Signs advocating HIV/AIDS prevention can be seen throughout Africa. Photo: Dorothy Hanson.
Uganda used what its leaders call the ABCs of prevention: Abstinence, Be Faithful and Condoms.
Across Africa billboards, signs, posters, and print and broadcast advertisements herald the ABC message. The ABCs are also being discussed in churches, and congregations are holding frank conversations about sexuality, a topic that previously has not received much public discussion in Africa.
"They're having to talk about something they have never talked about before — a sexually transmitted disease (STD)," says Janet Guyer, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) HIV/AIDS consultant in southern Africa. "The church has been involved in other health campaigns before, but for congregations to have to deal with an STD is a challenge."
Caryl Weinberg, a PC(USA) HIV/AIDS consultant for western Africa, says most churches she has worked with focus on abstinence and fidelity. "The churches don't condemn condoms, but they don't advocate them," she says. "They just say condom use is an option."
It makes sense to do AIDS education in African churches since they are among the most respected institutions on the continent. Some African churches are doing AIDS education in the context of Bible study. The PC(USA) contributes people and resources to the development of Bible studies on HIV/AIDS.
African women play a key role in HIV/AIDS education efforts. Photo: Bob Ellis
PC(USA) HIV/AIDS consultants are helping to develop prevention initiatives focusing on women, who comprise 60 percent of Africa's HIV/AIDS cases. HIV/AIDS experts say that many African women get the disease from husbands who fail to live up to their commitment to monogamy.
The subservient role of women in Africa makes them particularly vulnerable, says Joy Raatz, the international HIV/AIDS initiative facilitator for the PC(USA). Many women feel they cannot deny their husband's or boyfriend's demand for unprotected sex even if they know he has HIV/AIDS.
But churches are making progress toward challenging the traditional attitudes toward women, Weinberg says. "The churches I have worked with are trying to lift women up and are trying to put women's issues at the forefront of the discussion about AIDS." |
