HIV/AIDS package is ‘biblical, basic
and non-judgmental’

The HIV/AIDS education package which Konstanse Raen – principally – has devised, and which she has certainly inspired, is being widely taken up by national Bible Societies in East and West Africa. At the heart of it is a booklet (available in several languages) called Where Is the Good Samaritan Today?, consisting of basic information about HIV/AIDS combined with appropriate biblical passages. Accompanying it are large-format teaching posters, audio cassettes and two videos, called Where Is the Good Samaritan Today? and Qui Est Responsable? L’Histoire de Suzanne (‘Who is responsible? The Story of Suzanne’).

Konstanse Raen of the Norwegian Bible Society (right) talking to a couple who attend a Christian association called Wiccecka ('Speak Out'). The association has received Bibles and the Living in Hope booklet from the Bible Society of Rwanda. Kigali, Rwanda. Photo: Agderposten/Erik Holand (RWA04DJ-40.JPG)

With the packagecome training workshops demonstrating how the material should be used to the best educational effect.

In devising the various resources, Ms Raen has followed a number of principles, gained from her experience of working in Africa, which seem to have contributed significantly to the resources’ success.

One foundational idea of her method is to let people participate in the learning process. In effect, the teacher, instead of teaching by explaining, is teaching by asking the ‘students’ to work out the answers themselves. This process of arriving at the desired answers by their own reasoning and logic means that they have a better understanding and retention of the conclusion they reach.

To illustrate this, she holds up some large posters bearing simple illustrations designed to show African audiences the ways in which HIV/AIDS is transmitted.

“‘Expliquez les trois voies principales de transmission’ (‘Explain the three main ways of transmission’),” she reads. “Most people in Africa have some idea about HIV/AIDS, so you just go ahead and ask them what they see, and they answer from what they see in the illustrations. This is ‘process teaching’ – they are participating all the time.

Another facet of the teaching method is to mix together basic information about HIV/AIDS with discussion topics generated from a Christian point of view. These include questions such as ‘Did God create the virus?’, ‘Why?’ and ‘Is it a punishment for sin?’ Questions like these may have become familiar since HIV/AIDS became a worldwide news story in the 1980s, but they remain relevant. And, being difficult, they are ones which, as she says, people in the Church don’t dare to ask.

Share the problem

“But here we ask such questions openly, and if we don’t find the solution we can at least share the problem – reading about Job, for example, and other stories from the Bible. The whole idea is to let people share. So this [the Where Is the Good Samaritan Today? booklet] is not a preaching book, it’s a sharing book. There are so many different problems connected to HIV/AIDS that you can’t answer them all, but you can share some of the difficulties. As Christians we can pray together and share God’s promises. This has a tremendous impact! And all through the book, we make up sketches. This is the African way of communicating.

“People often ask if there are solutions at the end of the book. But you don’t find the answer in a book, you find it in your life.”

Ms Raen explains that although the Churches in Africa feel concerned about HIV/AIDS, it is no secret that many have had problems with how to handle the epidemic. Some have started campaigns focusing on possible healing, implying, in effect, that ‘If you believe strongly enough, you’ll be healed.’ Others, seeing the epidemic as God’s punishment for sins, are focusing more on condemning ‘sinners’ than on promoting love and forgiveness. Even if Church leaders’ own attitudes are in the process of changing, they have a job on their hands to change the attitudes of people at large.

Some leaders have also had problems with the approach used in large-scale HIV/AIDS campaigns. Campaigns launched by governments and international organisations have been mainly secular and have largely ignored behaviour change. Discussions about HIV/AIDS have often been reduced to discussions for or against condoms. Some Church leaders, stung by the feeling that the campaigns were not taking their Christian concerns seriously, revolted against any involvement in HIV/AIDS work whatever.

“So when we offered our teaching,” she says, “the Churches accepted it very well because it is biblical, it’s basic and it is not judgmental. It uses the Bible in a positive way and they have been extremely happy to receive it – including Roman Catholics.

“There is a short chapter about condoms, but it’s written in such a way that Catholics can accept it. It just conveys information and afterwards asks them to decide for themselves, to make their own choice: you cannot prescribe but you can inform.”

So effective has the approach adopted in her teaching materials been that the head of the Catholic charity Caritas in Rwanda appeared on television news saying, “I ask everybody to use this booklet because it is one of the best written about HIV/AIDS.”

Ms Raen admits to being pleasantly surprised by the success and wide acceptance of the project. When asked what she thinks the reason for it is she says that it is practical and simple.

“If I have a gift,” she adds, “it is to involve people in what I am doing – I exploit all my friends! If you can get many people involved you get a good result. Alone you can do nothing.” (WR 390/32 - 02.05)