Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Taashi Rowe/ANN]
In places such as South Africa, death from HIV/AIDS is a way of life.
It is not unusual for people to waste away for months and then die at a young age.
But in rich countries, death has been so sanitized that the stench doesn’t linger persistently and inescapably in the air. In these places advanced medical care makes HIV/AIDS manageable, and not the death knell that it is in developing countries. This makes it difficult for those who don’t see the effects of HIV/AIDS personally each day to understand that the disease is truly a global problem.
Just prior to World AIDS Day, which falls on Dec. 1, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, the director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS department highlighted how lethal the disease can be for those who cannot afford treatment. He admitted that the WHO had not moved quickly enough to meet its target goal of providing treatment for 3 million infected people in poor countries by 2005. He apologized for not saving more lives.
It’s not that people don’t care about the 25 million people who have died globally from HIV/AIDS since it was first discovered in 1981, or about the 14 million children who have lost one or both parents to the disease. Most of the time, it’s a lack of awareness — something that often manifests itself in some of the world’s most caring communities.
For many Seventh-day Adventist health leaders, trying to address the HIV/AIDS issue is comparable to a tree falling in the forest when no one is around to hear it.
Richard Willis, Health Ministries director for the church in the United Kingdom, notes that AIDS has traditionally not been a problem in the church in the United Kingdom.
“I have only been asked to address the subject once in about 10 years of working for the church in the UK,” he says. “Perhaps because it is not an issue, there is not a lot of interest.”
For Tsegaye Fesaha, Health Ministries director for the church in East Central Africa, lack of interest has its roots in denial. “Most of our churches are sensitized on stigma, denial and discrimination in relationship to HIV/AIDS. In spite of that, some of our churches are still in HIV/AIDS denial,” he said.
“Many are still presenting AIDS as God’s finger or punishment for sin,”
said Eli Honore, Health Ministries director for the church in Inter-America. He admits that the church in that region has not, until recently, done very much to address the issue.
For one group of Adventist pastors and members from America, a recent visit to South Africa put the issue of HIV/AIDS into achingly clear focus. There they met Paul Mawelo, director of the Nhlengelo home-based care for AIDS victims in Dwarsloop, 200 miles NE of Johannesburg in South Africa.
“Almost every weekend I was burying a young person, who left children behind,” Mawelo told the group.
The trip has helped give them a resolve that even if it is not an issue that specifically affects anyone in their congregation or direct community, they can help those in the ground zero areas of AIDS – countries throughout Africa.
“We are a world church — we can’t just be focused on thinking congregationally. We’ve got to think of our brother or sister around the world who need our help,” said John Appell, pastor of the Frederick Adventist Church in Frederick, Maryland, United States, who went to Nhlengelo.
But it’s not just Africa. Various United Nations’ reports have stated a rise in the disease in places such as Russia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand and Haiti among other places. There are now 40 million people living with the disease — the highest number ever — according to the
2005 AIDS update put out by the United Nations and the World Health Organization. A 1998 survey done in North America found that one in five regularly attending Seventh-day Adventist members reported that they have a relative or close friend who is HIV-positive.
“Let us recognize also that this is a problem for the church,” Dr. Alan Handysides, Health Ministries director for the Adventist world church urged in a 2001 article in the Adventist Review, the official church paper. He continued, “In one recent survey of Adventist high school students in an area, 30 to 40 percent were sexually experienced. In a comparative survey of lifetime sexual partners, non-Christians averaged
28 partners, non-Adventist Christians 22, and Adventists 20.”
So how can Adventist church members help in a concrete way? The Adventist world church set up an office in South Africa to educate church members and the community about the disease and to provide care and resources for those living with the disease.
In 1990 the Adventist world church, released a statement about the disease that was supported by the church’s leaders.
“The Christ-like response to AIDS must be personal — compassionate, helpful, and redemptive. Just as Jesus cared about those with leprosy, the feared communicable disease of His day, His followers today will care for those with AIDS,” the statement indicated.
Mawelo, who is also a pastor, said acceptance is key because there are many who are afraid that revealing their HIV/AIDS status will result in being thrown out of their churches. “One of my own church members approached me and told me she was HIV positive,” he said. She wanted to know if she was still welcome to as a member of the church.”
“Our message is not to judge. We’re here to love, help and assist.
Love, compassion, Christ-like ministry,” Honore said. He also added that those suffering from the disease can do without judgmental attitudes about how the disease was contracted. He also encouraged small initiatives born at the local level, explaining that those are often more effective than larger central organizations.
Fesaha also had several suggestions. “Praying on behalf of the affected and infected is our duty and responsibility.” He also explained that other Adventist churches worldwide that are not as hard-hit by the disease can help with expertise on the disease, with technology to educate others about HIV/AIDS, or provide financial assistance to organizations dealing with the disease.
Hope for Humanity, an Adventist organization based in North America, is attempting to create contacts between North American congregations and counterparts in Africa to provide resources, financial help and compassion.
“We must act now to prevent HIV/AIDS from becoming more deadly,” Honore warned. “What we are seeing today is the result of what happened 10 years back. Whatever we are trying to do positively now will take time to impact our community.”
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency has also released an awareness kit addressing the tragedies caused by the HIV and AIDS epidemic, both in the United States and around the globe. The theme for this year’s kit is “Learn. Care. Act!” The kit includes a World AIDS Day poster, sermon/presentation outline, activity ideas, facts, stories, and a discussion and activity guide for youth. The materials aim to foster activism, and provide critical information to help win the fight against HIV and AIDS around the world.
