CANA

Dear Friends,

We would like to wish you a blessed Holy Easter week ahead, from all of us at CANA. The Holy Week is regarded as the week before the death and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We observe the beginning of the Holy Week, with Palm Sunday which marks Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, which is also a time for Christians to welcome him into our lives. The week then moves forward to Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday.  “Maundy” comes from the Latin term "Mandatum", which was the first word of the Holy Thursday service in the West until the Protestant Reformation and translates as “commandment,” the first word of John 13:34. In the Bible, Jesus tells his disciples, “a new commandment I give you, to love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). As Christians today we still value this love, compassion and service to others.

One of the main focus areas of our work is to attract the society’s attention towards the plight of AIDS orphans. According to UN estimates, the number of children in India orphaned by AIDS is approaching two million. In fact, there is a projection that the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa is likely to be repeated in India (At-a–Glance, India: AIDS and Orphans). AIDS orphans have manifold sufferings as they are denied inheritance rights, education, suffer malnutrition & exploitations and are discriminated against. They are at increased risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases as they face sexual abuse, use drugs and girls are forced to take up prostitution to survive. They live with trauma of losing parents, face stigma associated with the disease-farced to become a new class of untouchables. UMANG program of CANA is to advocate and raise support towards the need of the children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and especially those who have become orphans, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or sex. CANA mobilizes parental care, support towards medical (pediatric ART, treatment for OIs etc), educational and nutritional component and also raises support towards their psycho-social support and spiritual needs.

CANA advocacy is to make the commitments by individuals & families, organizations & institutions who do not want these children to end up in the wrong hands for child trafficking and other forms of physical and sexual exploitations. The call is also to adopt infected child/children, to give them a life to sustain.

CANA also completed some programs with success provided by the grace of God. Among them, was the successful completion of the National AIDS Awareness Spot Painting Competition (NAASPC), with the theme ‘I have AIDS and I need your care’.  The co-partners were The Leprosy Mission (TLM), World Vision and Ravi Bharati Institute. The NAASPC programme gathered about 2000 entries. The participants for the NAASPC consisted of various Churches, Missions, and Christian owned schools, Sunday school, Christian run and managed homes, orphanages and day care centers. The award giving ceremony and the release of the Christian Directory was held on the 12^th of February, 2010 at YMCA.

Further months of labor and hard work, CANA was able to publish the Christian Resource Directory which was released on 12^th of February’10, in the prize distribution ceremony of NAASPC-2009.     A vital tool for networking, a 200 page directory have been printed for the reference of individuals and institutions for networking with other organizations and establish mutual partnerships in building the Kingdom of God through Christian responses towards the HIV infected and affected communities. [2](To obtain your copy, please see the informative write up on the directory)

 CANA has also formulated a Network Guideline Document to guide CANA’s networking strategy. In a participatory process, the network coordinators of CANA from the six states, Delhi, UP, MP, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa came together in person in Patna, Bihar on 1^st to 3^rd September 2009, forming new network guidelines, while others gave their inputs over mails and telephonic discussions. The groundwork for this workshop was the ‘Think-Tank on networking’ and the outcomes of these two workshops were utilized to form a new network guideline for CANA in August 2009.[3](CANA invite you to be an active member of CANA, you may forward the attached membership form back to CANA at your earliest convenience to partner with CANA ministry in your area.)

Since the early fourth century, the early Christians created a series of services, prayers, and rituals to commemorate the Holy Week, which continues to unite the Christian communities worldwide till date. In addition to washing each others feet on the Holy Thursday, let us also wash away the judgmental attitude, stigmatized behaviors and discriminative practices among us that still restrict the Church to reach out those PLHIV(People living with HIV / AIDS), who are crying out for care and support.  Let us also unite in this Easter season, to come together and fulfill the Christian mandate to love one’s neighbour, and spread the message of salvation and hope, by reaching out to those in suffering, for we are the God’s stewards on this earth now. As such an action would be equivalent to the symbolic unity through the sharing of the Holy Communion on Easter Sunday. As we engage on the joy of celebrating Easter with (or with out) Easter eggs, let us bring new hope to the hopeless lives around us.

[5]CANA also wishes you a very Happy Easter, and wishes you the Lord’s blessing on all your endeavors. Please do feel free to write back, keep us updated about your work and continue to keep in touch with us. As for us we will keep you updated about our activities, as it is a source blessing to all. With best wishes and prayers,

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