Raju K. Mathew saw the hopelessness and despair in the lives of AIDS/HIV+ people and their families. The impact of the epidemic on children was especially heart rending. Visits to a HIV/AIDS care facility in the locality helped him to experience and understand the situation better.

The condition of patients and his vision for those affected was shared with the Agape Assembly and other like-minded people. After much prayer, consultation and study, seven of them decided to and formed ACCEPT - AIDS Counselling, Care, Education, and Prevention Training Society. The aim of Accept is to alleviate the suffering - physical, psychological and spiritual - of those affected directly or indirectly, regardless of economic status or regional/religious affiliation, to rehabilitate them and to integrate them into society. The foundation of all these efforts is Christian love and compassion. The Agape Assembly has through prayer, physical and moral support, been involved in this initiative as an outreach ministry.

HIV positive and AIDS patients are desperate for a door that does not shut in their faces. They need people who will care for them till their death or till their families learn to accept and look after them. ACCEPT seeks to be that door which opens for them.

HIV FACTS HOW DOES HIV SPREAD? • The HIV spreads mostly through unprotected sex with an infected person. • Through blood from an infected person directly entering another person's blood stream. •  From infected mother to new-born child HOW IT DOES NOT SPREAD • Through casual contact such as hugging, shaking hands, common toilets, mosquitoes bites or sharing utensils. • HIV is not a contagious disease and there is no need to fear sharing in communion with such brothers and sisters in assemblies • If an HIV+ person has other contagious opportunistic infections such as TB, Hepatitis etc., proper care needs to be taken. HIV does not spread through casual social contacts. The best medicine for AIDS is love, acceptance, trust, and unconditional empathy - not sympathy.