Christ the Healer Project

Christ The Healer Project is a charitable organisation (Registered Charity Number 1118344).^[1] and 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 Labega, the Diocesan Youth Chaplain of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aliwal. The program supports young people to live positive lifestyles. Based in Birmingham, England, the group is run by Jim Meehan, who retired from teaching religious education in St Edmund Campion Catholic School, a Roman Catholic institution in Erdington, now a suburb of Birmingham.

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.

A Picture of a sermon being led by Father Matthias Nsamba Labega

Who does the Project support?

The Project is a support group for the Youth alive programme based in the Transkei region of South Africa Youth Alive is directed by Fr. Matthias Nsamba, the Diocesan Youth Chaplain of Aliwal Diocese The programme supports young people to live positive lifestyles Deepens their commitment to Christ who invites them to choose life in its fullness.

Why the group was set up

• 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.

References

1. ^ "Entry into Register of Charities". http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?remchar=&chyno=1118344. Retrieved 2007-03-13. 

External links

• Christ The Healer Project Official Website
• Blog Post (Friends With Christ) by Fr Julian Green on CTHP