wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] African churches support efforts to halt AIDS

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Note #7822 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

African churches support efforts to halt AIDS crisis
3266
June 18, 2003

African churches support efforts to halt AIDS crisis

by Pat Cole
Communications Officer
Worldwide Ministries Division

LOUISVILLE - African churches are beginning to respond to the HIV/AIDS
epidemic raging on their continent and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is
helping those efforts.
	
"We were seeing that AIDS was left as a program of the health department,"
said Caryl Weinberg, a PC(USA) regional AIDS consultant for western and
central Africa. "But it is the churches that are out in the communities. It
is they who will help see changes in behavior and who are taking care of
people with AIDS and the orphans (whose parents die from AIDS)."
	
PC(USA) partner churches in Africa invited the denomination to help churches
with AIDS prevention. Weinberg and another mission worker, the Rev. Janet
Guyer, work exclusively on the AIDS crisis in Africa.
	
They have found the church leaders eager to tackle the challenge. 
	
"The HIV problem has really affected the church and the nation as a whole,"
said the Rev. Fletcher Matandika, a Presbyterian pastor in Malawi. "And I
would personally feel that the church is in a position, probably the best
position, to address this issue by ministering to the special needs of these
people, but also physically reaching out to them with love and care and
helping the children, whose parents die as result of AIDS."
	
Guyer consults with churches in southern and eastern Africa, focusing first
on Malawi and Ethiopia. Weinberg is directing her initial efforts toward
Cameroon and Congo.
	
"I think the churches are in a position to make a huge difference because in
some places they are one of the few networks that are respected by the people
throughout the country," Guyer said. "They have a history with the community
not like some (non-governmental organizations) that might come and go."
	
Both Guyer and Weinberg say the churches take the lead role in planning
programs related to AIDS. Generally, they have found churches want education
about AIDS prevention and training related to taking care of people with
AIDS. 
	
In certain pockets of sub-Saharan Africa, up to 25 percent of the population
is infected with HIV/AIDS. "Some nations will be wiped out if the current
rate of infection continues," said Dorothy Hanson, AIDS project manager for
the PC(USA)'s International Health Ministries office. "They won't be there in
another 20 years." 
	
Hanson educates congregations in the United States about the AIDS crisis in
Africa and enables their efforts to assist partner churches on the continent.
	
The media and political leaders around the world have been calling attention
to the crisis. Yet much of the AIDS discussion has been focused on funding
anti-retroviral drugs, said Dorothy Brewster-Lee, coordinator of
International Health Ministries for the PC(USA). "We support treatment but we
are just not putting our money there," she says.
	
The PC(USA)'s resources are better spent on advocating behavior changes that
will keep the disease from spreading, she said.  AIDS is transmitted mainly
through heterosexual sex in Africa.
	
Brewster-Lee also named home-care programs, mother-to-child transmission
prevention and orphan care as projects that merit strong support from the
PC(USA).
	
One African nation, Uganda, has cut its rate of AIDS infection from 20
percent to 5 percent of the population through a massive education campaign
led by the nation's president. Eventually numerous Ugandan institutions,
including churches, began emphasizing the ABC's of prevention: Abstinence,
Being Faithful and Condoms.
	
The Ugandan experience gives African church leaders hope that prevention
measures can stop the spread of AIDS. Yet the Ugandan formula forces churches
to talk about sexuality in public, a taboo in much of Africa.
	
"They're having to talk about something they have never talked about before,
an STD (sexually-transmitted disease)," Guyer said. "The church has been
involved in other health campaigns before, but for the congregations to have
to deal with an STD is a challenge."
	
Weinberg said the churches she works with focus on preaching abstinence and
fidelity. "The churches I work with don't condemn condoms, but they don't
advocate them," she said. "They just say  (condom use) is an option."
	
The majority of AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa, 58 percent, are women.
The traditional subservient role of women in African culture makes them
particularly vulnerable. Many women feel they are obligated to have
unprotected sex with their husband or boyfriend, even if they know their
partner has the AIDS virus, Brewster-Lee said.
	
In Uganda, where the AIDS rate has been dramatically reduced, surveys show
that the status of women is much higher than in neighboring nations,
according to Brewster-Lee.
	
Weinberg said she is encouraged that some churches are working to change
traditional attitudes toward women. "The churches I'm working with are trying
to lift women up and are trying to put women's issues at the forefront of the
discussion about AIDS," she said.
	
In U.S. churches, Hanson is trying to stir some discussion about poverty in
Africa and its role in the AIDS crisis. She said that rampant poverty takes
away hope and that despairing people are not motivated to make healthy
lifestyle choices. 
	
"I tell people if they are active in hunger and disaster relief they are also
helping prevent AIDS in Africa," Hanson said.
	
How Presbyterians can help African churches fight the AIDS epidemic
	
Presbyterian AIDS workers say there are a number of ways Presbyterians can
help fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa:
 
	
* Learn More. A wealth of statistics and stories about AIDS in Africa and the
PC(USA)'s response to it can be found at
www.pcusa.org/health/international/aids/aids.htm. The site also contains
information about various resources, including a newly produced eight-minute
video "AIDS: Families in Crisis-Presbyterians Respond."  Order the video by
calling (800)-524-2612 and refer to PDS#74-330-03-003.
	

* Send Supplies. Congregations across the country are assembling AIDS
Home-Based Care Kits to help Africans care for relatives with the disease.
For more information, visit the Web site. 
	
* Spread the Word. Speak to congregations about AIDS in Africa and how the
PC(USA) and its partners are responding to it. Help congregations draw the
connection between poverty and disease.
	
* Give money. A variety of opportunities to support AIDS prevention efforts
in Africa and to address problems created by the epidemic are posted on the
Web site.
	
* Pray. Seek God's direction and strength to make a personal commitment to
respond to the AIDS crisis in Africa and pray for someone living with AIDS.

	
For more information, call Dorothy Hanson at 888-728-7228, ext. 5415.

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