The Disciples of Christ Church in Argentina was founded in 1906 in Buenos Aires. From its inception the church has honored the Disciple tradition of ecumenism, working with other denominations and forming project alliances with the Argentine Methodist Church and the Waldesian Church of Italy in Argentina. The Disciples also helped to found the Superior Evangelical Institute of Theological Studies (ISEDET), the foremost theological studies institute in southern Latin America.

The Disciples of Christ Church in Argentina has a strong commitment to education, helping to found Colegio Ward in its early years. During the 1960’s it established the Center for the Counseling of Family and Community Life (COVIFAC) and the Laura and Henry Fishback School in Villa Mitre. It also developed a strong social ministry with its services to the Argentine indigenous communities, political refugees, and immigrants. During the 1970’s the church was a key player in the human rights efforts of their country, a ministry which continues today.

The Disciples in Argentina continue their educational ministry to the broader community and they lead in providing important information that is not forthcoming from local and national governments. Many congregations and communities face the need to address health issues related to illnesses that are becoming more prevalent and for which there has been little or no education due to cultural, moral, and religious stigmas, such HIV/AIDS. The Disciples are proposing the Basic Health Education Project, a traveling educational program that will be offered to Disciples as well as other churches, ecumenical groups, and non-governmental organizations. The project will be headed by Ines Sarli, MD, who completed her term as Global Ministries missionary to Paraguay in 2005 and has returned to her native Argentina to serve as a global mission volunteer. Dr. Sarli will work in the area of health education.

The project is designed to present informational workshops on illness prevention, basic first aid skills, assessment of public community health services available, dialogues on health as a human right, and leader training workshops for forward training for expansion and continuity of the project. Topics to be developed are basic first aid, sexual education, child care, community involvement/human rights, community services such as water, sewage, garbage collection, and their effects on health. In addition to the workshops the project will also include interviews, consultations, and discussions for the purposes of assessing the needs and levels of comprehension in the communities.

Most of the participating communities are in the Chaco Province of northern Argentina. The first year (2007) resources are needed to cover expenses such as travel, housing, and meal expenses to the communities of Resistencia, Barranqueras, Nuevo Amanecer, Vedia, and Fontana, and for the educational materials for the workshops.

The project will be evaluated at the end of the first year to assess whether there have been improvements in the quality of life in the communities where these workshops have been held.