Two year old demand by PIUMA to put an end to corruption ignored by the Lutheran Church.

Arusha, Tanzania/ June 30, 2008 - The HIV-AIDS patient advocacy group in Bulongwa PIUMA has denounced the Lutheran churches of Tanzania and of Europe and North America for their lack of transparency and accountability in the use of money for international development and to combat HIV-AIDS at the a meeting of the Council of the Lutheran World Federation in Arusha. PIUMA has also demanded that the Lutheran churches address the ongoing state of crisis at the Bulongwa Lutheran Hospital and its HIV clinic.

“The people of the Bulongwa area of Makete District are suffering because of the corruption and lack of accountability of the South Central Diocese of the ELCT (SCD), its hospital, Bulongwa Lutheran Hospital (BLH), and the Lutheran donor agencies that support them,” says PIUMA spokesperson Wema Sanga. “People living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs) have been among those most directly and most negatively affected by this fraud and theft.”

At least 272 million Tanzanian shillings are known to have been lost or stolen from the Bulongwa Lutheran Hospital and from donor-supported development projects since 2003. This theft has been confirmed by a number of independent audits, but the ELCT and international Lutheran donors have done virtually nothing to reclaim or replace money that was raised by northern churches for the benefit of the poor and needy but lost due to incompetence.

“Hundreds of millions of shillings were stolen by local hospital and church officials,” says Ms. Sanga. “There are professional audits that show this clearly. This money was stolen from the people of our area and must be returned. The Bishops of the ELCT and their foreign partners meeting in Arusha must address this lack of accountability in their system and its negative impact on the poor. Our people are dying from lack of decent care caused by theft and corruption in the Lutheran church. ”

PIUMA is bearing witness that the people of Makete are suffering and PLWHAs in the District are dying because of the Lutheran Church’s incompetence and corruption both in Tanzania and in Europe. PIUMA believes that since the lock-out, hundreds have become infected or died for lack of decent services and HIV follow-up testing and care from BLH. The Church must accept responsibility for the ongoing crisis and change fundamentally its approach to partnering with Tanzania and with the SCD.

“Basic health care is a human right,” says Jackson Mbogela, senior advisor to PIUMA. “Helping PLWHAs in Makete is a matter of justice, not charity. It would be better if no money came from European churches than for it to end up in the pockets of local church elites who use the power and influence it gives them to oppress the people.”

PIUMA held a day-long vigil outside the Arusha International Conference Centre where the Lutheran World Federation was meeting and presented three demands to church officials:

- That the northern partners of the ELCT, specifically the Mission EineWelt (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria), NMZ (North Elbian Centre for World Mission) and KPS (Lutheran Church in the Province of Saxony) of Germany, recognize that they have failed the people of Makete through financial mismanagement and lack of transparency and accountability, including the contravention of their fundamental human right to receive basic health care;

- That the ELCT and its donor partners pay the people of Makete District the money that was supposed to have been invested in the District in health care and in development projects but that was stolen due to their mismanagement;

- That the ELCT, SCD, and its partners immediately restore services for PLWHAs to the level that was available in April 2006 at the BLH HIV Care and Treatment Centre prior to the expulsion of PIUMA and the professional staff working with them.

Founded in December, 2005, PIUMA is a self-help and advocacy group for people living with HIV-AIDS. It is committed to educational and service outreach and to democratic activism against corruption and bureaucratic indifference to the hundreds of people it represents. Its actions are deeply rooted in proud Tanzanian traditions of democracy and justice for the poor. Last year, PIUMA counselled and tested more than 2,000 people in outreach clinics to villages in Makete District, the poorest region of Tanzania with one of the highest prevalence rates of HIV infection in the country.

See http://www.piuma-simba.org/site/category/document/