Skip to main content

Tag: AIDS

Oct 29, 2025

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

When Kathy and I travel dusty rutted roads to remote rural villages in Africa, we’re often reminded that what to us is third world is not necessarily so for the inhabitants, especially those being cared for by our WOW partners. The pic above is a good example.

Here’s a single mom, obviously proud of and enjoying her young son. Both are healthy. Both are happy.

And, both are benefiting from WOW’s comprehensive Home Based Care (HBC) ministry, in this case “Somebody Cares Malawi”. We have been in partnership with SCM for 24 years and have seen thousands of dying orphans and widows lovingly ministered to with weekly HBC visits.

The opportunistic diseases that plague HIV infected patients are numerous. Everything from oral thrush to dysentery, bed sores, dehydration, diabetes, various kinds of tuberculosis, and occasional leprosy(!) challenge our godly volunteers relentlessly. Yet they faithfully soldier on, their hearts motivated by love of God and neighbour.

Again and again over the years we have witnessed the recovery and renewed vitality of many patients who were at death’s door but are now happy and healthy like the young woman in the picture. Their joy is both physical and spiritual. They sing and dance in gratitude to the Lord. They have no sense of deprivation. They are content.

This is why we always return to North America humbled and inspired, our African friends constantly reminding us that regardless of outward abundance or lack, the joy of the Lord is our strength.

April 02, 2025

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

Recently a few personal friends have been diagnosed with serious illnesses. As is often the case these afflictions came on suddenly. From one day to the next they went from life as usual to what Shakespeare famously described as “a walking shadow who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more”. It’s brutal being blindsided by our mortality. The transitory nature of life is a key component in WOW’s vision for ministry to the dying. As mentioned in my last blog, the spectre of certain death is again rearing its ugly head in Africa due to the suspension of PEPFAR funding for ARV (antiretroviral) medication. HIV afflicted people who had been living free from worry because of these meds are now facing a grim future ending in an early grave. So WOW is back to square one facing the urgencies of an always fatal disease like we did when we started 25 years ago. But we’re committed to the faithful care of the “least of these” in spite of the perfect storm of sorrow that prevails. Every patient we have cared for through our champion volunteer partners over the years has felt the physical touch of the extended “hands and feet of Jesus” to their last breath. And as we reach out in Jesus’ name we’re reminded of our own mortality. Truly “the times of our lives are in his hands”.

March 19, 2025

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

The recent decision by the White House to shut down USAID is having a chilling effect on WOW’s African ministry partners. For 25 years WOW has been on the forefront mobilizing local African churches in the care of orphans and widows victimized by HIV and AIDS. This has seen us engaged not only with this fatal disease but also with the opportunistic infections and poverty related afflictions that accompany the pandemic. And pandemic it is, even though HIV and AIDS has been on the back burner of global awareness since anti-retroviral medication (ARVs) arrived on the scene about 20 years ago.

These lifesaving meds have muted the reality that hundreds of thousands of Africans still live with HIV. Now, however, with former president Bush’s amazing intervention called PEPFAR (Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) no longer paying for ARVs (due to USAID withdrawal) the myriad of Africans living with HIV have been medically orphaned and face the grim reality of living with a 100% fatal disease. For us at WOW this means our Home Based Care ministry (HBC) to thousands has been dealt a major blow.

We’re back to ministering exclusively to the dying. This, of course, is what we did in the early days of WOW, so our on the ground ministry partners in Zambia, South Africa, Malawi, and India are not being caught flatfooted. But they are chagrined.

The key in every circumstance is faithfulness. We have been for 25 years, and will be for the indefinite future, totally committed to ministering to whom Jesus called “the least of these”. Our local church based volunteers will continue to provide HBC in Jesus’ name and WOW will continue to raise awareness and funding for the massive challenge ahead.