Maputo 5th December, 2008- ‘women are cultured not to speak on issues affecting them in the society’ this were remarks made today at a pre-Assembly meeting convened by the Ecumenical HIV AIDS initiative in Africa (EHAIA). HIV and AIDS is one of the nine themes at the 9th All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) Assembly scheduled to open on 7th December through to 12th December, 2008 in Maputo, Mozambique.
‘We see people die in Churches because they don’t have the courage to disclose their status’- said one participant at the meeting. Dr Nyambura Njoroge the continental co-ordinator for EHAIA an ecumenical body that co-ordinates Churches HIV and AIDS response in Africa said- ‘we are afraid to discuss sexuality related issues in the church, fear that such discussion may expose our sexual life’. She added that despite HIV being around for several years; ‘sexuality remains a taboo in Africa churches’.
The PLWHAs lamented that ‘church leaders normally close church doors from PLWHA’s thus shutting discussions on HIV and AIDS instead making it a taboo’.
EHAIA participants deliberate in one of the pre-Assembly meeting on HIV and AIDS. Photo 2008 @ G.Arende
Dr. Nyambura was optimistic that the African churches had the potential and capacity to break the silence on HIV and AIDS. ‘The church needs to discover new ways of discussing sexuality, the top church leadership are key in helping us break the silence’- she emphasized.
Cathedral D Xavier Boca Matolorio in Mozambique a member of AACC is one such churches in Maputo endeavoring to met demands of one hundred and sixty children orphaned by HIV and AIDS. Centre established in 1995 provides hope for children whose parents succumbed to the HIV virus. Bishop Benedito Ndzavo of D Xavier Boca church stressed ‘it is a duty of the church to provide for orphans’. He added that the HIV and AIDS silence prevents the church from its prophetic mission.
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