Nairobi — Theological education should be revised to include study of HIV/AIDS, as part of the Church's commitment to fighting the pandemic, participants at a conference said.

The conference, organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC), focused on the theme, 'Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in the Theology and Religious Studies Curriculum.' It was held at the Carmelite Centre, Nairobi, Oct. 16 to 19.

Participants included religious leaders from various denominations, principals of colleges and lecturers in theology and religious studies.

It was noted that most religious and theological studies focused on theoretical rather than practical education. Students were not taught how to deal with issues like HIV/Aids.

"We train a theology student to preach the Scriptures but never prepare him for social teachings. He knows his Bible, but is totally unprepared to deal with his own flock. It is time to incorporate social issues in theological studies," said Reverend Gregory Kivanguli.

Kathleen Warambo of the University of Nairobi said, "Religious and theological studies should stop being theoretical by trying to get us to heaven; they should rather demonstrate how to get to heaven".

Warambo suggested that teachers could make courses more practical by organizing class trips to slums where students would be able to interact with HIV/AIDS orphans.

"As faith-based organizations and the Church, we have sermons on HIV/AIDS, but are they action-oriented? Is the Church visiting and praying for those infected and affected, or are we waiting for them to come to Church?"

Teachers should find ways to talk about the pandemic in all subjects, it was proposed. Mathematics was given as an example, where teachers could use figures on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS when teaching statistics.

Dr. Josephine Gitome of Kenyatta University presented the structure of a reformed curriculum that could help teachers integrate HIV/AIDS into the syllabus, especially at the university level.

The reformed curriculum consisted of formal and the non-formal segments. In the formal curriculum students would learn HIV and AIDS theoretically and it would be examinable, whereas the non-formal one would be more flexible and consist of group discussions and outdoor activities like visits and campaigns.

Fr Dr. Ambrose Mutinda, director of theology at the Tangaza College, urged the participants that as parents they should not shy away from discussing issues on human sexuality with their children. They should first be involved in the sex education of their children even as they wanted to integrate HIV/AIDS into the curriculum.

Fighting the pandemic through education would succeed if all religious institutions were involved. "We can no longer afford to close ourselves to religious departments. We cannot sit in our social and theological circles and only publish literature on HIV/AIDS - it will not change HIV/AIDS. We have to go out and work with others and network," said Prof Eunice Kamaara of Moi University.