Religious Leader Last Hope for Persons with HIV/Aids’
July 31, 2006- Critical of the fact that HIV/AIDS has not been sufficiently addressed by the Church, Venerable Christian Ebisike, Director of Social Welfare of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has challenged religious leaders to provide hope for people who are living with the pandemic.
In a report presented to the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church to acquaint them on the continuing work of the church on Aids, Ebisike suggested that people living with Aids still faced stigmatization and discrimination.
The Director of Social welfare who is also the National HIV/Aids adviser of the church said ‘as a church, we need to ask ourselves again whether discrimination against persons living with Aids are just and moral.’
He cited that in Kenya, the Anglican Archbishop of Kenya Province, The Most Rev Benjamin Nzimbi apologized to HIV-positive people for comparing the disease to a curse from God.
“Indeed an informed church leadership will know that the religious leader is the last hope for people who learn they have the virus.”
“If the religious leader reacts negatively or is not well equipped, it will be much harder to respond to the pandemic. The choice is ours whether to use our congregations to control AIDS or use AIDS to control our congregations,” he said.
Speaking on the role of the Anglican Church towards effective leadership on AIDS, Dr. Ebisike noted that the battle against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria remains a very complex one.
Critical of what he called ‘clashing cacophony of figures and rates’ emanating from the government, the Anglican expressed dismay over the inability of civil society groups and faith based organizations to present figures because of poor monitoring, documentation and evaluation of their activities.
His words: ‘The Federal Ministry health told us that the number of people on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) rose from 10,000 in 2000 to 60,000 in 2006. They also claim that the number of ARV distribution sites increased from 25 to 70 during the same period.”
“Yet, Nigeria has been de-listed from the list of countries that could benefit from the global funding on AIDS related programmes because of poor accountability and poor performance on the part of the NGOs that got money from foreign donors.”
He called for an urgent response from the House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria towards effective monitoring, documentation and evaluation of HIV activities in the dioceses.
Earlier, the report listed the achievement of the Anglican Church in her response to the Aids pandemic, two years after the launch of her strategic policy and plan document.
According to the report, the Voluntary Counseling and Confidential Testing Centre (VCCT) established in 2002 and located in Abuja is still up and running while training has been provided for diocesan HIV/Aids coordinators in over 70 dioceses.
Also partner organizations including Action Aid International, Society for Family Health and Christian Aid UK, ENHANSE, GHAIN had at various degrees provided support for the Church activities on HIV/AIDS.
