Without education, HIV/AIDS will continue to spread. For too long, HIV/AIDS have been confined to the realms of clinics and hospitals but the epidemic does not respect these sectored boundaries.
We need a more holistic approach which will involve all churches as healing communities.
A true healing community is not a closed one.
It cuts across social class, status and power structures.
The members of a true healing community must move out to identify with people who are on its fringes, inviting the marginalized and oppressed in, enabling them to join their communities with restored relationships.
Often people working in the field of HIV/AIDS get discouraged, especially when they see the brokenness of life all around;
the work is big, the task ahead far greater than anyone can imagine, the results so seemingly few and with different strands of the virus emerging every day.
Working in this field takes up a lot of physical and emotional energy. We might want to give up sometime.
Faith healing and spiritual cures have always been part of the church's ministry.
To many, they smack of magic, of mystical claims of ‘impossible cures’ , deeply foreign to us.
They are sometimes seen as dry fruits of aging churches which have lost contact with the living sources of healing power.
In the mist of this tension, the world’s greatest pandemic, HIV/AIDS, is changing the concept of what the healing ministry of the church can mean.
What is empowerment and how can we empower our centers to heal others?
God’s power proclaimed by Jesus Christ is the rejection of powers of this world and the manifestation of His Grace and love in powerlessness.
God’s healing action in Christ empowers the powerless, it liberates, humanizes and transforms lives.
Empowered by Christ, the church must carry out the mission of combating the forces of this world that exercise a demonic influence on society.
The church is not on the side of power, but of powerlessness, not with the powerful but with the powerless.
The church must challenge all acts that pursue over powering, and support and engage all acts that promote empowering.
The church remains powerful in powerlessness so long as it remains obedient to God’s covenant with humanity through Christ.
Christ empowers us against violence and injustices in our prophetic struggles.
This empowerment is a source of healing, transformation and reconciliation.
We can empower by
Healing experiences whether it is our own or that of someone close to us
Allowing our healing to embrace those closest to us
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Group skill
Group skills
The group process is a series of changes which occur as a group of individuals form into a cohesive and effective operating unit. If the process is understood, it can be accelerated.
There are two main sets of skills which a group must acquire:
Managerial Skills
Interpersonal Skills
and the speeding up of the group process is simply the hastened up acquisition of these.
As a self-managing unit, a group has to undertake most of the functions of a Group Leader - collectively. For instance, meetings must be organized, budgets decided, strategic planning undertaken, goals set, performance monitored, reviews scheduled, etc.
It is increasingly recognized that it is wrong to expect an individual to suddenly assume managerial responsibility without assistance; in the group it is even more so.
Even if there are practiced managers or highly educated skilled people in the group, you must all first agree on a method, and then convince and train the remainder of the group.
As a collection of people, a group needs to relearn some basic manners and people-management skills.
Again, think of that self-opinionated, cantankerous loudmouth; he/she should learn good manners, and the group must learn to enforce these manners without destructive confrontation.
We come from different backgrounds
The two basic foci should be the group and the task.
If something is to be decided, it is the group that decides it.
If there is a problem, the group solves it.
If a member is performing badly, it is the group who asks for change.
If individual conflicts arise, review them in terms of the task.
If there is initially a lack of structure and purpose in the deliberations, impose both in terms of the task.
If there are disputes between alternative courses of action, negotiate in terms of the task.
Clarification :In any project management, the clarity of the specification is of paramount importance - in group work it is exponentially so. If there are 8 members in the group then the chance of the group all working towards that same task is 0.17. And the same reasoning hold for every decision and action taken throughout the life of the group.
It is the first responsibility of the group to clarify its own task, and to record this understanding so that it can be constantly seen. This mission statement may be revised or replaced, but it should always act as a focus for the groups deliberations and actions.
The mouse : In any group, there is always the quiet one in the corner who doesn't say much. That individual is the most under utilized resource in the whole group, and so represents the best return for minimal effort by the group as a whole. It is the responsibility of that individual to speak out and to contribute. It is the responsibility of the group to encourage and develop that person, to include him/her in the discussion and actions, and to provide positive reinforcement each time that happens.
The loud-mouth : In any group, there is always a dominant member whose opinions form a disproportionate share of the discussion. It is the responsibility of each individual to consider whether they are that person. It is the responsibility of the group to ask whether the loud-mouth might like to summarize briefly, and then ask for other views.
The written record :Often a decision which is not recorded will become clouded and have to be re-discussed. This can be avoided simply by recording on a large display (where the group can clearly see) each decision as it is made. This has the further advantage that each decision must be expressed in a clear and concise form which ensures that it is clarified.
Groups are like relationships - you have to work at them. In the work place, they constitute an important unit of activity but one whose support needs are only recently becoming understood.
By making the group itself responsible for its own support, the responsibility becomes an accelerator for the group process.
What is vital, is that these needs are recognized and explicitly dealt with by the group.
Time and resources must be allocated to this by the group and by church, and the group process must be planned, monitored and reviewed just like any other managed process.
