Ökumenischer Rat der Kirchen
July 2010
Occasional Newsletter

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In this issue of EHAIA's occasional newsletter you will find the following articles:

Introduction: Channels of God’s Healing Hand

  • by Nyambura Njoroge, EHAIA Programme Executive

Serving God's people with passion and compassion

  • by Njeri Kang’ethe, Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and communications, gender and human rights specialist

The impact of EHAIA in Madagascar 2005 - 2010

  • by Dr Sue Parry, Regional Coordinator, Southern Africa
Introduction: Channels of God’s Healing Hand

by Nyambura Njoroge, EHAIA Programme Executive

In 1986 several churches in the global north and the World Health Organization (WHO) approached Emilio Castro - the fourth general secretary of the World Council of Churches, from 1985 to 1992 - with a request that the WCC should study the problem that, WHO maintained, “was being aggravated by certain fundamentalist groups which were discouraging the allocation of funds for research on AIDS on the grounds that the disease was God’s judgment on homosexuals”.  Castro responded by asking his staff in three sub-units of WCC, Church & Society, Family Education and the Christian Medical Commission, to explore the matter and report to the next executive committee meeting. A joint consultation on “AIDS and the Church as a Healing Community” produced a statement which is said to have emerged “from a painful and often deeply emotional encounter between conflicting viewpoints and commitments”, calling for the church to be a healing community, expressing its solidarity with those affected by AIDS through pastoral care, education for prevention and social ministry.

The executive committee that met in Iceland in September 1986 received the report and called upon the member churches and ecumenical councils to be rigorously contextual in their response to the AIDS crisis. The members affirmed, among other things, “the right to medical and pastoral care regardless of socio-economic status, race, sex, sexual orientation or sexual relationship”. Henceforth, the churches’ response to the AIDS crisis became part of the ecumenical agenda and the WCC has provided leadership in a wide variety of ways, including the launching and the implementation of the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA) in 2002.

In particular, production and dissemination of biblically sound and theological and ethically articulated resource materials have been highly appreciated by the churches and theological institutions as well as the ongoing capacity-building training sessions in Africa. It is appropriate that some member churches and ecumenical resource partners have been keen to know the tangible impact the WCC has had over the decades, especially on the work of EHAIA. In this issue we offer a story that demonstrates how EHAIA partners with the growing number of “champions” for a common Christian response to the HIV pandemic and its key drivers of economic injustice and endemic violence. Through Antony Makena, a Pentecostal pastor in the city of Nairobi, WCC resource materials are reaching young people and families who for years have known the streets as their home. When, in May, Pauline Njiru (EHAIA regional coordinator for Eastern Africa) and I visited the group Makena is mentoring in the Mathare slums, I found a copy of Contact Magazine on Human Trafficking, No. 184, May 2007, a WCC publication, as one of their resouces. The second article is a summary of an impact study on the work EHAIA staff carried out in Madagascar. The churches in Madagascar have benefitted from the collaborative team spirit of Charles Klagba (Francophone theology consultant), Hendrew Lusey, Ayoko Bahun-Wilson and Sue Parry, regional coordinators for Central, West and Southern Africa respectively. However, without the commitment of local leadership and enthusiasm of many people in the churches as well as government officials, nothing much could be achieved.

Finally, I am grateful to my colleagues Pauline Njiru and Sue Parry for making these two pieces available to us.     

 

Serving God's people with passion and compassion

by Njeri Kang’ethe1

“Nashukuru2 God. We were once street people, the walking dead who used to steal food from pigs for survival. God has rescued us from that kind of life. If the Lord blesses us with mani3, we will keep pigs as a reminder of how far we have come.” These remarks by Karis, a.k.a. “the Pastor”, as he introduced his friends to the World Council of Churches Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative for Africa (EHAIA) Team visiting the Hope Centre for Street Families and Rehabilitation Centre (HOPE) in downtown Mathare4 on 26 May 2010, captures the horror, the terror, the fear, the vulnerability and the hopelessness of living with HIV and AIDS in Africa generally, and among the urban poor in particular.

