US church wants to resume Zimbabwe AIDS work

[cory777]

Source: Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG – A California church wants to get back to helping AIDS orphans in Africa, once it resolves questions over licensing that led to the arrests of six of its workers in impoverished Zimbabwe, a minister said Sunday.

The six — five Americans and a Zimbabwean — were arrested Friday and have been held at Harare Central police station, where conditions in the cells are notoriously grim. They will appear in court Monday on charges of operating without proper medical licenses, according to their lawyer in Zimbabwe.

Theophous Reagans, a minister at the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, California, said by telephone Sunday the church has been working in Zimbabwe for more than a decade and that this is the first time questions over licensing have been raised. He said one of the Americans lives in Zimbabwe, while the others are among church members who visit three or four times a year, paying their own way to help at a home for AIDS orphans the congregation has adopted.

"Our prayer and our hope is that they will be released," after Monday's hearing, Reagans told The Associated Press.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100912/ap_on_he_me/af_zimbabwe_arrests

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Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com

[xchrom]

1. My thoughts go out to them -- I know allen

Temple baptist well.

[maddezmom]

2. Detained U.S. medical team to appear before Zimbabwe judge

(CNN) -- Four Americans, accused of dispensing AIDS medication without a license, are expected to appear before a magistrate in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Monday, the U.S. Embassy in the country said.

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The group has denied all charges. The Oakland church said the arrest stems from "some kind of miscommunication" and is hopeful they will be released Monday and allowed to return home.

"We went on a mission of love, and hope it can be cleared up Monday," the Rev. Theophous Reagans, minister of global missions, adding the team has nothing to do with the licensing of facilities.

The embassy said its consular officers are in close contact with the group.

more:http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/09/13/zimbabwe.americans.arrested/#fbid=ajs1Z5y80Yx&wom=false

[ProgressiveMajority]

3. What is the point of this story?

Our immigration service detains people all the time, and our prisons are no cakewalk either. I don't see why this should be big news. Zimbabwe is just enforcing their regulations just as any other country does.

To me stories like this are just part of the ongoing effort to demonize Zimbabwe and make the people of Zimbabwe look like a bunch of savages.