“Faith leaders gathered at the Presbyterian Church’s national offices to renew their commitments to address HIV/AIDS.”
Faith leaders from across the globe gathered at the church’s national offices in Toronto to examine their responses to HIV and AIDS as the international effort to end the epidemic seems to be teetering on the verge of continued success or a backslide.
The three – day November gathering was a follow – up to an international summit held March 2010 in the Netherlands, which aimed to increase collaboration among high – level faith leaders as they responded to HIV and AIDS. In addition to producing a statement, the multi – faith group crafted a pledge of personal commitment requiring signatories to be accountable to each other in their own responses to HIV, and to report back every 18 months beginning in Nov. 2011. The summit and follow – up meeting were organized by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, which represents 80 faith groups worldwide.
The meeting brought hopeful news about the effort to end the epidemic, and generated renewed commitment to ongoing struggles against stigma.
“The good news is that new infections and deaths are decreasing,” Sally Smith, program advisor with the United Nations’ AIDS department, told the Record. “We have a wide package of prevention measures that are effective. We’ve also discovered this year that treatment is highly effective as a form of prevention.”
HIV – positive people who take antiretroviral medication to suppress the virus are 96 per cent less likely to transmit the infection to an uninfected partner according to results of a medical study released in 2011 by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
With an additional push in its response, the world could see significant reductions in the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to Peter Prove, executive director of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance. Yet global financial support seems to be falling.
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced in November it would cancel its 11th round of funding due to a shortage of funds, meaning services currently financed will continue but it will offer no new funds to scale up the response until at least 2014.
“Despite the quite positive recommitment at the political level by the international community as expressed in New York in June [at the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS, which crafted ambitious targets to be achieved by 2015], the reality is that we see a continuing and rather serious drift in financial support for those political commitments,” Prove said. “So at this moment, at this precise moment when we suddenly have the means of addressing HIV from a scientific and medical point of view—we have the means within our hands of ending HIV—at that precise moment the funding stops. And we put at risk all the gains, which are significant, that have been made.”
According to a report released by UNAIDS for World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, more people are able to access treatment for HIV and as a result fewer are dying of causes related to AIDS. Of the 14.2 million people eligible for antiretroviral medication in low – and middle – income countries, almost 50 per cent (6.6 million) were accessing it in 2010. An estimated 2.5 million deaths have been averted in these countries since 1995.
This also means there are more people than ever living with HIV—an estimated 34 million worldwide. Many of them face stigma and discrimination because of their status, and must deal with misconceptions about the virus.
Swami Techer Advayananda, a Hindu monk from Arsha Vidya Ashram in Reunion Island, said he kept his HIV – positive status a secret from everyone except his family for 18 years. But two years ago he decided to proclaim it publically, so as a religious leader he could better help others.
“There is so much stigma, so much misunderstanding, so much ignorance also about HIV everywhere in the world,” he told the Record. “And sometimes having a religious man or woman who knows directly what it is to have HIV may be able to offer counseling or advice, and would be heard.”
But his own faith community has not always shared his view.
“I noticed that I used to be invited to temples in Reunion, and the doors closed. So there was no more inviting me. I understood. But at the same time, doors of big international organizations opened widely for me.”
Other faith communities have felt the issue of HIV and AIDS did not affect them, since it was often associated with people who were rarely seen in a church pew: drug users, sex workers, and men who have sex with men.
Bishop Gerry Seale, executive general of the Evangelical Association of the Caribbean, did a survey of church – going young people (mostly between 12 and 20), first in his native Barbados and then in other Caribbean countries, to find out how many knew they were already HIV – positive. The reported rates among young people in the church proved to be comparable to or higher than the national prevalence rates.
“That has opened the door for me to have a much greater dialogue with the church leadership about sexuality, about HIV and about the issues around HIV. … We need to move our community from [thinking about] ‘them’ out there somewhere who have HIV to ‘us’ in here.”
“Giving a sermon to a person who is already positive is not going to cure him,” said Prof. Akhtarul Wasey of Zakir Husain Institute of Islamic Studies in New Delhi, India. “He needs an attitude of compassion, care and consideration. He needs medicine. There’s the basic thing.”
