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Lutheran Church denies HIV-patients human right to treatment!

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Watch the interview with Jackson Mbogela, former executive officer of PIUMA (http://www.piuma-simba.org), to get more backround information on the embezzlements of governemental funds and church donations from Europe at Bulongwa Lutheran Hospital and the forced closure of an effective Care and Treatment Clinic in 2006. Also watch: http://hub.witness.org/en/upload/who-killed-veneranda. Even though anti-retroviral medication has been available for free in Tanzania since 2005, many members of PIUMA and other PLWHA within the area of Bulongwa/ Makete district/ Tanzania experience difficulties gaining access to high-quality treatment.Throughout the years, governmental subsidies as well as church donations from Europe have been embezzled through church officials at the Bulongwa Lutheran Hospital and the South Central Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT).The embezzlement of health care funds and foreign aid money have resulted in a situation where patients cannot be guaranteed access to high-quality and life-saving medical treatment.PIUMA was the first group of people within the region that stood up to criticize governmental and ecclesiastical authorities and to hold them responsible for their actions. This self-help group has held numerous public protests against corruption in the past and called for a reform of the local health care system. PIUMAs work has successfully brought the sensitive issue of corruption within the government and the church into the Tanzanian media and has publicly requested the adherence to human rights.In consequence to PIUMAs commitment against corruption within the governmental and ecclesiastic public health sectors, the management of Bulongwa Lutheran Hospital and the diocesan leadership of the South Central Diocese forcibly closed a well functioning HIV/AIDS-Program, which PIUMA co-managed, in April 2006. Since then the ELCT denies the HIV-patients of Bulongwa the human right to adequate health care. At least 70 patients –dozens of PIUMA members- are known to have died as a result of this gross abuse of human rights. (also compare: http://www.pamoja.at/Press_Archives/CCI00023_3507x2480.JPG)Although the religious partner organizations of ELCT from Europe and the United States as well as numerous international NGOs working in the field of HIV/AIDS in Makete District have been fully informed about the forced closure of the HIV/AIDS-Program at Bulongwa Lutheran Hospital, none of these organizations reacted in favour of the patients and advocated for the human rights of PLWHA in Bulongwa. (see: http://www.highlandshope.com/2008/06/29/piuma-delegation-in-arusha-deman...)


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