Lutheran Life Care undergoes weeklong planning workshop on HIV and AIDS.

By Reuben Mete
 

The Lutheran Life Care (LLC), an arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea (ELC PNG) has been undergoing a weeklong planning workshop that begun on Monday 21^st and will continue on till Friday 29^th of October 2013. The aim of the workshop is to transform LLC activities and guidelines after realizing a drastic increase in HIV and AIDS epidemic in Morobe Province and Papua New Guinea in 2011 and 2012 analyzed data.

 

Lutheran Life Care is a ministry to propagate the Gospel of Christ as a Lutheran Christians as being justified by faith. It comes under the Evangelism Department of ELC-PNG which its current program is the HIV and AIDS. LLC was established in 2004 after ELC-PNG recognizes the changing environment concerning the HIV and AIDS in Papua New Guinea.

The Faith Base Organization acknowledges that HIV and AIDS is a treat to our nation and its development prospect as a whole as well as building its capacity to address the epidemic and to be a partner in the response.

Mrs Amad Uma, LLC National Coordinator in her opening remarks on Monday says Lutheran members within this country should now take the ownership of this program to see its continuation into the next few years. She also thank the Church Partnership Program under Aus AID to fund the programs over the past years and also provide funding assistance for the Evaluation, Reflection Workshop and now planning.

The Planning Workshop was well attended by the LLC Program Coordinators and officers from the Evangelism Department of ELC PNG and facilitated by the Melanesian Organization for Development (MODe). Department Secretary Rev. Binora when welcoming the workshop participants says Lutheran Church is not an emotional church but a faith church thus the workshop should reflect on the Bible teachings and guidance.

Incoming ELC PNG National Youth Director Mr. Reuben Mete says the rate by which the epidemic is growing in Papua New Guinea is very alarming at the moment. He says with the given figure of 416 new HIV positive cases detected in 2012 within Morobe Province, the province is now sitting on a time bomb.  “This clearly shows that there has been a social breakdown within all our communities despite Lae city being the Head quarter of many Christian denominations including the ELC PNG,” Mete says.