Christ the Healer Project

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Christ The Healer Project is a support group for the Youth Alive program of AIDS/HIV workshops based in the Transkei region of South Africa, which is directed by Fr. Matthias Nsamba, the Diocesan Youth Chaplain of Aliwal Diocese. The program supports young people to live positive lifestyles. The Birmingham based group is run by Jim Meehan, an RE teacher at St Edmund Campion Catholic School in Erdington.

Southern Africa has a devastating HIV/AIDS Pandemic. In the Transkei up to 40% of young people are HIV positive. 1 in 3 pregnancies are HIV positive. The rate of infection is rising sharply.

[edit] Facts

The Transkei is still recovering from decades of Apartheid, the systematic disenfranchising and discrimination against Black South Africans

In the 1960’s the Xhosa people of this Aliwal region had their farming land seized and were forced under Apartheid to settle on poor farming land. This land is not arable and does not support livestock, and so is not self supporting

The infrastructure of the region is still weak. South Africa is still a nation of opposites. Most of its people live in conditions we would recognise as Third World

In the Transkei region where the Youth Alive Programme is based the average monthly income for a family is £50. The migrant labour system still operates where parents work hundreds of miles away from their children, most families are only united at Christmas

The worst effect of Apartheid has been the undermining of the traditional family life of the Xhosa and Sotho people of the Transkei. Children often fend for themselves or if lucky are reared by grandparents.

Crime is rife, alcoholism common and drug abuse out of control. Young people rarely finish school and have no local job prospects. In this climate promiscuity is common and HIV/AIDS is out of control.

For further information go to Christ The Healer Project Official Website