

Most of the time, the church is externally focused, giving service to all those in need. There are very few programmes if at all, for the church employees. The HIV and AIDS DESK introduced the programme on mainstreaming HIV and AIDS, TB and Gender in the workplace to the church employees of the ELCZ-WD through a mentorship exercise. A total number of 28 people represented the church institutions in the western diocese. The aim of the programme is to address the underlying issues that increase the risk and vulnerability of the church employees to HIV exposure, the effects of AIDS as well as impact mitigation within the workplace and during working hours and beyond. All the 9 institutions have since established committees which will be responsible for the conduct of the workplace programme. Orientation of these committees will be done in the last quarter of 2018.