Churches fuel the spread of HIV/AIDS

By David Chidende

HARARE- Churches in Zimbabwe have been accused of fuelling the spread of HIV/AIDS in the society. Players in the fight against the scourge have attributed this to lack of knowledge on HIV/AIDS by the religious leaders.

HIV/AIDS is seriously ravaging the societies with the religious sector still ashamed of discussing such issues.

Speaking at a workshop organised by Africare in Harare yesterday, Freackson Ropi, the Country Director of Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe Africa (UDACIZA) said the church needs to be effective in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The workshop dubbed Programme for the Interdenominational HIV/AIDS Dialogue was attended by members of the apostolic sects and other religious groups.
Ropi said there is need to educate the church leaders on issues to do with HIV/AIDS and attributed their silence to ignorance. He castigated pastors for remaining silent about the issue and acting as if the disease does not exist yet it has caused a lot of damages both inside and outside the religious life.
Lack of knowledge and fear of discrimination by congregation have seen many pastors and churchmen succumbing to the disease and dying silently.

Africare Country Director Paul Chimedza said stigma and discrimination are still rampant in the churches. He said despite some years in the religious field some church leaders are still not aware of the grievous damages HIV has caused so far.

He also said that his organisation has managed to train pastors to enable a free platform for people to discuss HIV/AIDS issues.
“People are now free to discuss AIDS issues in the church and also organising games to attract youths to come,” Chimedza said.

Since last year Africare was doing an outreach programme across the country educating the religious sector about HIV/ AIDS.
“I am quite pleased with outreach programmes as we have managed to reach out of 129 000 individuals,” he added.

However the efforts of Africare will be stifled by the withdrawal of its donors which came hot on the heels after the withdrawal of other funding partners such as Medicine San Frontiers’ and the Global Fund presenting problems for Zimbabwe’s AIDS sector.