World AIDS Day 2007

There has been some encouraging news about AIDS in the past few weeks: the latest UN report both revises the estimate of people living with AIDS downwards and suggests that the rate of new infections also appears to be slowing.

But these numbers can hardly lead to complacency: the effect of AIDS on individuals, families, communities and whole countries -- particularly in sub-Saharan Africa -- remains a source of the gravest concern. And even the downward revision of the new infection rates still indicated that 2.5 million people were infected with the virus last year.

We need to continue to take action "to restore hope" as Canon Gideon Byamugisha puts it: fighting stigma, helping individuals live positively, caring for those who have been left vulnerable, campaigning for better access to life-saving medications.

To this end, we'd suggest you have a look at our latest AIDS resource "To Restore Hope," which can be downloaded below.

We'd also recommend two events:

(1) On the 2nd of December from 6:15 to 7:45, St Mary's, Hitcham Lane, Burnham, will be holding "An Evening of Hope in Action," featuring a talk by Paul Brigham from Tearfund, and creative prayer by Gill Lovell.

(2) And on 6 December, at the Friends Meeting House in Oxford (43 St Giles), three pioneers -- Canon Gideon Byamugisha, founder of Hope Institute, Uganda; Fidel Nsengiyuvma, founder of Friends' Initiative against AIDS in Rwanda; and Glen Williams, founder of "Strategies for Hope," Oxford -- will be talking about "Effective Response to HIV and AIDS in Africa." The meeting begins at 7:00 for 7:30.

Hurricanes and their aftermath . . .

The coverage of Hurricane's Dean and Felix is largely over, but the aftermath of these storms in the Windward Islands and Nicaragua is going to affect thousands of lives for the foreseeable future.

Dean destroyed much of the Windward Islands' banana crop; in one island, Dominica, almost 100% of the crop was lost. About 20,000 banana farmers are out of work in the region, and islands like Dominica, where banana exports account for 10% of GDP, face economic difficulties. The Windward Islands are the source of many Fairtrade bananas; the Fairtrade Foundation website has eyewitness reports on Dean's impact.

In Nicaragua, one region, the Region Autonoma del Atlantico Norte [RAAN] has been particularly hard hit. The most recent Nicaraguan news estimated the number of dead at 38 and the number of those displaced at almost 16,000. It also noted that almost the entire infrastructure of the RAAN had been affected, with thousands of houses destroyed. You can see coverage of the impact on Nicaragua at the La Prensa website.

What can we do?

Pray for those who have been affected by the storms. If you would like some suggested prayers, please email CCOW.

Give to agencies or groups that are working on relief: both Christian Aid and Tearfund have information on their websites about what their partners are doing.

Act: Hurricane Felix strengthened with record rapidity, going from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in 51 hours as it moved over very warm waters. Climate Change models predict that as oceans heat up, the number of intense storms will increase. Do what you can to cut your carbon footprint; for suggestions, go to our "Climate Change" section.

Welcome to CCOW's new website

We hope that this new website will enable you, our visitors, to connect with the work of CCOW and to join us as we seek to discern ways of living God's love in a global context. To that end, we've got a number of new features, including:

• an expanded "What we work on" section, with updated information about key areas of CCOW's work
• an events list that can be viewed in a variety of formats (list or table) and are colour-coded by subject matter
• "prayers" and "resources" pages, able to be accessed from the left bar on your screen, that gather together prayers and resouces across different areas
• a "Forum" where you can discuss development and World Church matters
• and a revised and expanded links page

We hope that you will find these new features helpful. If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to email us at ccowinfo@fish.co.uk . Please email, too, if you have suggestions --we're eager to make this the best possible website for you, so your thoughts are very welcome! God bless.

Oxfordshire Climate-X-Change

CCOW is partnering with the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University's "Oxfordshire Climate-X-Change" programme. Climate-X-Change (www.climatex.org) aims to help individuals and groups in Oxfordshire respond to all aspects of climate change. It offers resources such as a "lightbulb library," from which you can borrow different energy-saving lightbulbs to test them out at home, DVDs of climate and energy-related films, books, pub quizzes, help setting up climate-related events and more. Check out the website or email CCOW for more information.

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