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NEW YORK: Trinity Church announces grants addressing HIV/AIDS pandemic

[ENS, Source: Trinity, St. Paul's] -- The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, rector of the Parish of Trinity Church-St. Paul's Chapel, announced $844,926 in new grants to 18 partners in the U.S., Latin America, and Africa, covering issues ranging from advocacy on behalf of former prisoners to encouraging visual arts initiatives within the Episcopal Church USA.
    Two grants had a particular focus on the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, in the United States and across the world.
    The Diocese of Swaziland will receive $130,758 over three years to fight HIV/AIDS. The smallest country in the Southern Hemisphere, it has the world's highest rate of HIV/AIDS with 42 percent infected and 200,000 dying of HIV/AIDS or related illnesses annually. The country has only six hospitals with a total of 2,000 beds. Infection is particularly high among people ages 15 to 45.
    Trinity's funding will support a program covering all three archdeaconries of the Diocese of Swaziland and will fund production and distribution of HIV/AIDS prevention materials and workshops throughout the country.
    In accepting Trinity's grant, Bishop Meshack Mabuza of Swaziland said, "Thank God for Trinity Wall Street, because it has demonstrated that the body of Christ is universal: the distance between Swaziland and the U.S. is not so material. I am grateful that our sisters and brothers at Trinity Church have identified themselves with our challenge, HIV/AIDS, which is of great magnitude in Swaziland. The grant will enable us to go a long way in responding to the challenge."
    Domestically, a grant of $36,000 will support San Juan Bautista Mission's "Hablando Claro" program in its educational activities for HIV/AIDS prevention among Latino residents of the Hunts Point-Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx. This neighborhood has one of the highest HIV infection rates in New York City and the church's prevention efforts have a particular focus on at-risk Latino women living in the area. An evaluation program coordinated with the Columbia University School of Public Health will help share the lessons of these prevention efforts with other programs.
    "For more than twenty years, the Trinity Grants Program has helped local communities battle the AIDS pandemic," said the Reverend Canon James G. Callaway Jr., Trinity-St. Paul's deputy for faith formation and development. "Congregations have the trust that is crucial for effective prevention efforts, if they have the tools they need."
    Other Trinity grants include $171,000 to support the second year of the "Feed the Solution" initiative that is helping the Episcopal Church expand its responses to hunger in New York and New Jersey, and support for interfaith networks between Christian, Muslim, and Jewish groups in New Jersey; telecommunications equipment throughout the Episcopal Church of Brazil; and the Anglican Web Portal in London.
    Grants announced today are the second of three cycles annually by Trinity to meet four objectives: strengthening the Church in the Global South, social transformation in metropolitan New York, spiritual formation and development, and strengthening telecommunications in the Anglican Communion.