Introduction

According to Nyambura Njoroge, EHAIA Programme Executive who led the team, the world has yet to acknowledge that the HIV pandemic exposes the hitherto obscured fault lines in society. Dubbed “the disease of the ignorant poor” in some quarters, the HIV pandemic brings to the fore the gross violations of human rights and dignity, social and economic injustices that dehumanize and impoverish a people: political despondency and excesses of power that threaten peace and human security; human depravity and degradation; and inequities that are visited upon various segments of society on account of their gender, sex, race, colour, religion and other socially constructed demarcations.

The Churches' Response to HIV and AIDS

Infection by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and consequent deterioration due to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) cause suffering among individuals, families and communities in all spheres of life, namely: the social, economic, political, cultural, psycho-social, emotional and spiritual spheres. HIV transmission is gender-related and at the bottom of the ladder of misery occasioned by the disease are women and children who take the brunt of the affliction. In addition, gender-based violence including all genres of sexual violation not uncommon in Africa predispose those most vulnerable, that is, women and children, to HIV infection and subsequent AIDS. Therefore, any meaningful response to the threat of HIV must of necessity be holistic in approach and gender mainstreamed in essence. Unfortunately, the preventive and post-infection care interventions that have been put in place by national governments, the United Nations, inter-governmental authorities, non governmental organizations, and other public spirited bodies, have by and large addressed the physical and socio-economic aspects of the pandemic only, thus compromising the fight against it.

Whilst the physical realm of human suffering can be traversed by any player with ease, the emotional, psycho-social and spiritual support requisite for people living with HIV is the province of faith-based organizations, the church being one of the most visible religious communities in this part of the world. The church in Kenya has to some extent risen to God’s call to bring good news to the poor, healing to the broken-hearted and liberty to those in shackles by responding to the pandemic. The church has however been criticized for doing too little too late, and for being ambivalent in its approach. The detractors of the church further accuse it of being reactive rather than proactive in HIV response, and of manifesting a judgmental and uncaring attitude to people living with HIV, based on ignorance and religious bigotry.

Hope Community Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (Hope VCT)

Is the church totally lacking champions of change? The answer is a resounding no! At the continental level, EHAIA has been connecting churches through capacity-building in order to empower individuals and communities to combat the HIV pandemic using biblically sound models. These linkages, partnerships and collaborative initiatives have proven invaluable to the church in Africa as it takes the rightful role in giving hope to those who have no hope.

Hope Community Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (Hope VCT), a non governmental, faith-based organization in Nairobi, Kenya, is one such champion of change. As the name connotes, Hope VCT is a sanctuary for those who have lost all hope, and it represents the culmination of the audacity of hope, personified in a man of faith who dared to see possibilities where none were visible or humanly feasible. This man is Pastor Anthony Makena, founder and director of Hope VCT. Pastor Makena is a minister of the word and sacrament and a trained community developer. When his contract as a pastor in an upmarket city mega-church was terminated because he wanted to focus on HIV ministry, Pastor Makena had no doubt in his mind whatsoever that this was the doing of the Lord, the fulfilment of a life-long dream, a wake-up call to leave the comfort of an air-conditioned pulpit and reach out with the love of Christ to the untouchables, the urban poor living with HIV.

