Malawi's AIDS epidemic touches hearts, minds in Alaska

Published: 2003-11-20

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNS) -- Like just about everyone in the southern African nation of Malawi, Abbie Shawa knows the face of AIDS from personal experience. When his brother lay dying from the disease in 1996, Shawa cared for him, bathed him and kept his bedding clean and dry. Today, Shawa's sister-in-law shows signs of the disease. Yet the Malawi-born Shawa, who is the director of Catholic Relief Services' HIV/AIDS program there, came to the United States on a five-week speaking tour to portray a message of hope. "Without hope there is no reason to continue," Shawa told an audience in Alaska, where he spent three days in late October. In heavily accented English, he said that in the face of the AIDS pandemic sweeping Africa "the church brings a message of hope -- it may be the only institution doing that right now." Shawa spoke at St. Mary Parish in Kodiak and in Anchorage at Holy Family Cathedral and Lumen Christi High School. He also addressed a luncheon for CRS donors at the Westmark Hotel in Anchorage.

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