wfn.org | AANA BULLETIN No. 19/03 - May 19, 2003 (c)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

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AANA BULLETIN No. 19/03 - May 19, 2003 (c)

Meeting Recommends Strong Inter-Religious Ties On AIDS

The Nairobi consultation on HIV/AIDS partnerships recommended strengthening 
of inter-religious collaboration in response to the scourge. This, 
delegates stressed, should be carried out at country level.

Faith-based organisations (FBOs), the conference further recommended, 
should identify representatives to sit on Country Co-ordinating Mechanisms 
(CCMs) and other national bodies related to HIV/AIDS.

This, the delegates pointed out, would strengthen their representation 
within a broader network at country level.

They further recommended that FBOs should promote participation of People 
Living With AIDS (PLWAs), women and youth, in all aspects of 
decision-making, planning and implementation of HIV/AIDS responses.

To the consultation co-sponsors (WCC, WCRP and Caritas Internationalis), 
delegates recommended promotion of greater communication and information 
sharing within and across networks.

FEATURES  SECTION

Culture Of Forgiveness Presents Hope For Healing

Sierra Leoneans have decided to go South African way.  A Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission, chaired by a church elder, began sitting in the 
country mid April.  The second of such in Africa, it is expected to promote 
the healing of long lasting wounds created by extreme acts of violence on 
humanity a few years ago.  Joyce Mulama, reports.

S
ample this: A woman with a child strapped on her back is ambushed by 
rebels. They grab the child, hit it several times against a tree, and throw 
it into a nearby bush.

With the mother is her brother, who tries to intervene, but in retaliation, 
the rebels slit open his throat, tear off his body and reach for the heart.

As if that is not enough, they order her to eat it raw or face death. When 
she resists, they take her into their camp and gang-rape her.

Sounds like fiction, but such, and many more, were the atrocities committed 
on the innocent people of Sierra Leone, during a nine-year civil war that 
commenced in 1991.

Mitch Odero of the All Africa Conference of Churches, during a pastoral 
visit to the country in 1999, narrated the effects of the horrific acts 
that were meted out on the citizens of a country so rich, whose mineral 
wealth is estimated to be worth US $ 50 billion a year.

Said he: "During an ecumenical visit to a hospital in Freetown, there was a 
pregnant lady who had just been admitted. Both her arms and limbs were 
chopped off. On seeing pastors in the team, she requested them to pray for 
her to die for two reasons. 'How will I explain to my unborn child what 
happened to my limbs? How will I carry my child, place her on my bosom with 
love like any healthy mother?'"

Mr Odero went on narrate: "Members of the team refused to pray that kind of 
prayer, but again to our surprise, she did not take long before she died. 
This was, however, after she had delivered a healthy bouncing baby."

This experience, said Mr Odero, "showed the extent to which atrocities had 
taken humanity."

Rebels from Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone (RUF/SL) have been 
blamed for creating a community that exists as a living testimony to human 
cruelty and depravity - the amputees of Sierra Leone.

Observers have described the rebels as the "worst human rights abusers of 
the 20th century."

Like the pregnant woman, save for her death, the amputees of Sierra Leone, 
both young and old, are a common people who have been condemned to a life 
of disability, not by a quirk of fate, but a premeditated act of 
unspeakable human madness, the practice of mass amputation of human limbs 
as a tool of terror.

With this disability, serving as a permanent reminder of the results of 
political anarchy, the Sierra Leoneans are expected to forgive, forget and 
come to terms with all that happened, through a Truth and Reconciliation 
Commission (TRC), that held its first public hearing on April 14, this year.

The TRC, created by the Lome Peace Agreement of July 7 1999, and 
established by an Act of Parliament on February 10, 2000, seeks to create 
an impartial record of human rights violations.

It is expected to address impunity and help victims to promote healing and 
reconciliation, and to guard against a repetition of such violations and 
abuses.

The Lome agreement was signed between Sierra Leone government and RFU/SL, 
who had met in Togo from May 25, 1999.

