1

Make a Donation

Please consider a financial contribution to

strengthen CABSA’s capacity to assist churches

and faith communities in their response to HIV.

Donate securely online through the website:

www.cabsa.org.za

Name: CABSA

Bank : ABSA - Wellington

Branch code: 632005

Account type: Active Saving

Number: 910467416

Bankaccount for international transfers

on request: management@cabsa.org.za

Upcoming Events

16-20 August Churches, Channels of Hope Express, Facilitator Follow-up Training.

August and September Base-line study in Western Cape in cooperation with CHABAHIVA.

From Belarus with Love

In March and June ‘Churches, Channels of Hope’ trainings were conducted in Bel-

arus, which also included people from Lithuania. The delegates from Belarus were

quite literally representing the entire country, from pastors to former drug ad-

dicts. All the participants were excited to be able to go back home and make a

difference. Without exception, every single person was challenged, encouraged,

touched, stretched and experienced God moving in their hearts and lives in vari-

ous ways. One of the participants, a pastor, shared: ‘This valuable training has

come to Belarus at such a critical time, we desperately need to address these issues

of HIV and AIDS in the church!’

The lead trainer wrote: After the training I can say that we have been able to see real fruit in the lives of each of

these dear people. One by one we witnessed God doing His form of ‘spiritual heart surgery’. Or as one of the

participants says: ‘Today for the 1st time in my life I heard my Heavenly Father speak to me directly and He

said…”You are my precious child and I love you!”’.

A participant in the June training wrote; “When I heard from my brother that the training would take a week - I was

angry. What about work? Ministry? I just don't have the time I thought… Despite my skepticism from the first minute

of the first seminar I realised that it was what I needed.”

The lead-trainer shares that there are so many stories to share, but ends with a last quote: ‘I would like to say a huge thank you for the training, it was a time we spent with God. He taught us to open our hearts to people in need. To people that are waiting to be understood and accepted. HIV infected.’

Saying Farewell

Unfortunately Patty Brooks resigned. Patty has been a valuable part of CABSA for so many years,

that we know this does not mean goodbye – only that she will not be working for the organization

formally. Thank you for all your efforts at CABSA Patty!

Judith Turner spent only ten months in part time position in the CABSA office, but made her quiet presence felt in many ways. She accepted a full time leadership position with an organisation she

has been involved with for a long time. We will miss you, Judith!

Sadly, Rhodé Janssen’s time in South Africa is also quickly running out – she will be returning to the

Netherlands at the end of August. We will really miss this passionate young woman who has be-

come such an integral part of CABSA!

2

Highlights in this Network

Reflecting on the First Semester of 2015

Half the year has rushed past and it is a privilege to

reflect with you on a few of the highlights of the

semester.

CABSA completed two Churches, Channels of Hope

facilitators trainings in this semester: one in Zambia,

for Empact Africa and one in Gauteng as part of the

Fleiszer Legacy project. Sometimes we here on the

southern tip of Africa forget how big the footprint of

Churches, Channels of Hope is. To give you a

glimpse of this, we will share a few stories from

Russia and Belarus.

In June CABSA coordinated the Faith in Action

exhibition and satellite session at the 7th South

African AIDS conference. CABSA is part of the local

planning committee for the interfaith involvement at

the International AIDS Conference 2016, which will

also be held in Durban. If you are interested in

being part of this planning process, please contact

me at management@cabsa.org.za.

The next six months promises to be as busy – we are

already planning for the next training in August and

many other activities.

Please continue the journey with

us.

Experiences of a ‘Churches, Channels of

Hope’ Lead-Trainer

In June, the newly updated manual, with a stronger

focus on competencies, was used for the first time, when

we trained 25 new ‘Channels of Hope’ at Mazenod.

Lead-trainer Anna Kaura shares her experiences as a

first-time lead-trainer:

“I feel good about the training. My focus was to give

the training team a good sense of belonging so that

they can give the participants a good experience of

being on the training, and create a conducive learning

atmosphere, I think we achieved this”.

“The training team was a bit exhausted from long time

of preparations and the anxiety with the new manual,

but put effort in preparing for their sessions. I feel the

week went better than I expected, considering that I

was a new lead trainer who was doing it for the first

time, while piloting a new manual as well”.

“I tried my best to motivate the participants so that

when they return to their communities they will be

channels of hope, a unique position in which God is

calling them to make a difference. Towards the end of

the training it was good to see the group interacting

well even during breaks, sharing their personal journeys

and dreams they have for their communities”.

