Action Call to Faith Leaders

posted: 08/04/2011

Religious leaders around the world are urged to really think about how faith communities help or hinder support for people living with HIV, in a new report.

The report, Prayer alone is not enough – people’s stories of HIV and Faith was published on World Health Day, 7 April. It gives first-hand accounts of people living with HIV, and of people working to support people with HIV, in poor and marginalised communities in Zimbabwe, Yemen, and El Salvador.

"The stories are deeply personal, often brutally honest and challenging, and share emotions that range from grief to encouragement, from despair to hope," said Christine Allen, Progressio's executive director.

Wide range of people

Interviewees, including Christian and Muslim faith leaders, child heads of household, sex workers, former gang members, and development workers, reflect movingly on their own personal experiences of faith in the light of HIV.

• Jane, a married woman living with HIV in Zimbabwe, said: "People living with HIV don't want church members to know because they will be stigmatised."
• Abdulla Mohammed El Qadesi, an imam in Yemen recalls: "I used to think HIV was a punishment from God… I changed my mind about it".
• Ana Deysi in El Salvador said: "As a person of faith working in the HIV community, I consider the HIV community to be my community."

Human Face for the Future
The report gives a human face to a diverse group of people living with HIV in difficult circumstances - all of whom have shared their experiences in the hope of building understanding.

Faith matters with HIV
Their personal accounts demonstrate that the attitudes and behaviours of faith communities really do matter and can make the difference between people living with HIV being able to access care, support and treatment or not.

"Mobilising faith communities to break the silence, confront stigma and condemn discrimination surrounding HIV is essential if we are to overcome this barrier" the report concludes.

Prayer alone is not enough is an invaluable insight to anyone willing to examine their own attitudes and reflect on how we, and faith communities especially, can play a positive part in an effective response to HIV.

Prayer or Medicine? leaflet

posted: 16/11/2009

Mildmay, the international HIV charity based in London, have a leaflet that may be useful for some Christians with HIV concerned about treatment.

It deals with prayer, HIV treatments, and praying for healing. It quotes from the bible to show that using HIV treatments fits with Christian belief.

'It doesn't show lack of faith when we use medicines. Medicines are not different from everything else in creation: God gave them to us to use.'

"For everything that God created was good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer."

1 Timothy 4 v4. New International Bible

Prayer or Medicines for HIV  leaflet

Mildmay