Critics contend that the TRC may not heal but rather open up fresh wounds 
of atrocities committed. But Rev. Arnold Temple, a Sierra Leonean, 
disagrees, saying, "In his book, No Future Without Forgiveness, former 
Archbishop, Rev Desmond Tutu, said that in the healing process, there is 
always the need to open wounds, to clean wounds. The process of opening up 
wounds and cleaning them is painful, but it is part of healing."

To him, the commission is an instrument that creates peace when people tell 
their stories and seek forgiveness. "Coming out in the open and pouring out 
what happened can heal the victim. Without the truth, however hard we may 
try, there can be no real reconciliation," he stresses.

Rev Temple describes his countrymen as "a forgiving lot", adding, "there is 
hope that even though people are hurting, they will allow the culture of 
forgiveness to come to the fore."

Mr Odero, who was in charge of communications in the pastoral team's visit 
to the country, agrees that despite the damage, Sierra Leoneans exhibit 
hope and a willingness to forgive and rebuild their country.

The 14-day trip was organised by the World Council of Churches and the All 
Africa Conference of Churches, and resulted in the production of an 
advocacy document titled Standing In The Gap, a plea for Sierra Leone.

The document was produced to lobby the international community to pay 
attention to the plight of Sierra Leone, because peace, then, was fragile.

The TRC is working side by side with the International Tribunal to ensure 
that justice, an important component of reconciliation, is finally 
achieved. "Perpetrators of crimes and those who took part in causing harm 
to the innocent people of Sierra Leone will be punished," notes Rev Temple.

Observers are however concerned that a judicial process, running 
concurrently with the commission, may impede proceedings of the TRC.

In disagreement with this view, Rev Temple asserts: "The judicial process 
is towards justice. It is only indicting people who took decisions to cause 
harm to the people of Sierra Leone. The process will force court trial. In 
the TRC on the other hand, people are voluntarily going forward to cry out 
about their suffering, say what happened to them during the war."

He points out that the people of Sierra Leone felt the need to have the two 
processes run side by side.  In his view, the judicial process acts as a 
deterrent towards war crimes committed.

Like the South African TRC, the Sierra Leonean seven-member commission is 
chaired by a church leader.  He is Rt. Rev. Dr Joseph Christian Humper, 
Bishop of the United Methodist Church of Sierra Leone. The TRC is expected 
to last 18 months.

Sierra Leone becomes the second country in Africa to establish a truth and 
reconciliation commission after South Africa, whose TRC was founded in 1995.

Chaired by Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Archbishop of Cape Town, 
Desmond Tutu, the commission sought to investigate gross human rights 
violations committed during the apartheid regime that reigned from 1960 to 
1993.

The Truth Commission Bill was signed by the then President Nelson Mandela 
in 1995 and its first hearing was held in April 1996.  It recently 
recommended reparation for victims.

Condom Use Against AIDS Is A Lesser Evil - Cleric

With HIV/AIDS cure still not in site, preventive measures have been drummed 
as the best alternative to check its spread. But one such means continues 
to raise controversy among faith institutions, reports Joseph K'Amolo.

I
n the absence of a vaccine, the ABC prevention package for HIV/AIDS, which 
means Abstinence, Be careful, and Consistent Condom use, has been suggested 
as a progressive approach to fighting the pandemic.

In their order of arrangement, abstinence from sex is considered the best 
method of avoiding contraction of the AIDS virus.

This method is based on the premise that sex is the number one means 
through which HIV is transmitted from one person to another. It is this 
means that religious institutions would want unmarried persons to adopt.

Second in line is being faithful. This approach appeals to married couples 
to avoid straying into extra-marital relations. If both partners, in the 
marriage covenant, were HIV-negative, then their faithfulness would keep 
the scourge at bay.

Condom use comes in third place, an indication that it is the lesser means 
of protection in this package.	It is this preventive method that some 
religious groups are not ready to relent in opposing, while others seem not 
to have a definite institutional stand.

Catholics and Muslims, for example, express strong anti-condom views. Their 
leaders in Kenya have once demonstrated this by burning condoms in public.

In contrast, some church leaders have taken an open stand on the 
subject.  The Rt. Rev Pie Ntukamazina of the Episcopal Church of Burundi, 
observes that not every faith appreciates HIV/AIDS as a normal sickness 
that should be treated just like other health problems.

