Codex Perductum

Rob Smith, the founder and president of the Agathos Foundation (see earlier blog entry), has wriiten an excellent article: The AIDS Crisis in Africa - Who Cares?. This article, in a journal with which I am not familiar, the Other Journal, explores why the more evangelical an African is, the more likely they are to have AIDS.

The Agathos Foundation is a great organization. They are all Christians and as a result of their relationship with Christ they feel compelled to address the horrible AIDS crises in South Africa. Rob is from South Africa so he has both the perspective and the authority to do something about the problem.

Agathos' method of helping those who have been made orphans and widows by AIDS is to raise money to buy farms. Professional farmers then run the farms. The widows and orphans live on the farm and are cared for by the profit from the farms. At the same time, Agathos undertakes aggressive education and spiritual training to try and raise a generation of men who will break this cycle.

Some of the statistics that come from the article include:

• The same number of people that were killed by the recent tsunami are killed every three weeks by AIDS in Africa.
• The more evangelical an African country is the higher the rate of AIDS.
• The countries with the highest rate of missionaries per capita have the highest rate of AIDS.
• The more Moslem a country is the lower the rate of AIDS.
• The more Evangelical, as opposed to Roman Catholic, the higher the rate of AIDS.