Help From People Of Faith

Faith communities around the world have already done a great deal for the Millennium Development Goals in the past eight years. Their advocacy for change has encouraged and pushed governments forward. Their work in education and health, particularly in Africa, often unpublicized and unrecorded, has been an invaluable complement to government programs. The response of the faith communities to the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been widely recognized and has stimulated the growth of new and effective interfaith networks.

A core part of my vision for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation is that the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals depends not just on governments but also on the dedicated work of people of faith. Progress will often be best achieved by interfaith collaboration, more-effective networks and learning from good examples. Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and all the members of mainstream faiths believe in the duty to help those in suffering and need. Ambitious national malaria plans are likely to fall short of their targets if the faith communities, mosques, churches, temples are not integrated into their delivery. This is quite a challenge.

The work of the Anglican Church in creating "health deacons" and doing excellent work in Africa shows it can be done. Some mosques, churches and temples distribute bed nets and teach people how to use them. Rick Warren of the U.S. evangelical Saddleback Church is doing this in Rwanda with local churches, training trainers for primary health care. Sister Felicia Muoneke, a Medical Missionary of Mary in St. Matthew's parish, Amuko Lagos, one of the poorest slums of Nigeria's capital, runs a clinic and health center. Although most Muslim and Christian children it treats have malaria symptoms, none dies from the disease thanks to treatment with antimalarials. People, plagued by mosquitoes from a stagnant canal, need nets treated with insecticide.

The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in our generation could be remembered as something like the moral equivalent of the 19th-century elimination of the slave trade. To achieve that, the campaign will need to be part of a vastly wider coalition of forces than even William Wilberforce could muster. Today it is no longer an option for faith communities to work together. It has become a necessity. The time is now.

To find out more about Tony Blair's campaign against malaria, go to tonyblairfaithfoundation.org .

© 2008