News Briefs
Back to Weekly News Briefs...August 14, 2008
- Faith and AIDS discussed at conference
- Churches help but also hinder HIV prevention
- Women trafficked in Burma
Faith and AIDS discussed at conference
Representatives of faith-based organizations that attended the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City last week acknowledged that efforts are still needed for stronger faith-based action and better partnerships among all sectors active in the response to HIV and AIDS.
Rev. J.P. Heath, acting executive director of ANERELA+ (African Network of People Living with or Affected by HIV and AIDS), says the highlight for him in Mexico came during the Ecumenical Pre-Conference when the Lutheran World Federation’s “Bishop Mark Hanson was able to say, ‘I need, on behalf of the church, to repent of the pain we have caused people living with HIV by not acting as fully as we needed to.’ For me, as a person living with HIV, it was an incredibly powerful moment.”
Heath says there’s still a lot of suspicion between people living with HIV and the church. “There’s a lot of work we’re going to have to do before we have the right to sit at the same table and talk equally—work that we have to do in terms of repentance and building relationships where we have been the agents of breaking them.”
Sally Smith, an advisor with UNAIDS, wished more religious leaders could have been present and integrated into the program. “I think we’ve seen a number of people speak about religion, and a number of plenary speakers have spoken about the importance of religion, the importance of religious leaders setting cultural norms, but we haven’t actually had religious leaders speaking about that at those panels,” she says.
“Lutherans were notably present at the conference,” says Lorne Kletke, communications program manager for CLWR and a conference delegate. “Bishop Hanson’s involvement sent a clear signal to all delegates that the Lutheran communion is dedicated in being inclusive to people on society’s margins, including those most vulnerable to HIV. His remarks were in harmony with the work of CLWR in the field of HIV prevention and care.”
– CLWR News Service and Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
Churches help but also hinder HIV prevention
The international church community has helped to perpetuate the HIV and AIDS pandemic with conflicting messages about sexuality, gender bias and a misunderstanding of the disease, according to an international panel of experts on gender-based violence.
Yet Dr. Pauline Muchina from UNAIDS saluted the efforts of faith-based organizations in AIDS intervention. In Africa, churches provide 40 percent of the care in some countries, she said at an Ecumenical Pre-Conference in advance of the XVII International AIDS Conference which ended last week.
Muchina said that certain church teachings have perpetuated the pandemic. “Women are more vulnerable, in part, because they are socialized to believe in male domination. In some countries, women lack control over their bodies because they don’t have the power to decide when, how and with whom to have sex.”
Hernán Quezada from the agency Caritas Mexico, said migrant populations are especially vulnerable to the disease and, if they contract it, they are not likely to get the support and care they need.
“The relationship between migration and HIV is complex,” he said. “Some believe immigrants bring HIV with them, but the opposite is usually true.” Forced to migrate in search of economic opportunities, men and women become vulnerable as they are separated from their families and live in a different culture.
The pandemic continues its expansion greatly because of “gender inequality and the lack of empowerment of women and girls combined with social marginalization,” Quezada said. “More than a biological problem, HIV is a problem of social inequality.”
Canadian Lutheran World Relief works in communities across Latin America, Africa and Asia in HIV and AIDS prevention programs and in community-strengthening programs which build gender sensitivity and awareness in health related issues.
For more on these and other faith-based stories from the XVII International AIDS Conference, please visit http://iac.e-alliance.ch/
– Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
Women trafficked in Burma
A new report by Canadian Lutheran World Relief’s (CLWR) partner in Burma documents the trafficking of over 160 ethnic Kachin women and girls between 2004 and 2007, almost all of whom ended up in China.
The report titled “Eastward Bound”, published by the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT), highlights how the Burmese regime’s new anti-trafficking law, passed in September 2005, is failing to curb trafficking and protect the rights of tracked women.
“Our local partner has noted that anti-trafficking laws are meaningless under a regime that systematically violates people’s rights, and whose policies are driving citizens to migrate,” says Elaine Peters, program director for CLWR.
The report says that four out of ten of trafficked females have simply disappeared. Most of the others were forced to marry men in provinces across eastern China. About a quarter of those trafficked were under 18 years of age and some as young as 14 years of age were sold as brides for about $2,000 to farmers.
“As political and economic conditions inside Burma continue to deteriorate, more people are migrating in search of work and this often leads to migrating women ending up as forced brides,” says Peters. “CLWR has supported an orphanage over the last year operated by KWAT in Mai Ja Yang, a Kachin area, that provides a home for about 50 children. This type of work helps protect vulnerable children from situations like trafficking.”
