Charlene Harris has been hearing stories about Africa all her life.

Educated in Catholic schools and raised in the Catholic faith, she knew Africa was a continent distinguished by both remarkable natural beauty and abject poverty.

Like most Americans, she had watched television documentaries and news show images of men, women and children dying due to lack of medication, food or clean water, and thousands more as victims of HIV/AIDS.

A member of the Sacramento Diocese’s Black Catholic Council, Harris now has joined in the organization’s humanitarian effort to be advocates of change among African nations.

The project, named the Africa Solidarity Initiative, was launched in January 2005 in response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ document, “A Call to Solidarity with Africa.”

That document, issued in November 2001, seeks to draw the attention of the global and Catholic community to issues of concern and spiritual challenges facing the people of Africa, including the deterioration of health care, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a broken educational infrastructure and pervasive civil war.

To bring the bishops’ recommendations for self-education and involvement in public advocacy to people in the diocese, the Black Catholic Council sponsored a workshop in June 2005 at St. Anthony Parish in Sacramento.

They organized a variety of activities with a focus on solidarity with Africa during Black History Month in February.

But at the heart of the Africa Solidarity Initiative’s actions is a trip from July 22 to August 6 to Ghana and Nigeria.

“Explore Africa,” a cross-cultural immersion experience, involves an 11-member delegation from the Black Catholic Council traveling to Ghana and Nigeria to meet with religious leaders, public officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations.

The trip is planned as an educational and cultural enrichment program to promote peace, networking, religious exchange and humanitarian cooperation.

Leading the Sacramento delegation are Sister Rose Ereba, a member of the Handmaids of the Holy Child, and Ernest Uwazie, a professor at California State University, Sacramento, both natives of Nigeria.

Participants will stay with host families, visit orphanages, schools and HIV/AIDS clinics in Nigeria, and meet with Catholic Relief Services officials providing services to assist men, women and children in Ghana.

In an interview with The Herald prior to the trip, Harris, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Sacramento, said to be an effective advocate for change, this was one trip she was not going to miss.

“If I really hope to be an advocate, it is important to me to have a firsthand look for myself,” she said. “A lot of celebrities are doing good things in Africa, but we need more everyday people getting the message out.”

A community activist long committed to improving education and addressing poverty issues, Harris believes the journey to Africa may well reshape her life.

“Somehow I sense when I come back I’m going to know what I want to do with the rest of my life, that this is God’s way of telling me,” Harris said. “I do know when I come back, I will be a different person.”

Copyright © 2006 Diocese of Sacramento - All Rights Reserved