Transforming Lives with the Compassion and Passion of Christ

Despite financial, human and infrastructural constraints, Hope VCT has transformed, and continues to transform, lives by improving the health and restoring the dignity of the vulnerable, marginalized and disadvantaged poor. More importantly, Hope VCT impacts lives for eternity by bringing the good news of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to those who would ordinarily not go to church. Appreciating the multi-faceted impact of HIV, Hope VCT employs a holistic approach to the pandemic. It offers comprehensive health care including nutrition, spiritual nurture, psycho-social care and training in income generation to people living with HIV. Hope VCT also trains pastors and lay care-givers. This approach is resource-intensive, and Hope VCT cannot go it alone. EHAIA supports Hope VCT by providing teaching resources and reading material. Since 2008 this collaboration has enabled Pastor Makena to train well over five hundred pastors and equip them with materials and teaching aids. Both EHAIA and Hope VCT are now exploring ways and means of expanding this collaboration to other areas of the work. The story of thirty-year-old Karis who spent twenty-three years of his life in the streets, showcases the work of Hope VCT, an eye witness testimony of God’s faithfulness and unlimited grace.

Karis’ Story

When Karis’ mother and her eight young children were thrown out of her marital home by her husband, there was only one option left for them – the streets. Karis, whose real name is Kariuki, was about three years old then. Street life was hard and cruel on the large family who hardly had anything to eat, and clothes were a rare luxury. As if this were not enough, Karis’ mother, the children’s only beacon of hope became an incorrigible glue-sniffing addict. When he was about eight years old, Karis witnessed his sister being cruelly raped and murdered in the streets. He could not take it any more and ran away from home, or rather from one street to another.

As a street urchin, Karis turned to petty crime for survival. Fortunately, he was arrested and committed to a borstal home where he learned writing and reading skills. On discharge, he went back to the streets, where he met and married his lovely wife Ann Njeri, then a street girl herself. Their union was blessed with four children, three girls and a boy. Like his mother before him, Karis found that raising a family of four in the streets was not easy. Their son died in infancy from a cause they did not know or understand then. After suffering from one ailment to another, Ann decided to visit a VCT near where they lived. She was found to be HIV-positive.

Ann had the courage to share this devastating news with her husband Karis. Typical of the hopelessness that is street life, Karis saw only one option – death. He decided to take his life, but before he did so, he shared this decision with a few trusted friends. While the friends did not dissuade him from committing suicide, they nonetheless advised him to be tested before he took any steps to end his life, and gave him tips on how to ensure that the test was foolproof. “You must run to the VCT like you are chased by the devil himself. This way, your blood will boil and the kamdudu5 will rise to the surface. When you get tested, the results will be instantaneous,” advised one of his mates.

Karis heeded the advice of his peers and ran from Shauri Moyo in the eastern part of the city to the very first VCT that he could find. After fifteen miles of running nowhere, Karis arrived at Adams Arcade, a tiny suburban shopping centre to the west of the city’s central business district. Exhausted, hot and dehydrated, Karis stopped under the shade of a tree at the shopping centre to catch his breath and take one final sniff of his glue before he swallowed the rat poison that he had carried with him. It was then that he saw the sign. Gleaming in the horizon and beckoning to him like an oasis in the midst of the desert of his desperation, was the bold red insignia HOPE COMMUNITY VCT: SERVING GOD’S PEOPLE WITH COMPASSION AND PASSION.  

Karis ran to the Hope VCT gate and was surprised when the guard let him enter despite the state he was in. By now his dirty and torn clothes were stuck to his sweaty body, and although he had hidden his sniffing glue and bottle of rat poison under the tree, he still smelled and looked terrible. When he got to the office Pastor Makena and his staff received him, counselled him and had him tested. According to Karis, that first meeting with Pastor Makena changed his life for good – because for the first time in his life, he felt wanted, accepted and loved

As a street person, I was used to rejection. But when I saw the acceptance and compassion in Pastor Makena’s eyes when he received me into his office, I felt, for the very first time in my life, like a human being, loved and accepted. I felt safe in this clean strange place. Karis narrating his story to the EHAIA Visiting Team.

Karis was found to be sero-negative. As soon as he got this good news, he gave his life to the Lord. Pastor Makena took Karis under his wing, rented a house for him in his native Mathare, and provided food and amenities for Ann and the children, who were now reunited. More importantly, Pastor Makena taught Karis the things of God and, before too long, master and pupil were engaged in a weekly Bible Study.

