Fighting the Goliath of HIV/AIDS

KENYA — Before the boy David made his offer to tackle Goliath, his brothers and the rest of the Israelite army were terrified. They could only stare at the giant Philistine warrior in fear and trembling.

Even though this largely sexually transmitted infection has decimated populations, it was still difficult for pastors to talk about it publicly. People didn’t want the subject of ‘sex’ to be discussed in public — and certainly not in church!

It seems to me that the churches’ early response to the challenge presented by HIV/AIDS was rather similar. Unhappy with the way governments and many NGOs at first concentrated on distributing free condoms, rather than on trying to change people’s behaviour, many churches were slow to respond in any way.

Take charge

But more recently the UBS HIV/AIDS resources Living in Hope, Where Is the Good Samaritan Today? and Take Charge have become in a sense a ‘David’ to churches and church-based organisations. At last, Christians have been reminded that there is a God in heaven who is keenly concerned about the plight of his people on earth. They have no need to go about trembling and believing the enemy in the shape of HIV/AIDS is unconquerable because the desired response to the scourge is there in the pages of Scripture!

For the churches, the particularly attractive feature of the resources published by UBS is the link they establish between contemporary, realistic HIV/AIDS stories and Scripture texts; they suggest convincingly that human concerns have their solution in the Bible.

In April 2004 there was an HIV/AIDS Workshop for pastors in Zambia. What I learned from the meeting was that the subject of HIV/AIDS and the associated topics were still taboo. A pastor from Ngombe described how some women approached him in church one day and told him not to mention sex in church again – because their children would be present. The pastor was left wondering how he could talk about HIV/AIDS without addressing sexual issues.

Even though this largely sexually transmitted infection has decimated populations, it was still difficult for pastors to talk about it publicly. People didn’t want the subject of ‘sex’ to be discussed in public — and certainly not in church!

Discussion

In the course of the workshop it emerged that many of the pastors had shared this experience, and they were keen to have any videos and booklets which would help a much needed discussion to develop.

Later they were given quantities of the Living in Hope and Take Charge booklets in several Zambian languages. They were very happy and said they would like more – plus copies of the video – in other languages.

I am constantly reading and hearing positive reports about these UBS resources from people who have used them.

Henry Kalule, the General Secretary of the Bible Society of Uganda, sums up the benefits that the resources are bringing to his church partners like this: “The Bible Society has impacted the churches in the districts of Kampala, Luweero and Mukono with tools to address the HIV/AIDS question effectively from a biblical perspective, and the churches have received the program with open arms. This is evident from the way they send representatives to attend training workshops on how to use the outreach package. At each workshop, we get testimonies from people infected with the virus and we hear how they are coping with the challenges. Some of them now participate in workshops and many have testified that the program has given them a second life.”

Indeed, the HIV/AIDS program has been received with such enthusiasm that the demand for training workshops is increasing and the Bible Society is hard-pressed to decide how to spread resources equitably. The target audiences appreciate the simplicity and practicality of this model and even participants from Muslim communities have attended some of the workshops.

Weapons

Once we had the right ‘weapons’, it became clear that funding remained a challenge. With budgets so small and the need so great, most Bible Societies were at a loss how to make these vital materials available in sufficient quantities to the people who needed them.

Since most individuals and families would already be nursing someone incapacitated by the virus, they simply could not afford them. It became clear that the materials needed to be given away free.