The group process is a series of changes which occur as a group of individuals form into a cohesive and effective operating unit. If the process is understood, it can be accelerated.
There are two main sets of skills which a group must acquire:
Managerial Skills
Interpersonal Skills
and the speeding up of the group process is simply the hastened up acquisition of these.
As a self-managing unit, a group has to undertake most of the functions of a Group Leader - collectively. For instance, meetings must be organized, budgets decided, strategic planning undertaken, goals set, performance monitored, reviews scheduled, etc.
It is increasingly recognized that it is wrong to expect an individual to suddenly assume managerial responsibility without assistance; in the group it is even more so.
Even if there are practiced managers or highly educated skilled people in the group, you must all first agree on a method, and then convince and train the remainder of the group.
As a collection of people, a group needs to relearn some basic manners and people-management skills.
Again, think of that self-opinionated, cantankerous loudmouth; he/she should learn good manners, and the group must learn to enforce these manners without destructive confrontation.
We come from different backgrounds
The two basic foci should be the group and the task.
If something is to be decided, it is the group that decides it.
If there is a problem, the group solves it.
If a member is performing badly, it is the group who asks for change.
If individual conflicts arise, review them in terms of the task.
If there is initially a lack of structure and purpose in the deliberations, impose both in terms of the task.
If there are disputes between alternative courses of action, negotiate in terms of the task.
Clarification :In any project management, the clarity of the specification is of paramount importance - in group work it is exponentially so. If there are 8 members in the group then the chance of the group all working towards that same task is 0.17. And the same reasoning hold for every decision and action taken throughout the life of the group.
It is the first responsibility of the group to clarify its own task, and to record this understanding so that it can be constantly seen. This mission statement may be revised or replaced, but it should always act as a focus for the groups deliberations and actions.
The mouse : In any group, there is always the quiet one in the corner who doesn't say much. That individual is the most under utilized resource in the whole group, and so represents the best return for minimal effort by the group as a whole. It is the responsibility of that individual to speak out and to contribute. It is the responsibility of the group to encourage and develop that person, to include him/her in the discussion and actions, and to provide positive reinforcement each time that happens.
The loud-mouth : In any group, there is always a dominant member whose opinions form a disproportionate share of the discussion. It is the responsibility of each individual to consider whether they are that person. It is the responsibility of the group to ask whether the loud-mouth might like to summarize briefly, and then ask for other views.
The written record :Often a decision which is not recorded will become clouded and have to be re-discussed. This can be avoided simply by recording on a large display (where the group can clearly see) each decision as it is made. This has the further advantage that each decision must be expressed in a clear and concise form which ensures that it is clarified.
Groups are like relationships - you have to work at them. In the work place, they constitute an important unit of activity but one whose support needs are only recently becoming understood.
By making the group itself responsible for its own support, the responsibility becomes an accelerator for the group process.
What is vital, is that these needs are recognized and explicitly dealt with by the group.
Time and resources must be allocated to this by the group and by church, and the group process must be planned, monitored and reviewed just like any other managed process.
PRACTICE MAKES ONE PERFECT
It is a fact, you play at the level at which you practice.
- Good practice leads consistently TO good play
- It sharpens you.
Practice enables development.
- If you desire to improve and develop, then you most practice.
- Every single performance can be improved
- Improvement always requires some degree of failure
- You cannot discover your abilities and implore your skills in an environment where you are not allowed to make mistakes.
- You must be willing to start with small things.
Practice Demand Discipline
- We are what we repeatedly do
- Excellence than is not an act, but a habit
- The habit is developed during practice.
Persevere
Perseverance recognizes that life is not a long race, but many short ones in succession.
- “Success consist of a series of little daily victories”
Be courageous.
Courage is an everyday virtue.
- Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak
- Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
- Good practice leads consistently TO good play
- It sharpens you.
Practice enables development.
- If you desire to improve and develop, then you most practice.
- Every single performance can be improved
- Improvement always requires some degree of failure
- You cannot discover your abilities and implore your skills in an environment where you are not allowed to make mistakes.
- You must be willing to start with small things.
Practice Demand Discipline
- We are what we repeatedly do
- Excellence than is not an act, but a habit
- The habit is developed during practice.
Persevere
Perseverance recognizes that life is not a long race, but many short ones in succession.
- “Success consist of a series of little daily victories”
Be courageous.
Courage is an everyday virtue.
- Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak
- Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Child Labour and Trafficking
• Child labour is the exploitation and engagement of children below 18 years in labour for profit making denying them of their right to education and other privileges.
• Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the given and receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
• Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the given and receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
THE ECOLOGY OF HIV
HIV is a very simple virus with only nine genes but the way it causes infection and eventually severe illness is complex,
HIV attacks the immune system at the same time the immune system attacks the HIV virus,
The HIV virus, CD4 cells and other immune cells are produced and destroyed at a rapid rate,
HIV attacks the immune system at the same time the immune system attacks the HIV virus,
The HIV virus, CD4 cells and other immune cells are produced and destroyed at a rapid rate,
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