HOPE Cape Town is a non-profit organisation providing outreach, education and counselling at the community level focused on HIV, AIDS and TB in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It was founded by Father Stefan Hippler and joint effort between the German speaking Catholic Community, Rotary Club of Signal Hill, University of Stellenbosch (Faculty of Health Sciences) and the Tygerberg Academic Health Complex.
The Cape2Cape AIDS Awareness Initiative is a team of seventeen German men and women led by adventurer and endurance athlete Joachim Franz. They have scaled 18 mountains in nine weeks, starting with the North Cape in Norway and finishing with the South Cape in South Africa.
At each summit, they planted an HIV/AIDS awareness flag emblazoned with hard hitting, inspirational images and facts about the disease. The team also organized a series of press events in each country visited to actively remind people that HIV/AIDS is still very much a global problem, impacting European and African countries alike.
The service was attended by both the German Ambassador to South Africa, His Excellency Mr. Dieter W. Haller, and the German Consul-General, His Excellency Mr. Jörg-Werner Marquardt and their wives.
It was the first time in the history of the Nazareth House Chapel that an interfaith service was held and it was very pertinent that service included the Adhan (Muslim call to prayer), a Buddhist meditation prayer, a Hindu mantra and a Jewish Prayer for the sick followed by the sound of the Shofar – all in a Catholic church!