With the number of African AIDS orphans rocketing to around 12 million, Medical Assistance Programs International (MAP) has launched a seminary programme for African pastors in training to give them the skills they need to care for the millions of victims of HIV/AIDS.

|TOP|The new academic curriculum on HIV/AIDS was created with the help of numerous seminaries across the African continent and has been piloted in eight different seminaries in seven different African countries.

The feedback so far is positive, according to MAP International President and CEO, Michael J. Nyenhuis, with the dean of one seminary commenting that it was one of the most important classes that students were taking.

MAP International has already been equipping African churches for over a decade after many pastors reported feeling completely ill-equipped to address the issue.

In an interview with Assist News Service, MAP International President and CEO, Michael J. Nyenhuis, told how many pastors admitted to AIDS being a problem in their community and church but when asked if they were addressing the issue would say “I don’t know what to do. I’m a pastor”.

In response to this, MAP International set about building a network of Christians already working on HIV/AIDS “so that people wouldn’t feel that they were alone and be connected together and they would learn from one another”.

|QUOTE|Mr Nyenhuis added: “If you could equip local churches to battle HIV/AIDS, you would in fact have wonderful HIV/AIDS programmes in every community because the Church is everywhere.”

According to the MAP CEO, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has hit the 18 – 40 bracket the hardest, meaning that the people with the task of building the country are the very ones dying.

MAP is a Christian organisation dedicated to the promotion of health, both physical and spiritual, among impoverished people. Over the next 60 days, the organisation will also be distributing $14 million of vital medical supplies to the most impoverished communities across Africa.

Africa is home to around 25 million of the 40 million HIV/AIDS sufferers worldwide.