Christ The Healer Project is a charitable organisation and support group for the Youth Alive program of AIDS/HIV workshops based in the Transkei region of South Africa, which is directed by Fr. Matthias Nsamba Labega, the Diocesan Youth Chaplain of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aliwal. The program supports young people to live positive lifestyles. Based in Birmingham, England, the group is run by Jim Meehan, who retired from teaching religious education in St Edmund Campion Catholic School, a Roman Catholic institution in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham.
Southern Africa has a devastating HIV/AIDS Pandemic. In the Transkei up to 40% of young people are HIV positive. 1 in 3 pregnancies are HIV positive. The rate of infection is rising sharply.
The Project is a support group for the Youth alive programme based in the Transkei region of South Africa Youth Alive is directed by Fr. Matthias Nsamba, the Diocesan Youth Chaplain of Aliwal Diocese The programme supports young people to live positive lifestyles Deepens their commitment to Christ who invites them to choose life in its fullness.
The Transkei is still recovering from decades of Apartheid, the systematic disenfranchising and discrimination against Black South Africans
In the 1960s the Xhosa people of this Aliwal region had their farming land seized and were forced under Apartheid to settle on poor farming land. This land is not arable and does not support livestock, and so is not self-supporting
The infrastructure of the region is still weak. South Africa is still a nation of opposites. Most of its people live in conditions we would recognise as Third World
In the Transkei region where the Youth Alive Programme is based the average monthly income for a family is £50. The migrant labour system still operates where parents work hundreds of miles away from their children, most families are only united at Christmas
The worst effect of Apartheid has been the undermining of the traditional family life of the Xhosa and Sotho people of the Transkei. Children often fend for themselves or if lucky are reared by grandparents.
Crime is rife, alcoholism common and drug abuse out of control. Young people rarely finish school and have no local job prospects. In this climate promiscuity is common and HIV/AIDS is out of control.