This is signified by the way many react to some means of curbing its 
spread. This, says Bishop Ntukamazina, leaves people to wonder whether they 
truly recognise the disease as a sickness or as a sin.

"If HIV/AIDS is taken as a sickness," says the Burundian clergyman, "it is 
my belief that all kinds of prevention should be considered, including the 
use of condoms."

He sees no reason why HIV/AIDS should be portrayed as an evil disease, 
since it is not only through immorality that one can contract it, much as 
immorality is ranked as one of the high risk means. But, he warns, "condom 
use should not be exploited by people bent on practising immorality."

While he puts a strong case for use of contraceptive sheaths, he cautions 
that those promoting them as a safety method against HIV/AIDS could mislead 
communities if full-length advice is not provided.

He, however, has no kind words for religious groups that strongly fight 
condom use, especially when they do not provide an alternative, except 
preach abstinence.

Bishop Ntukamazina alleges that the use of condoms has been proved to be 
spiritually and scientifically not wrong, especially between married couples.

According to him, the condom has been in use even before the time of Jesus 
Christ, during the Egyptian civilisation.  He adds that it poses no threat 
to faith, as even in those days, it was never introduced to fight faith.

The Burundian bishop observes that the Church should not think it will stop 
immorality by imposing an anti-condom crusade. For him, condemning condom 
use is like passing death sentence on sinners.

He says those fighting condom use reflect a cheap way of thinking, noting 
that church leaders should recognise that sex is one powerful basic need 
for humanity, and that is why even the Church cannot escape being entangled 
in it.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Tilewa S. Johnson of the Anglican Church of Ghana and Dean 
of the Province of West Africa, shares Bishop Ntukamazina' sentiments.

He says that if condom use can help in preserving life in a world that is 
not 100 percent saved, then it should be promoted.

"There are sexually active persons who are not committed Christians, or who 
are weak Christians and cannot uphold the call for righteousness," says 
Bishop Tilewa, adding, "and therefore, the use of condoms is a lesser evil, 
which is permissible in Christian ethics."

He says it would be naive of anyone to think that everybody would take in 
seriously what is preached to them.  He therefore argues that to a 
realistic church leader, life-saving is paramount and one should encourage 
the use of condoms where necessary.

He argues further that better people disobey the Word, but use the condom, 
because at some point, they may see the light and accept the Word, but not 
when one is dead.

For him, he would rather minister to a Christian as a living person, than 
to bury one. This would be his pastoral approach to the matter.

Like Bishop Ntukamazina, the Rt. Rev Tilewa observes that to be safe from 
the threat of HIV/AIDS without the use of condoms, calls for a 
strong-willed heart, as even those assumed to be spiritual giants are 
sometimes found to be weak when it comes to sexual matters.

Yet, as debate on use of condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS rages on, it has been 
discovered that many communities are becoming more aware of the need for 
safer sex, and go at any length to seek protection.

Pastor Gideon Byamugisha of the Uganda Anglican Church, says some people in 
northern Uganda have confessed that due to inaccessibility of condoms, they 
improvise polythene bags, which they tie with rubber bands, to take the 
place of condoms.

A similar development has been reported in North Eastern part of Kenya, 
where, apart from the use of polythene bags, the few condoms that find 
their way in this predominantly Muslim area, are shared.

It means that after using a condom, one does not to throw it away, but 
washe and passes it on to the next user or keeps it for future application.

Why Luo Teenage Mothers Never Go Back To School

In Luo culture, pregnancy goes for married couples only. Parents become 
very much uncomfortable when a daughter gets a child before marriage. 
Whenever this happens, they get anxious to marry off their daughter in 
order to escape being mocked by society, reports Vincent R Okungu, a member 
of a team that recently carried out a research on the subject.

A
ccording to research carried out in Bondo district in western Kenya, under 
Kenyan-Danish Research Project (KEDAHR), an important cause of teenage 
pregnancies is lack of information regarding girls' reproductive life.

A number of people here seem to be unaware of ways of preventing 
pregnancies, other than abstinence.

