Fr. Ismael Matambura, SJ

Fr. Ismael Matambura, SJ, Director of the African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN) stressed the importance of supporting HIV-AIDS initiatives, saying that AIDS epidemic in Africa is not over.  “HIV is still there,” Fr. Matambura said during events co-organized last May by Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) with various parishes and schools in Toronto, Hamilton, Guelph, Parkhill, and Ottawa.
UNAIDS has noted that although West and Central Africa have made “notable progress” in their response to AIDS, this remained “insufficient to meet global targets to end AIDS as public health threat by 2030.”
AJAN was founded in 2002 by Canadian Jesuit priest, Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ. Jesuit efforts to combat HIV and AIDS in Africa include providing services such as HIV care and treatment, psychosocial and spiritual support, awareness raising programs, particularly among the youth, and livelihood support for vulnerable women and girls, said Fr. Matambura.
The Building Resilience Among Women and Girls in Africa, a project being supported by CJI, provides women, particularly those living with HIV, with training in financial literacy and business management. Successful trainees receive seed grants to start a small business. Read more: bit.ly/4tQE8rT