BY RHODA TSE
November 2, 2005|3:00 pm
TIME magazine will honor Dr. Peter Okaalet at the TIME Global Health Summit in New York City on November 1–3 as one of two faith-based heroes battling AIDS and other preventable diseases through churches. However, Dr. Okaalet says he was not always convinced of the necessity of working from a faith aspect.
As a young doctor, Dr. Okaalet watched his friend die of HIV/AIDS while in his arms. His friend, frail and thin from the wasting disease, could barely speak. He whispered, “What more could you do to save my life?”
Dr. Okaalet obliged him and told him about the promises God makes in the Bible and eternal life through Jesus Christ. After his friend died, he says he came to the conclusion that only faith could have comforted him on his last day. “Lacking a faith in a higher power, my friend could not see beyond his own existence. He was afraid.”
Medical Assistance Program International (MAP) was the visionary bridge between the two worlds. The Brunswick, Georgia-based Christian relief and development organization wanted to join theology and medicine in a holistic ministry – a ministry that takes stock of the spiritual and the physical. The group wishes to help a person grow spiritually, while tending to their physical needs.
The bridge was clearly needed in the 1990s in Africa, when 97 percent of clergy knew AIDS was a problem, yet over 60 percent did not understand the disease. Lack of knowledge led most African churches to condemn those with the disease.
“I witnessed clergy standing at the door of the AIDS ward of a hospital, waving to the patients and the caregivers at their bedside. ‘God bless you,’ they would say. Then they would walk away. And this was considered progress,” says Dr. Okaalet.
TIME magazine honored Dr. Peter Okaalet, 52, for his work in bridging Christian theology and practical medicine in Kenya as director of MAP International. Here he poses along with Time’s senior health writer, Christine Gorman. (Photo: The Christian Post)
Dr. Okaalet and MAP International developed a curriculum for 14 theological colleges in six African countries – Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Over 1,300 students are receiving instruction; 230 have already graduated with HIV/AIDS counseling certificates.
MAP also developed educational readings for churches, which then preached to whole congregations about AIDS. Now thousands of clergy bring people living with HIV spiritual healing and hope alongside their medical treatment.
Other than educating people, MAP programs also handed out free medicine and cleaned the water supplies through the work of faith-based organizations and local churches.
Dr. Okaalet, who now directs MAP International in Africa, has this to say on the resilience of churches, “Churches will always be there. Governments can go in and go out, but the congregations are always there with the people. The church will run a hospital even when there is war.”
As for proselytizing, Dr. Okaalet says they don’t do it. They work with all denominations and faith traditions.
Dr. Okaalet is one of twelve heroes TIME will honor during the three-day summit. He is one of two heroes representing the faith sector. The other is Dr. Ngoma Miezi Kintaudi, director of the Medical Office of the Protestant Church of Congo. He helped give 90 million people primary healthcare.
Biography
Dr. Peter Okaalet was Deputy Head Prefect TCA in 1973–74. He holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and two graduate degrees in Theology from the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. Peter Okaalet began his career in medicine in 1980 as a medical officer at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Tororo, Uganda, and served at the same institution as its medical superintendent for a further two years, before venturing into private practice in Malaba (1984–1990).
He served as a medical officer with The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) in the Tororo branch, as well as a medical administrator with Bukedi Diocese, and finally as a medical coordinator and physician-in-charge at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology clinic in Nairobi (1994–1996).
He is currently the Executive Director at Okaalet & Associates Limited (Nairobi– Kenya), and was a Senior Director for Health, HIV and AIDS Policy Office at MAP (Medical Assistance Programs) International (HQ Georgia USA).