Monthly Team Meeting First Sunday of the month 12:30 - 2:00 p.m. Room 201 Note: There will be no meeting in June or July. Join with us to discuss opportunities for this ministry. Short Term Mission Opportunity Click here form more information about our Discover the World trips.

AIDS Initiative and Global Justice Team

The AIDS Initiative and Global Justice Team seeks to mobilize, educate and equip the Cherry Hills Community Church community into action through the love and compassion of Christ to restore hope and dignity to those affected by HIV/AIDS and the social injustice of human trafficking.

The AIDS Initiative and Global Justice team partners with Living Hope Ministry in Cape Town, South Africa and Kerus Global Ministry, which works primarily in Shoshanguve, a township near Pretoria, South Africa.  Both ministries work with children who have been orphaned by the blight of HIV/AIDS in their communities.  Living Hope offers medical treatment and various forms of outreach through local churches in many of the townships in the Cape Town area.  Kerus Global’s ministry emphasis is teaching “It Takes Courage” in the local schools and churches.  This is a curriculum that teaches Christ-centered values to young people and those seeking to reach the youth so they make positive choices in order to avoid HIV infection.  

Our ministry partners in Gulu, Uganda are Gulu Community Church and World Vision.  Cherry Hills first entered this partnership in 2008 when many in this community still lived in internally displaced people’s camps.  It was a difficult situation and we felt a strong call from God to be involved in helping to restore these people and the community.  We have provided clean water, helped in building new church structures and re-building schools that were destroyed in the war, done pastor training and general evangelism and community outreach.  There is still much to be done and we rejoice that hope is being restored to these proud and beautiful people.

We also partner with several ministries in Cambodia and we work with local ministries:  HIV Carelink, “Our House” and Street’s Hope.

The involvement in Global Justice started as a result of learning about the abducted children being forced into becoming child soldiers and sex slaves in northern Uganda during the 22 year long civil war.  We then learned more and more about sex trafficking in Southeast Asia and bonded labor in India and other parts of the world and felt God’s call to educate, equip and mobilize the Cherry Hills Community to do something about this abhorrent issue. 

Did you know…

• There are an estimated 27 million enslaved people around the world.
• Human Trafficking is a $32 billion dollar a year industry; second only to drug crime.
• Approximately 600,00-800,000 people are trafficked across national borders each year.  It is estimated that 80% of these are women and up to 50% are minors.
• UNICEF estimates that the number of children trafficked each year are around 1.2 million.

The statistics are many and sobering.  There is much to do to combat this monumental moral issue.  Here are a few things you might want to consider:

• Join the AIDS Initiative and Global Justice Team.
• Educate yourself and raise awareness around you by sharing this information with your friends, neighbors and colleagues.
• The general public often identifies victims.  Call the human trafficking hotline is you see something suspicious—1-888-373-7888.
• Be a conscientious consumer—buy fair trade goods.  There are a number of resources out there including Fair Trade USA and Free2Work.
• Write your local and federal legislators to request improved legislation in the area of human trafficking.

We can all make a difference!

AIDS Initiative and Global Justice Team
Contact

Kathy Burr
303.325.8427