wfn.org | Caring for All People Living with HIV/AIDS

["Frank Imhoff" <franki@elca.org>]

FEATURE: "Our Problem, Not Theirs"

NAIROBI, Kenya/GENEVA, 17 May 2002 (LWI) - Like any children's
their chuckles are a warm welcome to their home. But beneath their
bright-eyed stares at visitors are heart-rending tales. Most of the
40 or so children arrived at the New Life Home (NLH) in Nairobi,
Kenya, in very bad shape, "almost dying," according to attendant
Julienne Muthiani. Whether orphaned or abandoned, the babies have
one thing in common, their mothers were or are HIV positive.

Founded seven years ago by Christian missionaries Clive and Mary
Beckenham, NLH cares mostly for HIV positive babies from birth to
three years. Once they reach that age, they are transferred to
other homes catering for older children. Some of them are adopted.

Looking around NLH, the devastating symptoms of the HIV/AIDS
disease are obvious. Body sores, falling hair and other signs have
not spared these little ones, part of a growing number of People
Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) particularly in Africa.

NLH was one of the PLWHA exposure visit points for participants in
the first Pan-African Lutheran leadership consultation on HIV/AIDS
challenges held in the Kenyan capital May 2-6. In a statement of
commitment from the meeting, the bishops, presidents, women and
youth leaders of the 27 Lutheran World Federation (LWF) churches in
Africa agreed to "break the silence on HIV/AIDS" and, among other
actions, seek justice and life in dignity for "those living with,
affected by, and dying from HIV/AIDS." They agreed to turn stigma
and discrimination into care and counseling for PLWHA, and find
ways to look after AIDS orphans, child-headed households and women
widowed as a result of the illness.

Accompanying the LWF visitors around the home, Muthiani expressed
her strong feelings that HIV-positive children have rights like any
other children and that their status should not be reason for
abandonment. "They should be loved and cared for since they did not
wish to be born like that. They are just victims of circumstances,"
she said.

Rev. Dr. Ndanganeni Phaswana, Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Southern Africa, Central Diocese bishop, singled out women and
children as a particularly vulnerable group. He noted that "the
pain of a mother abandoning her child due to its HIV status is
immeasurable." The pandemic is responsible for drastically breaking
the bond between mother and child, he said.

While hopeful that one day HIV/AIDS would be eradicated, he
stressed that "no one"-child or adult-should be ostracized or
discriminated against because of their HIV status.

At the end of 2001, an estimated 40 million people globally were
living with HIV, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa, with 6,000 AIDS deaths each
day is hardest hit. The region accounts for over 70 percent of
young people living with HIV/AIDS, and for 90 percent (12.1
million) of the AIDS orphans worldwide. According to UNAIDS,
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the late stage of
infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Most of
all HIV infections are transmitted through unprotected sexual
intercourse with someone already infected. The virus can also be
transmitted by infected blood or blood products, by the sharing of
contaminated needles, and from an infected woman to her baby before
birth, during delivery, or through breast-feeding. The virus is not
transmitted through normal, day-to-day contact.

Addressing the pan-African conference, Dr. Samuel Mwenda, general
secretary of the Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK),
urged congregations and communities to advocate care and support
for HIV/AIDS orphans. "The plague is our problem not theirs," he
said. He called on the church leaders to continue to preach
abstinence and faithfulness, but challenged them on the general
approach to condom use. "If you cannot advocate the use of condoms,
at least do not advocate against them because they are
scientifically proven to have a role in the prevention of STDs
[sexually transmitted diseases] and HIV," he cautioned. CHAK is an
association of Protestant churches and church health facilities and
programs in Kenya.

Phaswana shared this view and called on churches to agree on a
common measure toward eradicating the pandemic. Some churches have
spoken against condom use since a long time, saying that condom
distribution encourages sexual promiscuity. He deemed the argument
as short-sighted because of infected people's responsibility not to
infect others.

"The very same people living with AIDS should be helped to avoid
viral overload. Condom usage, although not 100 percent foolproof,
helps them to minimize transmission and re-infection," Phaswana
noted.

One of the consultation's commitments is that churches would "not
stand in the way of the use of any effective methods of
prevention." An LWF HIV/AIDS Action Plan, "Compassion, Conversion,
Care: Responding as Churches to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic" presented at
the meeting by Rev. Dr. Rebecca Larson on behalf of the
staff-working team on HIV/AIDS, notes that the church needs to be a
safe place where people can speak about the reality of AIDS without
fear.

The plan says attention will be focused on the HIV/AIDS pandemic
through various groups at the LWF Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg,
Canada, 21-31 July 2003. "As member churches prepare for the
assembly, they should reflect on and share how they are responding
to people and communities affected by HIV/AIDS," the plan states.

(By Joyce Mulama, LWI Correspondent in Nairobi, Kenya.)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 133 member churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5
million of the 64.3 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted,
material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the
LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article
contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

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