by Francois Sieberhagen, UBS Media Consultant

Getting the churches to talk about AIDS

Ouédraogo Aminata, 13, who works at a street café in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Photo: UBS ESAASC/Francois Sieberhagen (BRK04DJ-2.JPG)

BURKINA FASO — “We have the third biggest Christian population in Francophone Africa,” said Pastor Drame Yankine, Director of the Bible Society in Burkina Faso, “but our biggest challenge is to get the churches talking about HIV/AIDS.”

He was excited about the material that has recently been produced to assist the Church in its quest to address this issue. It was also raised at the meeting of the Consultation Régionale pour l’Afrique Francophone held in Burkina Faso last August, and discussed in depth by church leaders from all over the Francophone world in West Africa.

“We plan to dub the video Where is the Good Samaritan Today? into Moore and Jula, two of the most widely spoken languages in Burkina Faso. The people in urban areas can follow the French, but the rural areas pose another challenge,” he commented.

The question of handling this issue of HIV/AIDS poses a challenge not only to the Christian Churches in Burkina Faso, but for society as a whole. Ouédraogo Aminata is one of the young girls who are facing a real challenge in life. She is only 13 years old, illiterate and, although young, she is working at a street café in Ouagadougou. “It is a challenge to reach children like her and the millions of other kids out there,” said Pastor Yankine.

“Our Society has changed and we are expected to keep up with the times, but the challenge lies in bringing the necessary resources to Burkina Faso to produce relevant and appropriate material, not only in French, but most importantly in vernaculars,” he sighed.

Everywhere in Ouagadougou there are signs that young people are imitating images that they receive from the West via television and cinema. On the other hand poverty is forcing young children to participate in the economy, thereby forfeiting the opportunity of education.