Co-directors

Cindy Sprunger
Director of International Student Services

HIV/AIDS ... Those words had very little meaning to my life for many years. Then I moved to East Africa, and suddenly they became a part of my every day life. While living there, I learned that AIDS does not discriminate. It affects everyone regardless of their education, occupation, social status, religion, gender, or economic status. It is real, and I saw it face to face. I so appreciate the opportunity to be a part of AU-East Africa because it strives to educate our students and those we partner with about the realities of AIDS. It presents the opportunity to put feet to this learning process by providing ways to connect face-to-face with the people of East Africa, to see their humanness and experience their joy in the face of adversity. I am so honored to be a part of this organization and all that it does.

Stuart Erny
Director of Campus Ministries
Co-founder of AU-East Africa

As I increasingly encountered the staggering statistics coming from the pandemic, especially relating to Africa, I found it more and more difficult to do nothing. And I discovered that many others around me (especially students) were feeling the same way. We began to see AIDS as a, possibly the, defining event of our times — the kind of thing that future generations will look back upon and wonder how it was that the church was so silent and passive amidst such desperate need. This feeling has only grown and is part of what has led to AU-East Africa. I plead with you, on behalf of our brothers and sisters in East Africa, to consider the part that you might play in this endeavor.