– CLWR News Service
Back to Weekly News Briefs...
Representatives of faith-based organizations that attended the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City last week acknowledged that efforts are still needed for stronger faith-based action and better partnerships among all sectors active in the response to HIV and AIDS.
Rev. J.P. Heath, acting executive director of ANERELA+ (African Network of People Living with or Affected by HIV and AIDS), says the highlight for him in Mexico came during the Ecumenical Pre-Conference when the Lutheran World Federation’s “Bishop Mark Hanson was able to say, ‘I need, on behalf of the church, to repent of the pain we have caused people living with HIV by not acting as fully as we needed to.’ For me, as a person living with HIV, it was an incredibly powerful moment.”
Heath says there’s still a lot of suspicion between people living with HIV and the church. “There’s a lot of work we’re going to have to do before we have the right to sit at the same table and talk equally—work that we have to do in terms of repentance and building relationships where we have been the agents of breaking them.”
Sally Smith, an advisor with UNAIDS, wished more religious leaders could have been present and integrated into the program. “I think we’ve seen a number of people speak about religion, and a number of plenary speakers have spoken about the importance of religion, the importance of religious leaders setting cultural norms, but we haven’t actually had religious leaders speaking about that at those panels,” she says.
“Lutherans were notably present at the conference,” says Lorne Kletke, communications program manager for CLWR and a conference delegate. “Bishop Hanson’s involvement sent a clear signal to all delegates that the Lutheran communion is dedicated in being inclusive to people on society’s margins, including those most vulnerable to HIV. His remarks were in harmony with the work of CLWR in the field of HIV prevention and care.”
– CLWR News Service and Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
Churches help but also hinder HIV prevention
The international church community has helped to perpetuate the HIV and AIDS pandemic with conflicting messages about sexuality, gender bias and a misunderstanding of the disease, according to an international panel of experts on gender-based violence.
Yet Dr. Pauline Muchina from UNAIDS saluted the efforts of faith-based organizations in AIDS intervention. In Africa, churches provide 40 percent of the care in some countries, she said at an Ecumenical Pre-Conference in advance of the XVII International AIDS Conference which ended last week.
Muchina said that certain church teachings have perpetuated the pandemic. “Women are more vulnerable, in part, because they are socialized to believe in male domination. In some countries, women lack control over their bodies because they don’t have the power to decide when, how and with whom to have sex.”
Hernán Quezada from the agency Caritas Mexico, said migrant populations are especially vulnerable to the disease and, if they contract it, they are not likely to get the support and care they need.
“The relationship between migration and HIV is complex,” he said. “Some believe immigrants bring HIV with them, but the opposite is usually true.” Forced to migrate in search of economic opportunities, men and women become vulnerable as they are separated from their families and live in a different culture.
The pandemic continues its expansion greatly because of “gender inequality and the lack of empowerment of women and girls combined with social marginalization,” Quezada said. “More than a biological problem, HIV is a problem of social inequality.”
Canadian Lutheran World Relief works in communities across Latin America, Africa and Asia in HIV and AIDS prevention programs and in community-strengthening programs which build gender sensitivity and awareness in health related issues.
For more on these and other faith-based stories from the XVII International AIDS Conference, please visit http://iac.e-alliance.ch/
– Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
Women trafficked in Burma
A new report by Canadian Lutheran World Relief’s (CLWR) partner in Burma documents the trafficking of over 160 ethnic Kachin women and girls between 2004 and 2007, almost all of whom ended up in China.
The report titled “Eastward Bound”, published by the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT), highlights how the Burmese regime’s new anti-trafficking law, passed in September 2005, is failing to curb trafficking and protect the rights of tracked women.
“Our local partner has noted that anti-trafficking laws are meaningless under a regime that systematically violates people’s rights, and whose policies are driving citizens to migrate,” says Elaine Peters, program director for CLWR.
The report says that four out of ten of trafficked females have simply disappeared. Most of the others were forced to marry men in provinces across eastern China. About a quarter of those trafficked were under 18 years of age and some as young as 14 years of age were sold as brides for about $2,000 to farmers.
“As political and economic conditions inside Burma continue to deteriorate, more people are migrating in search of work and this often leads to migrating women ending up as forced brides,” says Peters. “CLWR has supported an orphanage over the last year operated by KWAT in Mai Ja Yang, a Kachin area, that provides a home for about 50 children. This type of work helps protect vulnerable children from situations like trafficking.”
– CLWR News Service
