Episcopal News Service March 12, 2007
HIV/AIDS, malaria are connected, must be treated together, TEAM conferenc e told
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[ENS] HIV/AIDS and malaria must be fought with education, openness and be tter access to medical care, four speakers told the Towards Effective Anglican Mission ( TEAM) conference on the sixth day of its eight-day meeting in Boksburg, South Africa.
All four speakers discussed the role the church can play in the battle, a nd all called for greater openness on the part of faith-based communities.
Nomusa Njoko, one of the first women to disclose her HIV-positive status in South Africa, began the morning with a powerful testimony about her experience. "I am n ot proud to be HIV-positive but I am not ashamed." she said. "I am a proud Zulu woman. I am the pride of my nation."
Dr. Peter Okaalet, of MAP International, said "AIDS pits morality against science."
Despite all the workshops and conferences held about HIV/AIDS, something is lacking, said Olaposi Abiola of Nigeria's One Village Foundation, explaining that his o rganization hopes to "harness the youth potential."
Peter McOdida, the Kenya officer for International Medical Corps, said, " When we think about HIV/AIDS, let's think about malaria and when we think about malaria, let' s think about HIV/AIDS."
Njoko moved conference participants with her story. She declared that she was an asset to her community, not a liability or a statistic.
"I am not a number. I'm a woman. I'm a mother. I'm a daughter. "I'm a mem ber of the community," she said.
Njoko said she did not choose HIV; it chose her so she cannot be "critici zed or crucified" for her status, which she learned on November 25, 1994 when she was 22 an d the mother of a now-14-year-old son.
After her diagnosis, she was criticized and ostracized, she said, "simply for having a disease that nobody was talking about."
"Nobody had taught me anything about it," she said, adding that when she told her boyfriend about her diagnosis, his response showed her that he had known he was HIV -positive but had not told her.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_83437_ENG_HTM.htm
More information about TEAM is available at the conference website (http: //www.team2007.org). Continuing ENS coverage is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_23466_ENG_HTM.htm.
-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Epi scopal News Service.
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