God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

10/26/2009 • 9:18 am Comments Off on 26.10.09 new week, new ventures

26.10.09 new week, new ventures

While this post is coming alive, I am on my way to Frankfurt to meet with representatives of the AIDS action alliance to discuss possible involvement at the 2nd ecumenical church day in Munich in May 2010 and the World AIDS Conference in Vienna. Mid November we have our annual planing meeting with HOPE Cape Town and then most travel arrangements must be decided on. Monday Frankfurt, Tuesday/Wednesday Bitburg and Wednesday eve Aachen are the next stations of my travel – Bitburg with a talk @ the Lion’s Club and various encounters and talks with the students and teachers of the St. Willibrord Gymnasium regarding the work of HOPE Cape Town and obviously touches the general situation in South Africa.  In Aachen I will talk about “HIV and AIDS as sign of the times” and discuss a possible theology of HIV and AIDS for our days.  All encounters create the opportunity to function as a bridge between South Africa and Europe. This becomes more and more important. In my talks in Berlin I once again realised how necessary it is that information is floating freely and honestly between South Africa and Germany to foster the development of relationships between the two countries which are helpful to the people and not only to the ruling class. Sometimes the European or German partners are very quick with solutions to our problems between Cape Town and Johannesburg – forgetting the different way, people in the South experience their realities. South Africa has a lot still to learn and to develop, be it that politicians are team player and not lone warriors trying to gain as much as possible as long as they are in office. But also the cooperation between NGO’s and government needs improvement and also here, the working mechanism developed in Germany between those parties, could have an assisting factor for us at the bottom of Africa.

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Politics and Society, Society and living environment, , , , , , , , , , , ,

10/25/2009 • 11:21 pm Comments Off on 25.10.2009 Further comment to the news of the Vatican…

25.10.2009 Further comment to the news of the Vatican…

Congratulations to Cardinal Peter Turkson for his appointment to head the Justice & Peace office. To appoint an African Cardinal was in my eyes a wise move. As my home bishop is the head of the Justice & Peace commission in Germany and we from HOPE Cape Town have a memorandum of understanding with the Justice & Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Cape Town, I am in good spirit about all these developments and hope this will lead to some synergies. Africa will push justice and peace and with it also some of the topics related to HIV and AIDS. Ein Schelm der Boeses denkt… 🙂

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, , , , ,

10/23/2009 • 9:28 pm Comments Off on 23.10.2009 Friday eve…

23.10.2009 Friday eve…

Friday eve in Berlin – a long day draws to an end and it is nice just to have the perspective of going to bed before midnight. 🙂

The meeting with the Charite and all other invited parties was a very productive one and I am looking forward now to see the HIV / AIDS exhibition 2012/2013 being realised with the help of a whole network of supporters. As Joachim Franz said this morning: “There are times where you feel that things simply are coming together”. And this week was indeed such a time where all the networking of the last years brought different people together and drew several plans which will bring the topic of HIV and AIDS once again to center stage. Rising numbers also in many parts of Europe make it indeed necessary to highlight the danger of ignorance towards this pandemic.

It was an exhausting week, but a good one. Tomorrow morning I will meet up with an old friend of mine  and I am looking forward to it. Besides all business there must be time to refresh old friendships and to catch up with people close to your heart.

The week was also a good one for HOPE Cape Town and I am sure the management will be delighted to hear about the variety of networking and involvement it will have in the next years to come. For me personally, networking is in our days one of the most important ways of using resources wisely but also to create synergies which reach out in a way, a single organisation will never be able to do alone.

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, , , , , ,

10/22/2009 • 5:50 pm Comments Off on 22.10.2009 Berlin ice-cold…

22.10.2009 Berlin ice-cold…

It is freezing cold when I arrive in Berlin, thanks the “Deutsche Bundesbahn” with a delay. A Korean taxi driver with a typical “Berlin accent” is driving me to the hotel, through all the construction sides – I feel like Cape Town or Johannesburg…

A first “hello” at the hotel by a friend of mine who happens to be the HR manager of this hotel. In the afternoon then a first meeting with an employee of the German Bundestag. I know her since a long time and we have to catch up a lot as we have not seen us for a while. But also we explore possibilities how to engage with the new government, specially in the health sector and I am confident that I am able to meet the right people next time I am in Berlin.

A talk with a representative of the Lutheran Chuch in the representation of the EKD for the German Government  – also here a briefing and some discussions on future cooperation in some fields.  Back to the hotel and then meeting a journalist: preparation for a trip to Cape Town, a visit to HOPE Cape Town and a report for radio about our work.

This evening I will meet a MP for dinner – also here it will be an exchange of ideas and possible cooperation. But at the same time I can say that all people I met today are people I know since a longer time. There is trust and the will to assist – and after such long time, there is this feeling of a growing friendship, which I appreciate a lot. One knows each other, one trusts each other – a fine way of working together in an appreciative surrounding.

It will be late before I will be back at the hotel, a short night, as I have a breakfast meeting tomorrow morning with some people – again planing on quite a substantive level to bridge the realities of South Africa with Germany, but even more:  to bridge realities on several continents, amongst them one reality,in which more than 30 mil people can tell a separate tale, where thousands of people are called to higher services every day and end their life premature, where hope and future are theoretical terms with no real value.

Last but not least: a feedback from Rome and the papal council shows me that our visit at the beginning of the week was appreciated.

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Politics and Society, , , , , , , , , , ,

10/22/2009 • 8:14 am Comments Off on 22.10.2009 Two days workshop

22.10.2009 Two days workshop

A two days intensive planing workshop between Joachim Franz, be your own hero eV., Sabine Jahn from the German Aids Foundation and myself is drawing to an end. Two days of consideration, deliberation and looking forward into cooperation and projects for the years until 2013. It is amazing to see how far one must have to plan – big events need proper preparation time and all are committed to continue their fight against HIV and AIDS in a positive way by bringing awareness, supporting those infected or affected in Germany, South Africa but also worldwide. Watch this space in the next years to come.

For me it is great to see how cooperation can not only reduce costs but also shape focus and create synergies which can indeed move the world, be it the little world around us or the bigger world in the real sense of the word. I will now travel to Berlin to meet up with another possible cooperation and networking partner, the Charite Museum in Berlin.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, , , , ,

Blog Categories

Follow God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE on WordPress.com

You can share this blog in many ways..

Bookmark and Share

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,711 other subscribers

Translation – Deutsch? Française? Espanol? …

The translation button is located on each single blog page, Copy the text, click the button and paste it for instant translation:
Website Translation Widget

or for the translation of the front page:

* Click for Translation

Copyright

© Rev Fr Stefan Hippler and HIV, AIDS and HOPE.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rev Fr Stefan Hippler and HIV, AIDS and HOPE with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

This not withstanding the following applies:
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.