Unknown to Pastor Makena, everything that he taught Karis would be repeated to a group of street friends and anyone who cared to listen and, before long, Karis had reached many street families with the gospel. To cater for his ever-growing band of believers, Karis, now fondly known as “the Pastor”, started a church under a tree at City Park, one of the recreation areas in the city of Nairobi. A well-wisher who was a regular at Karis’ open-air church donated building materials to the group to enable them build a proper church. Karis applied for and got a ten square-foot plot from the Chief of Huruma Location.

Hope for Street Families and Rehabilitation Centre (HOPE)

Once again Pastor Makena came to the rescue. He helped Karis and friends to put up a “double-storey” corrugated iron sheet structure that serves as home to well over thirty young men ranging from three to thirty years, and as a church to those rescued from the streets by Karis and friends. The ground floor serves as the church/recreation hall while the upper floor serves as a dormitory for the thirty young men.  Mattresses spread on the wooden floor serve as beds. The place is aptly called HOPE, an abbreviation of Hope for Street Families and Rehabilitation Centre.

There are about thirty young men at HOPE, while girls are hosted by Karis and his wife Ann in their home not too far from HOPE. These young people are still called by their street names, but their lives are changed. Although Pastor Makena continues to support HOPE with food, clothes, medicine and amenities, one can say with some degree of certainty that where there was hopelessness and fear for an unknown future, dignity has been restored and there is hope and renewed vigour. A few of the young men hold jobs while others have gone back to school. A few have gone back to their homes while others have married and moved to other quarters. Families have been reunited. The children in the group go to various schools in the neighbourhood. More importantly, the HOPE community has established an outreach ministry to the street people. They go from street to street sharing the gospel and rescuing many from the streets. Those who cannot be housed at HOPE are placed in various homes in the city. The sick are taken to hospitals. Others are reunited with their families or counselled to go back to their homes.

Pastor Makena visits the Centre every Sunday where he conducts a worship service and distributes food and clothing. Standing six foot two, Pastor Makena is a tower of strength: a father figure to the young people; a real man and a role model worthy of emulating. The fact that Pastor Makena is fluent in Sheng, the language of the streets, endears him to the hearts of these young people.

Vision

Karis and his friends have a vision and a dream. They dream that one day they will supply the inner city with pork and sausages. This is no mean feat for a people who spent their formative years fighting with pigs over leftovers. This notwithstanding, the dream can come to fruition if, like Hope VCT, the church will care enough to reach out to them, and to others like them, with the compassion, passion and love of Christ.

[1] The author is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and a communications, gender and human rights specialist.
[2] Kiswahili for “I am grateful”.
[3] Sheng for  money.  In downtown Nairobi and other urban areas in Kenya, Kiswahili, English and vernacular vocabulary are used interchangeably in the Sheng dialect spoken by the youth.
[4] Situated northeast of the city of Nairobi’s central business district,  Mathare, the oldest informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya,  is a collection of several high density informal settlements with a population of approximately half a million people. Mathare is notorious for violent crime, especially gang wars between militia groups such as the Mungiki and Taliban, armed robberies and other criminal acts including substance abuse.  This notwithstanding, Mathare is the home of  the Mathare United Football Club that has gained popularity and fame in the region, and it boasts a community radio station, Ghetto Radio run and managed by the youth – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathare
[5] Sheng for virus

 

 

The impact of EHAIA in Madagascar 2005 - 2010

by Dr Sue Parry: Regional Coordinator, Southern Africa

Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island, situated to the east of the southern part of Africa, and is home to some 20 million inhabitants. It is characterized by the diversity of its resources and culture and its predominantly youthful population with over 16 different ethnic groups. Approximately 41% are Christian, equally Catholic and Protestant, and the official languages are Malagasy and French. Despite its proximity to Africa, Madagascar is quite different from Africa, and is perhaps more reflective of Indonesia or Asia. It is notably, distinctively itself - Madagascan, neither African not Asian, particularly in its culture and tradition. Thus responses to HIV need to be Madagascan responses and not the result of superimposed solutions from elsewhere. This realization has underscored all the activities that EHAIA has facilitated on the island and nothing has been undertaken there without considerable involvement of all local stakeholders at all levels. Without local ownership and a locally driven response, we would not have seen the amazing results that have been forthcoming from the churches on the island.

