Asia Religious Leaders Tackle HIV/AIDS

Jaime Lim/IPS Writer/Bangkok
The Irrawaddy News
www.irrawaddy.org
January 22, 2008

The Korean superstar RAIN was roped in by the Christian relief group World Vision last year to help promote awareness of HIV and AIDS, especially among the youth. Over in Fiji, people living with HIV can get internship opportunities at the World Council of Churches (WCC) in the Pacific.

These are just two examples of how faith-based groups are increasingly addressing social issues like HIV and AIDS, which were often thought of -- and are still viewed by some -- as a curse that befalls ‘bad’ people.

This engagement in social issues was the theme that ran through a conference held here this week, called ‘Inter-Faith Consultation on Children and HIV’, organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) East Asia and Pacific, and attended by more than 80 religious leaders and participants.

Despite fundamental differences, Buddhist monks, Christian ministers and Muslim clerics agreed that their involvement in efforts to fight the pandemic is a key part of their ties with their communities. After all, religion shapes culture and values for many in this region.

In the case of the WCC’s internship programme in Suva, council executive secretary Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi said: "This sends out a strong message that positive people can be good workers and that you don’t have to be afraid of working with them."

HIV and AIDS are not just health crises, but have social and moral elements as well. "This is where religious leaders can be powerful agents of change with their enormous influence in reducing stigma and discrimination," reckoned Simone Charnley, regional coordinator of the Bangkok-based Asian Muslim Action Network (AMAN).

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), some 4.9 million people were living with HIV in Asia in 2007. Of these, 440,000 became infected that year. Some 300,000 people also died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2007.

In the Asia-Pacific, four countries have a generalized HIV epidemic—Thailand, Cambodia, Burma and Papua New Guinea.

In Cambodia, where the adult HIV prevalence rate now stands at 1.6 percent, Buddhist monks are quite involved in supporting those living with HIV and AIDS. Apart from two hotline numbers run by Buddhist monks to answer queries on the pandemic, there is also access to healthcare, the provision of income generating activities and food, shelter and school materials to children, as well as meditation and counseling services.

According to the Buddhist Leadership Initiative, almost 30 percent of monks in China, Cambodia and Laos have received training on HIV and AIDS. These programmes help them in promoting greater involvement in society of those living with the pandemic, giving them a sense of normalcy and addressing stigma and discrimination in society.

At the same time, Captain John Kerari of the Salvation Army Papua New Guinea Church Partnership Programme stressed that HIV and AIDS programmes by faith-based programmes are by themselves inadequate—that governments need to be proactive and lead in managing the pandemic. Papua New Guinea registers the highest adult HIV prevalence of 1.8 percent in Asia and the Pacific, according to UNAIDS.

For his part, Lawrence Maund of The Sangha Metta Project, which engages Buddhist monks in HIV and AIDS prevention and care, says that particular focus must be given to young people and educating them about behaviour needed to prevent HIV and AIDS. In line with this, he questioned the absence of youth leaders at the UNICEF conference, which was supposed to focus on children.

He encouraged others to explore the potential of youth leaders in reaching out to their peers. "Young people will talk to you, but they might not open up to you. They were not born during the HIV/AIDS crisis (mid-eighties), but were born into a time of complacency," he remarked.

Datuk A Vaithilingam, president of the Malaysia Hindu Sangam, vice president of the Malaysian AIDS Council and former president of the Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism, says he sees a lack of programmes for Hindus living with HIV and AIDS outside of India, and called for greater involvement of Hindu-based groups in addressing the pandemic.

Tevi, a WCC member from Fiji, voiced his concern about the effectiveness of responses by different religious groups to HIV and AIDS. "My fear is that we have become a ‘band aid organization’. We recognize the effects of HIV/AIDS, but do not address the root cause of the problem," he said.

Maund says that giving HIV and AIDS a public face does make a difference. During the Loy Krathong festival in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai in November 2007, he says, the beauty queen on the float that weaved through the city streets was HIV-positive and used the occasion to assert her rights. She was part of the Chiang Mai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.

Maund recalls that seeing this, "this man (from the crowd) approached one of the paraders and asked if they were really HIV/AIDS positive. He said, ‘I have HIV too, can I join you?’ That was the first time this man came out of his shell."

The Korean superstar RAIN was roped in by the Christian relief group World Vision last year to help promote awareness of HIV and AIDS, especially among the youth. Over in Fiji, people living with HIV can get internship opportunities at the World Council of Churches (WCC) in the Pacific.