Latin America and Caribbean
Jamaica
In Jamaica, the ELCA partners with the Caribbean Council of Churches (CCC) on a community project that mobilizes and enhances the response of Caribbean faith-based organizations to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. The project provides training to clergy and lay leaders in pastoral care and counseling for people affected by HIV and AIDS and equips faith communities and theological students with resources to incorporate HIV and AIDS education into congregational life. The project also works with faith communities to establish facilities and programs to provide treatment and care for people living with HIV and AIDS and for their families.
Argentina
The Iglesia Evangelica Luterana Unida (IELU) plays a coordinating role for efforts of Lutheran Churches in Latin America around HIV and AIDS. The ELCA partners with IELU to support biblical and theological reflection by Lutheran communities throughout Latin America. The regional effort is
building pastoral care and advocacy networks, engaging governments and civil society organizations in addressing HIV and AIDS, calling upon the resources of Lutheran confessional identity in support of advocacy efforts, promoting pastoral accompaniment and defense of human rights, and creating biblical, theological and pastoral models for ministry based on dialogue and experience of accompanying populations that are vulnerable to the epidemic.
Chile
The Popular Education for Health Foundation (EPES) was founded in 1982 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church Chile (IELCH) with the goal of expanding access to quality health care to poor and oppressed communities. Over the past twenty years, EPES has grown from a small, emergency-response team to a strong organization with a proven track record of winning significant improvements in health services and health awareness, especially for women in low-income communities. The ELCA partners with EPES to work for the improvement of health and the quality of life for communities that live in poverty, marginalization and discrimination. The EPES model is based on the participation and organization of community residents to meet their own needs. EPES’s HIV and AIDS campaigns use a rights-based approach to promote individual, community, and society-level responses to HIV and AIDS. EPES is working community by community to share information about HIV prevention, reach out to high-risk populations, combat myth and stigma about HIV and AIDS, and develop community-based strategies to halt the spread of HIV and provide care and support to people affected by HIV and AIDS.
In Latin America and the Caribbean the ELCA also supports HIV and AIDS ministry in Bolivia, Haiti, Colombia, and Peru. For more information on HIV and AIDS ministries in Latin America and the Caribbean please contact ELCA World Hunger at hunger@elca.org.