Health & Development Networks (Pretoria)
23 September 2003
Faith-based organisations have immense influence in their communities. However, this influence has not been fully exploited in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This was one of many concerns addressed by panellists at Monday’s oral session on FBOs at ICASA.
The presentations referred to projects involving religious youth leaders in Zambia, a religious organisation in the military in Kenya, the involvement of the Council of African Provinces of Africa, and a Ugandan FBO project that mobilises around the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
A researcher from Yale University, Dr Nalini Treakeshawar, cautioned that it was important to study the extent of this influence. "There is no denying that religion plays an important role in an individual and in communities in most African countries". It was most significant that 40% of Africa’s health care systems were controlled by FBOs.
"This means that religion also has an indirect effect on the delivery of health services, and such services can be used for conveying issues on HIV/AIDS".
Poor collaboration between FBOs dog united approaches to tackling HIV/AIDS. Saif Karama from the Islamic Medical Association of Uganda argued that such collaboration was highly desirable and could work. "We have worked with our colleagues from other faiths in four divisions of Kampala district by training 750 community educators. These in turn have educated more than 370 000 members of their communities on issues related to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission."
Some of the audience felt the presentations failed to adequately address key strategies to address stigma. One speaker observed that "There is actually a raging controversy over condom use, but in the presentations we didn’t hear much about that".
Nontsha Nciza from South Africa observed that FBOs were to some extent responsible for the cultural breakdown of many African societies. "They condemned African religious and cultural values as sin without understanding and assessing the good and the bad. Sexual education that was part of the African culture was thrown out in favour of the Western culture that eroded our values. The church embraced this Western culture and resisted change. This has contributed to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. FBOs should re-visit their past, and see which practices had a positive impact on societies", she said.
The idea was further advanced by an Aids Co-ordinator of the Anglican Church in Nigeria, who said "It is time to take another look at our theology because we seem to use it to suppress certain segments of society like women, and yet they have a central role in the fight against HIV/AIDS."
The emerging consensus in the meeting was the FBOs should do more to support efforts that address HIV/AIDS and stigma. One speaker also suggested that the FBOs should monitor and evaluate the effects of their messages.
Mr Douglas Hubert from Kenya commented that "the Church seemed more involved in care and support programmes, and were less focused when it came to prevention". One speaker demanded to know whether "religious leaders would be prepared to openly speak about sexuality on the pulpit"?
Time constraints restricted questions but it seemed most participants in the packed venue would have preferred discussions to go on far longer. Most in the audience seemed encouraged that the FBOs did not assume a defensive posture, but fully acknowledged the extent of their enormous influence which needed to be harnessed in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The debate seemed more alive than ever, 20 years into the epidemic.
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