Since it is not practical for every girl to abstain from sex, there would 
be need for education on safer sexual practices.  But this also has its own 
problems.

First, the area has a significant Catholic presence, so there is likelihood 
of stiff resistance to such a move. The Catholic Church in Kenya has 
vehemently opposed sex education.

Secondly, a lot of people in Bondo are embarrassed to talk about condoms in 
public, only referring to them as "the good suits."

Many of them also argue that the condom cannot prevent AIDS, and there are 
even rumours that some of them are laced with the AIDS virus itself.  "So 
why bother?" a respondent to the research quipped.

Religious and cultural barriers are militating against free and informed 
discussion on reproductive health issues here.

These barriers, according to 45-year-old male informant, are further 
reinforced by lack of adequate information about condoms as a means of 
preventing both HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancies.

A combination of these factors has resulted in escalation of teenage 
pregnancies. Yet, condoms are amply available and given free in all market 
centres, and at the beaches.

The KEDAHR research reveals that social stigma attached to teenage 
pregnancy plays a major role in the inability of girls to resume classes 
after giving birth.

They face humiliation and isolation whenever they attempt to go back to 
school. Other children would not freely interact with them, partly at the 
instigation of teachers, who view the mother-student as a bad influence on 
other students.

The rest of the student population is advised to steer clear of her. This 
negative attitude of teachers towards pregnant girls, who would want to 
continue with school after delivery, goes against government policy.

None of the five pregnancy cases studied in the research resumed school, 
although some of them were willing to restart, given financial support.

This means that the inability to resume school is not only occasioned by 
the social stigma attached to teenage pregnancy, but also by poverty.

Other girls interviewed said that they were unable to get back to school 
because they had lost interest. However, it is clear that the Luo culture, 
which does not welcome conception outside matrimony, plays a major role in 
the refusal of these girls to resume their studies.

Even with funds available, observers say, these girls are most likely to 
find the school environment very hostile:

"Everyone will be calling me 'mama.' I can only resume school in a place 
where nobody knows that I have a child. It is wrong to be reminded each 
time that I made a terrible mistake in my life. If I am to be in school, 
then such ridicule has to be stopped," complained a 16-year-old pregnant 
girl, who had already dropped out of school.

Other girls argue that even if they were to be taken to a different school 
far from home, it would still be difficult to hide the fact that they gave 
birth, and within a short time, everyone would soon know.

Parental attitude towards these girls is also an impediment to school 
resumption. With little resources at hand, most parents see no point taking 
back their daughters to school.

According to a 40-year old mother, she would rather use the money on other 
things than "educate a mother."

Others interpret getting girls to resume school after they have given birth 
as allowing too much permissiveness in society.

They advance a pessimistic view that teenage pregnancy could become a 
social trend, as other girls would argue that after all, one can always 
resume school after giving birth.

Worse is the fact that a single teenage pregnancy has, in some cases, been 
used to victimise all the girls in a family.

Some parents feel a lot of pain when their daughters get pregnant, 
particularly in secondary school, where parents make a lot of sacrifices to 
meet the high fees charged.

A girl who gets pregnant while in Form Two (second year of secondary 
education), for example, is withdrawn from school and is shunned by her 
father, because in the mind of the latter, she has set a bad precedent and 
her younger sisters may follow suit.

This might even jeopardise education of all the girls in that family, as 
the parents get discouraged.

As a respondent aptly puts it, parents get extremely annoyed with these 
pregnancies and decide, "to hell with the girls."

Fathers of two girl-mothers were not remorseful about their decisions; 
instead, when interviewed during the research, they demanded to be given an 
example of a girl who gave birth and was taken back to school thereafter.

The most viable explanation to such behaviour (the blanket condemnation of 
all girls in a household for the perceived mistake of a single girl), say 
observers, is linked to the reluctance with which parents pay for the 
education of their daughters.

It is still inconceivable in most areas in Bondo district, that a girl can 
give birth and actually get back to school.  Fate of girls are presumed 
sealed the moment they conceive.

Society also plays a role in this because it chides parents willing to take 
girl-mothers back to school, seeing it as a waste of resources on a girl 
who will soon conceive again anyway.