Why East Africa?

AIDS. The majority of people who live with AIDS live in Sub Saharan Africa. It is often painted as a haunting reality of pain and death. We take the cruel reality of AIDS and also understand that with treatment people can live healthier longer lives. Treatment exists, who will help pay for it? Treatment works, who will educate and test a population and who will support those workers. The future is full of hope, who will help rebuild a society? We are, therefore, drawn to East Africa.

For over 200 years Africa has been the object of humanity’s greatest evils. Slavery, colonial imperialism, genocide, and now economic exploitation, local corruption and AIDS. The circumstances Africans find themselves in are compounded by their history and the current political climate. We find that Africa calls out in a clear voice. Those in the world who listen hear a cry for justice to those who will stand in solidarity with them.

For Anderson University, East Africa has become the place for fostering relationships of solidarity. Many of our friends and colleagues have a deep connection to Uganda, Tanzania, or Kenya. Therefore, for those of us who do not yet have these bonds of friendship we join in the committed partnerships that have already developed so that all of us African and American can come together against AIDS.