New Year’s Greetings!
Welcome to the January issue of AJANews in 2024! We give thanks to God for all the blessings we have experienced as a network as we look back on the previous year. This time of the year can be used to set the tone for the entire year and the Scripture tells us in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Considering the past year it should strengthen our commitment towards the mission of supporting Jesuits and collaborators in responding to HIV and AIDS, accompanying the young people, walking with the vulnerable, the excluded, as well as protecting the planet in which we live. We are reminded that we have several chances to grow in our understanding of how God has used the lives of other believers in past generations, God’s grace for each of us and thankful of what He has already accomplished in other people’s lives to leave us with a glorious legacy of the work that we undertake in promoting “Life to the full”. Human life is sacred, and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society where every person is valuable, people are more important than earthly possession, and an institution’s worth is determined by how much it upholds or jeopardizes the life and dignity of its constituents.

Jesus Christ in the parable of the Good Samaritan warns against the propensity to discriminate against others regardless of the “many reasons” behind it -Luke 10:25-37. Just as the good Samaritan recognized the dignity in the other and cared for his life, the call to be good Samaritans in our work is not simply to give the treatments, but to show other people how to live and how to help themselves. In a mission of justice and reconciliation, we seek to strengthen our Jesuit mission by deepening our collaboration and networking amongst all with whom we work we are called to continue to “walk with the poor, the outcasts of the world, those whose dignity has been violated,” as the Society of Jesus put it, “Love them,” as Jesus said.

In the year 2024 through the expansion of the AJAN HIV and AIDS Prevention Program for the Youth (AHAPPY) and youth-led initiatives that aim to empower young people by promoting positive change in molding them to become leaders in their communities, we seek to continue accompanying young people by listening to them, promoting creativity, encouraging justice and openness to Christian values. We cannot possibly answer all the calls in our mission to serve those who are on the margins but if we show and teach them how to help themselves and be autonomous, we will have done justice to them. Our greatest work, in other words, will be to continually teach and empower more the vulnerable and young people to eradicate their vulnerability.  That is what we are trying to do, and our work is growing every day.

AJAN is happy to announce the launching of the online certificate course “HIV and AIDS, and Pastoral and community care”. If you are interested, kindly enroll and share the link with others. “HIV is still with us”. Do you need skills to contribute to stopping it? Do not hesitate to register for the course.

Kindly click the link below to apply>>>

Par, Dennis Owuoche,

Chargé de communication AJAN