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Disease

The problem of disease has at least two components. The first and most obvious is the physical suffering or limitations it produces. The second might be best expressed by Mother Teresa of Calcutta:

“I have come to realize more and more that the greatest disease and the greatest suffering is to be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, to be shunned by everybody, to be just nobody [to no one].”

JMI’s commitment is to alleviate both the physical and the social suffering created by disease, through preventive education, the provision of medical care and/or the formation of enduring personal relationships.

This initiative is being addressed in cities and villages in South Africa where the communities we serve experience infection rates hovering around 50% of those local populations.

Number of children who have lost one or both parents because of AIDS:	15,200,000
Number of children who are living with HIV:	2,300,000
Percentage of HIV-positive Africans who are women:	54 percent
Estimated life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010 without the influence of AIDS:	59.5 years
Estimated average life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010 because of AIDS:	44.1 years
Estimated average life expectancy in the United States by 2010:	78 years
Number of children who lose a parent to AIDS every day:	6,000
Expected number of orphans due to AIDS worldwide by 2010:	20,200,000
2006 population estimate of New York state:	19,227,088

“and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
       and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
       then your light will rise in the darkness,
       and your night will become like the noonday.” Isaiah 58:10

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