HIV/AIDS in Rwanda

Helping to fight the stigma...

With help from a Christian group for people who have HIV/AIDS, Boniface Ntawuyamara, a former magazine journalist, now teaches other people about the Bible in relation to people in his condition. Photo Agderposten/Erik Holand (RWA03DJ-4.JPG)

KIGALI, Rwanda — The epidemic of HIV/AIDS across Rwanda has had wide-reaching effects on both individuals and whole communities. Some infected people have been rejected by their family and friends, while others have been thrown out of their home, lost their job or been refused hospital treatment. On a national level, there are set to be more victims of HIV/AIDS than of the 1994 genocide in which at least 800,000 people died. The victims are both rich and poor, educated and illiterate, Hutu and Tutsi, male and female.

This is the background against which Konstanse Raen, a 60-year-old teacher and regional secretary of the Norwegian Bible Society, is running a teaching program designed to encourage people in Rwanda to reach out to those affected by HIV/AIDS. Working with local church groups, she gets people to act out the parable of the Good Samaritan and then relates its message to the everyday life of HIV/AIDS victims and those who come into contact with them. Through improvisations in which all can participate, feelings of shame, guilt and judgement can be tackled and gradually overcome.

In particular, Ms Raen seeks to convey the message that anybody can be affected by HIV/AIDS and that the disease is not a punishment for sin. “Who here is free of sin?” she asks. “What about children born with AIDS? Have they sinned?”

Driven by her conviction that “faith is necessary in order to master life,” Ms Raen’s aim with the Where is the Good Samaritan? program is to “initiate processes which enable people to take care with their lives” and to begin to challenge the stigma of HIV/AIDS. The program is beginning to have a significant impact, gaining radio and television coverage and winning the support of religious and political leaders.

At the recent launch of a Good Samaritan course in Kigali, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini, primate of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda and diocesan Bishop of Kigali, proclaimed that it will “create new commanders in the war against an invisible enemy”. A range of materials based on this program is currently being developed by Norwegian Church Aid and the United Bible Societies. These materials, which are initially being produced in French and English but will be suitable for translation into other languages, are set to include posters, audio cassettes, a booklet and a video.

(WR 378/3 - 7/8.03)