HIV/AIDS and Poverty
Nearly half the world's population (2.8 billion people) now live on less than $2 a day. A billion of these live on less than $1 a day. Yet James writes in his letter to the Christian churches: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
The single biggest contributor to poverty is HIV/AIDS. In 2006 2.9 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses 99 per cent of these were in the poorest countries. At the two St James we believe that the Church of Jesus Christ should be leading the way in helping to alleviate HIV/AIDS related poverty.