The HIV seroprevalence rate is less than 1%, though there are many factors about Madagascar that make it vulnerable to an explosion of seroprevalence: it is an island with both very rural areas where 70% of the population live and yet it also has cosmopolitan, urban cities; it is a tourist haven; there is widespread poverty; there is malnutrition on a large scale; limited access to health and social services; low literacy; a high rate of partner change and an increasingly transient population, and some of the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections in the world.  Although there is strong political will to address HIV and prevent its spread, services for prevention and treatment of HIV are offered only at limited sites and only a small proportion of those in need are currently benefitting from these interventions.

The church is in the unique situation of being able to be in the forefront of the response. It has the opportunity to be truly relevant to the people, to counteract stigma, to slow the HIV epidemic and to prevent the devastation that HIV has caused in families and society in countries with a high seroprevalence.

Since 2005, EHAIA has been working together with the churches and Christian organizations in Madagascar through conferences, training workshops and seminars to raise awareness about HIV, its determinants and impact, to understand issues of HIV from a Christian perspective and to be challenged by the theology of compassion, stigma and discrimination. A considerable number of relevant resource materials in French and Malagasy have been produced and / or translated and distributed to Madagascan church leaders, theological institutions, and other Christian-based organizations.

Between 2005 and 2009, six national training sessions with follow-ups, including specific seminars for youth, were undertaken in: Antananarivo, the capital; Antsirabe, gateway to the South; Mahajanga in the north-west; and Manakara in the south-east. 546 participants from all corners of the island and representing 32 denominations were involved in the initial training as well as representatives from local government, media stations and other relevant stakeholders. The trainers included the theological consultant from Togo, the regional coordinators from Central, West and Southern Africa, INERELA+ and people living with HIV who came from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition, there have been local medical doctors and speakers from the National AIDS Council and various other local institutions, agencies and churches. At all trainings, the opportunity for voluntary counseling and testing has been offered, on-site throughout the workshop, for any and all participants. Music and worship plays an important part, and the Malagasy people are known for their wonderful singing and harmonizing. Included in the training is a session on developing a plan of action and all participants group themselves, by choice according to regions and/or by denominations, to develop a plan of action to be implemented after the training. This plan involves actions to be undertaken immediately afterward, within 3 months, and in 6 months and beyond. The seminars conclude with a service of commitment at which each participant is afforded the opportunity voluntarily to make a serious commitment as a personal response to the challenge of HIV, AIDS and stigma.

What has been different about these workshops?

In 2009/2010, the EHAIA team in Madagascar undertook a study of the impact of the work of EHAIA in Madagascar. A DVD was produced in English and in French / Malagasy and it involved interviews from right around the island with large numbers of participants, church leaders from all the major denominations, theological colleges, theological students, radio stations, Bible societies and various other participants who gave personal impressions and experiences.

The following represent some of the responses from various people interviewed.

‘There are 5 major points that I received from this EHAIA training:

1.      The first is that the training responded to a real need among Madagascans and their churches. An HIV+ African Pastor gave his testimony to the Malagasies and to the churches full of people who do not believe in this disease, but especially to those people who make harsh judgments about those who are living with the AIDS virus. At a personal level, that really lifted from me the fear I felt of those living with HIV and at the same time gave me renewed hope and changed my way of looking at these people. That awoke in me a positive attitude towards any situation.

2.      Secondly, this training is really very effective as the result is measurable. An oath was given and a commitment was made by the participants at the end of this training. This public oath taken before God is a commitment to the fight against this disease. It helped me to renew my commitment and to answer God’s call to the struggle against AIDS.

