A boost to African families

In the 1980s came Live Aid, that initiative spearheaded by British musician Bob Geldof aimed at raising funds to help alleviate the famine then sweeping Ethiopia. The project was supported by dozens of other singers from the UK and spawned a similar effort from artists in the American music industry as well.

The succeeding decades have seen many other programs that addressed various problems that Africans have been experiencing -- from land mines and lack of potable water to malnutrition and AIDS. Experts offered varied solutions; organizations worked to deliver. Many times, the people in need of aid were reduced -- albeit unwittingly -- to the status of mere mouths to be fed, bodies to be rid of disease or packs to be shipped off by the truckload to more livable locations. Their survival indeed was extended, but human dignity was sometimes forgotten -- as is sometimes the case when material welfare becomes the end-all and be-all.

At a recent congress held in Nairobi, Kenya which was represented by 10 African nations and others from the Americas and Europe, new insights were brought forth on just what it takes to realize authentic development in Africa and to eliminate the ravages of poverty, disease and war.

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Fighting AIDS by bolstering African families

Written by Carolyn Moynihan

Friday, 26 August 2005

Strengthening the family is the answer to many of Africa's ailments, says Kenyan paediatrician, mother and award-winning novelist Margaret Ogola. The West is obsessed with saving Africa. From street protests to political summits, from condoms to rock concerts, everything has been tried, or so it seems. But one thing always seems to be overlooked – how the family, the basic social unit, is faring. Now there is a movement from within the region to put the family at the centre of all efforts to promote development and eradicate the scourges of poverty, disease and war. Last weekend people from ten African nations, together with supporters from the Americas and Europe, met in Nairobi, Kenya, for a congress geared to strengthening family life in the continent. At the conclusion they launched a new umbrella group, Voice of the Family, to coordinate further initiatives. This will be a group to watch. One of the keynote speakers at the congress was Dr Margaret Ogola of Kenya, a paediatrician and mother, with four children of her own and a growing number of adopted children. Dr Ogola, founder and medical director of the Cottolengo Hospice in Nairobi for HIV-positive orphans, heads the Commission for Health and Family Life of the Catholic Church in Kenya. In her spare time she writes books: her 1999 novel, The River and the Source, which tells the story of four generations of African women, won the 1995 Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature and the 1995 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. A sequel, I Swear by Apollo, was published in 2003. As the congress got under way, Carolyn Moynihan asked Dr Ogola what has been happening to the African family and what it needs for the future. She responded with a combination of gravity and optimism that inspires confidence in her belief that “good things are going to happen in Africa”. Read the full article at MercatorNet