Faith Communities can Overcome Barriers to Universal Access, Panelists tell Interfaith Gathering in Vienna. 17/7/10

Vienna, 17 July. On Saturday afternoon, July 17, participants in the multi-faith pre-conference to the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna heard three panelists discuss how faith traditions can help overcome barriers to universal access to HIV treatment, care, support, and prevention.

Kevin Moody, the international coordinator and CEO of the Global Network of People Living with HIV, told participants that his goal, in part, was to “get you a little bit angry,” by citing selected statements by Christian leaders from Mother Teresa to U.S. politician Pat Buchanan as well as the Islamic Medical Society of South Africa. Moody said the quotes showed how opinion shapers—including religious leaders—can exacerbate stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS.

Moody said that despite a lot of progress, religious leaders continue to be complicit in some geographic regions in worsening the suffering of people living with HIV and AIDS.

“Homophobic laws are today being written in Africa because there are missions from Europe and North America going to those countries and advocating for the criminalization of homosexuality,” he said.

A shift is needed “from laying blame on HIV-positive people to supporting the health and well-being of people living with HIV,” Moody declared. “When we can welcome people living with HIV in our communities into our religious settings, then we will have just about solved the issues associated with stigma and discrimination.”

Moody asked religious leaders to “welcome people living with HIV, without any stigma and in the full tradition of your faith. . . It’s important that if one of us walks into a church, mosque or temple that we feel welcomed and that the people who are there understand that it’s not acceptable to discriminate against people living with HIV.”

Failure to welcome people directly affected by the disease will make true conversation impossible, he said, and prevent consensus from building around viable solutions.

“We’re not going to win this if people are underground because they are men who have sex with men, or sex workers or drug users. We have to address these issues within a community setting so a discussion can take place, a dialogue, and thus we can work together to prevent the onward transmission of HIV.”

Stating that people living with HIV are “part of the solution, not the problem,” Moody challenged religious leaders to embrace their positive sisters and brothers.

“We’re going to continue to be around. If governments meet their universal access goals, we’ll be around for a very long time. We want to be productive components of the community. We’re ready to work with you,” Moody said. “People living with HIV draw comfort and strength from faith communities. It’s clear that most people living with HIV adhere to one faith or another. For them, their faith is important. Having HIV doesn’t take away their faith. I strongly believe that faith communites have the key to removing the barriers to greater access and care that will come when stigma is reduced.”

Kezevino Aram, physician and director of the Shanti Ashram in southern India, talked about the hope she got from working with children living with HIV who are making plans for a long and fulfilling life.

Yet this hope, she said, “is also accompanied with anger and frustration. We know that the best we can do is what we do together in our faith communities. And yet we fail to bring to our own communities the fruits of good science, the honor that comes from compassionate care. What better could we have done? Why should we have allowed millions of brothers and sisters like us to bear the brunt of the disease?”

Religious leaders need to build community as a vaccine against the social and personal ravages of the virus, argued Aram, a practicing Hindu. “The moment you divide a community, the moment you say that some are more vulnerable or at risk, that division allows for apathy, stigmatization and dehumanization,” she said.

AIDS ambassador for the Dutch government, Marijke Wijnroks, acknowledged that faith communities have been “on the frontline of the response to HIV and AIDS from the earliest days of the epidemic.” She said that response has gone beyond merely the provision of services to infected and affected populations.

“Because of their proximity to people’s lives, to families, social networks and intimate relationships, these responses to HIV go beyond the scope of health systems into the very fabric of people’s lives. And it is exactly there where religion can act as a powerful force for cohesion and motivation,” Wijnroks said.

Yet this hasn’t always been easy, and Wijnroks noted that religious groups “have struggled with aspects of the epidemic that are uncomfortable to deal with.”

She said that prevention, in particular, was the “most controversial area of engagement since it raises issues of sexuality, sexual orientation, drug use and interventions such as condom use and harm reduction. Moral values can be at odds with realities of daily lives and it has not always been easy to reconcile these.”

Churches and other faith groups have contributed to the burden of disease at times, Wijnroks said.  “Public positions and statements of some faith-based organisations have at times been unhelpful, or even harmful. Deeply judgmental comments on populations such as men having sex with men and people living with HIV have alienated people at risk and contributed to stigma and discrimination.”

Yet faith communities have also made positive contributions to the public debate.

“Stigma and discrimination are often rooted into deep societal beliefs, fears and judgments that will change only gradually over time,” she said. “Religious leaders have the trust and confidence of their communities and can help break these barriers and create a more supportive environment. I was very pleased to hear so many religious leaders speaking out against the criminalization of homosexuality in a number of African countries over the last few months. One cannot underestimate the powerful message that this is sending out.”