3.      Thirdly, as everyone participated, life was transmitted through this training. I recall that our association’s offering was a short play. It was a great joy to become aware that what you have, your gifts, your talents can be of use anywhere and at any time. This also contributed to a commitment to produce one’s best and to offer something of quality.

4.      Fourthly, it was truly important that the different churches and groups collaborated, that there were no distinctions between the different denominations. This allowed us to make new acquaintances and to cause the distance between these entities to disappear. That contributed to the opening up of the churches and made easier the carrying out of the work within those churches.

5.       Fifthly, and most important, it is an example of unity amidst diversity. This encourages people to change their outlooks and their approach. It teaches you to focus on the essential.’  RAMAMONJISOA Maminirina – ASSOCIATION BALSAMA ANTSIRABE.

‘My way of looking at people living with HIV really changed as a result of the training. Personally, I have a female friend who is HIV-positive. I now look at her differently; our relationship has significantly changed since the training. I have started to talk about the course to my friends in the heart of the church and to sensitize the young people for whom I am responsible as to how precious and important it is to accept and welcome people living with HIV.’  RALAIARISON Holiarivelo LIGUE POUR LA LECTURE DE LA BIBLE

‘Following all the EHAIA training sessions I have benefited from, I felt it incumbent upon me to spread the message in the heart of our organization. We gave over the whole of 2008 to the fight against the transmission of HIV and the propagation of the disease. To achieve that, teaching, camps and various types of training were organized, not only for university students but also for friends and the parents, who are partners in the association and in the activities within it. A second campaign carried through was among pupils of the secondary schools. Lastly, the third campaign was among the academics in particular.  These activities were fairly intense in 2008 but we were eager to sensitize and conscientize the maximum number of people to the real danger presented by HIV and AIDS.’ RABODO Tiana Harisoa – UNION DES GROUPES BIBLIQUES DE MADAGASCAR (UGBM)

‘As far as I am concerned, what I took from this EHAIA training was that it was very important for churches to stress the fact that being a carrier of or having been infected by AIDS was not divine punishment.’ RASOAVELONIRINA Vololoniaina PRODUCTEUR D’EMISSION-RADIO FAHAZAVANA

‘What really struck me was that we could share so many ideas with HIV positive people. It was pleasant to be able to sit at the same table as someone carrying the HI virus. In Madagascar it is rare to hear such people’s testimonies and it was that that strengthened my conviction to join the struggle against HIV and AIDS. Each time I organize teaching sessions, at the end, I never fail to pass on these testimonies and this has engendered feelings of compassion in the congregation.’ RAKOTOZAFY Martin Roger – EGLISE EPISCOPALE MALGACHE MAHAJANGA

‘Ever since the workshop, we haven’t stopped striving to train, to educate and to sensitize people on how to protect themselves against AIDS. We include lots of people in our church so that these activities can continue.’ PASTEUR RAKKOTOMANANA Andre – EGLISE ASSEMBLEE DE DIEU MANAKARA

‘For myself, through the seminar, I realized that some of my friends were HIV+ and also that anyone can be struck down by this disease. The seminar also had an impact on my own life; it has changed many things for me, especially my own view of people affected by the virus. Now I understand that these people need my support. I have to do my best to stick to my commitment.  I am persuaded that by struggling against HIV and AIDS those infected can secretly hold a spark of hope. We have to keep up the struggle for their sake and for that of future generations.’ RASAMOELINA Mihamina Rarinavalona – JEUNE DE LA MISSION FMTA.

EHAIA would like to express deep gratitude to the dedicated team in Madagascar, led by Pastor Vololona Randriamanatena, who work voluntarily, tirelessly, compassionately and consistently - person by person, church by church, organization by organization, taking the message, encouraging, translating documents and showing great leadership in the arena of HIV and AIDS.

Read more on the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA)

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