Assist4Africa Celebrity Basketball Game

On March 19 Word of Grace helped sponsor the Assist4Africa Celebrity Basketball Game at Wells Fargo Arena on the campus of Arizona State University. The game featured Charles Barkley and Amare Stoudamire as coaches of two teams composed of former Phoenix Suns players, as well as current Arizona Cardinals players and a number of radio, TV and sports personalities from the Phoenix area. Attended by about 5,000 people, the game raised more than $50,000 for the Partners in Malawi HIV/AIDS Clinic in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Charles Barkley leads Team Freedom into battle!

Word of Grace was not only a sponsor of the event, but more than 40 people from our church volunteered to make the game a huge success.

The Partners in Malawi HIV/AIDS Clinic, led by Dr. Perry Jansen, is a Word of Grace partner ministry. Once it is fully operational it will provide more than 3,000 HIV positive Malawians with medical care.

Dr Perry Jansen speaking to the media before the game.

The Partners in Malawi AIDS Clinic in the capital city of Lilongwe.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. The annual per-capita income of the country is about $180 a year. More than 1 million people are HIV positive, and over 520,000 children are orphans as a result of AIDS. Currently only about 20,000 people in Malawi have access to ARV's (drugs needed to help AIDS patients live longer).