enter the labour force. “It’s a cycle down,” Pastor MacKnight adds.
Rather than western organizations and governments coming in and dictating what should be done, aid is directed to the country. From there, faith-based and aid organizations work with the locals.
“For me as a pastor, it was exciting there was a ‘made in Africa’ kind of response,” he says.
The donations of items, such as sewing machines, are helping people “break the cycle of poverty.”
One village is growing some of its own food. The food will be used to feed themselves, to be sold and the seeds can be sold to other villages. “It’s not a hand out, it’s a hand up.
“This approach, they’re helping their own village. They’re using the strength in their own villages,” Pastor MacKnight states.
Orphanages are also a place “where medicines can be given out. If they test positive, they can receive medicine that can prolong their lives,” he says, but adds there’s a stigma to being tested.
To help raise money, the Christian Life Centre is staging a concert on Dec. 8 featuring Jacob Moon and the Welcome Christmas Orchestra. “It will be a wonderful night of Christmas music. It’s a gift to the community.”
He notes, “Friends of CLC are giving money to cover the costs of the night.”
That means all the money raised will go to help in Malawi. Tickets are selling for $10 each. As well, there will be the opportunity to donate while at the church.
There’s seating for 500, so it’s possible to raise $5,000.
“Jacob Moon is a wonderful artist and this will be a really wonderful Christmas event,” Pastor MacKnight states.
Tickets can be bought by calling the church at 905-686-1411.