NETWORK

CA

BS

A

Email: management@cabsa.org.za ■ Telephone: +27 (0)11 7966830 Volume 18 ■ July 2015

Experiences of a

Lead-Trainer - p1

CCoH in Zambia

p2

AGM and Mini-

Conference - p2

From Belarus with Love

p4

3

‘Churches Channels’ of Hope Training in Lusaka, Zambia

In May, CABSA together with EMPACT Africa presented a Churches Channels of Hope Facilitator’s Training Pro-

gram, in Zambia.

There were 21 participants from Zambia and Zimbabwe. There was a healthy blend of participants across denom-

inational lines. Most participants are either pastors or Church leaders, so expectedly there were strong and exten-

sive views expressed on moral and religious issues, especially at the beginning of the week. This made for interest-

ing debate and an opportunity to learn from each other’s views.

Regarding the content of the training, participants had the following to say: “Good content and good stewards of

time”, “The information gave us a lot of extras on what we knew. Practical, close to real life situations”, “The content

was complete – go make me do the work.”

Participants were confident that they would be able to use the gained knowledge, skills and awareness in their

communities, which indicates that the training achieved the outcomes of strengthening skills, knowledge and atti-

tudes of HIV and AIDS.

We wish all participants well with their future endeavours as they respond as Channels of Hope to the stigma of

HIV within their different countries, and communities.

CABSA’s Annual General Meeting and Mini-Conference

In May CABSA ‘Celebrated Life’ at its Annual General Meeting and mini

-conference on Gender, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and HIV. It was

a very inspiring and lively day and we are only able to share a brief

overview of the day with you. You can also see some of the pictures on

the ’Friends of CABSA’ Facebook page; http://on.fb.me/1OjB1zt

The Mini-Conference on Gender, GBV and HIV

Xana McCauley (Christians for Biblical Equality) kicked off the mini-

conference with a presentation on the roots of gender and GBV, fol-

lowed by Itumeleng Komanyane (Sonke Gender Justice), who spoke

about the importance of engaging men in the journey to gender equality. Maclean Dlodlo (World Vision) shared

insights from their ‘Channels of Hope for Gender’ programme and Meleney Kriel (Viva Rape Response) spoke

about her experiences implementing a response system for sexual violence in the Mamelodi Township, Pretoria.

After a break, Marcus van Wyk (We will Speak Out) explained how individuals can ‘Speak Out’ against sexual

and gender based violence and our colleague Aneleh Fourie-Le Roux (CABSA) spoke about the organisations in-

volvement in the ‘Thursdays in Black’ campaign.

4

Share Your Stories With Us

CABSA is very interested in your news and stories; How are you responding to the challenges of

HIV and/or gender based violence in your community? You can share your stories with us at

communication@cabsa.org.za for inclusion in the upcoming Network.

7th South African AIDS Conference

In June, some of CABSA’s staff exchanged the cold Johannesburg and Cape

Town for comfortable Durban, in order to participate in the 7th South Afri-

can AIDS conference. CABSA was involved in three activities; the ‘Faith in

Action’ exhibition, a satellite session and a poster presentation.

The ‘Faith in Action’ exhibition was very popular with many visitors walking

in wondering what we were representing. Posters or pamphlets of their de-

nomination triggered the interest of many visitors on how their churches were

involved in the HIV epidemic.

Although the exhibition space had a strong Christian focus, we had some

good conversations with Hindi and Muslim delegates and invited them to

cooperate with us in the 2016 International AIDS conference in order to truly have a ‘inter-faith’ presence.

For the satellite session we were very blessed to have some great speakers reflecting on their journey with HIV and

the role religion played in this journey. Unfortunately, this session had less visitors than we hoped. Many reasons can

be found for this, including the time of the session.

CABSA’s poster presentation illustrated how CABSA’s Churches, Channels of Hope training assists faith-leaders to un-

derstand and break down HIV-stigma in their faith community. This poster can be downloaded from: http://

bit.ly/1MermMq

In addition to all CABSA’s input into the

conference, we also had some time to

participate in different sessions, net-

work and simply enjoy the conference.

It was an unique week in Durban in

which we were able to equip dele-

gates, but which also equipped our

own staff.

The Annual General Meeting

After all these inspiring and motivating stories, it was time for the official part

of the meeting, which was in the competent hands of board chairperson Logy

Murray and our director Lyn van Rooyen. Lyn presented the Annual Report of

2014. CABSA is thankful for the impact we had in 2014 in spite of limited

resources. The annual report was accepted by those present at the AGM.

Logy explained the need to change the constitution to meet the reality of the

organisation’s expanded reach, and the participants at the AGM agreed that

this may be done through an electronic general meeting.

This day was only possible through the commitment of our speakers and ex-

hibitors, thank you very much!