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© Albin Hillert/WCC

© Albin Hillert/WCC

By Albin Hillert

”We are here to listen. To learn what others do, so we can contextualize our understanding of HIV issues, and journey together in our work ahead. Because on HIV, we do not compete. We work together.”

The second of two national HIV interfaith consultations in quick succession, faith leaders, youth, partners and other stakeholders meet in Zambia on 19-21 October as part of a two-year PEPFAR-UNAIDS faith-based initiative intended to strengthen the capacity of faith community leaders and organizations to advocate for and deliver a sustainable HIV response.

Rev. Dr Nyambura Njoroge, coordinator the World Council of Churches Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy, continues to reflect, ”in looking back, we can acknowledge as faith communities that we have not always succeeded in responding to HIV. But we have stayed the course, and we continue to address these issues even today.”

”At the same time”, says Juliene Munyaneza from the UNAIDS community mobilization faith-based organizations (FBO) initiative, ”while it is well-known that faith-based organizations do a lot of work to overcome HIV, we often lack the hard data. How can we document the work of faith communities, to keep track of what is actually happening at the ground level?”

John Blevins, associate research professor and director of the interfaith health program at Emory University, who leads an academic consortium to collect, map and analyze faith-based HIV responses in Kenya and Zambia, reflects, “sometimes those of us coming out of religious traditions speak in theological terms, and continue to refer to our sacred texts. Now all of that is very important to do, but people at the policy-making level are often looking for concrete measurable outputs. So I think our role as an academic consortium is to make clear to funders and policy-makers and to people from the health science sector the distinctive contributions of our faith-based partners, while remaining sensitive and respectful to the language and theologies of faith-based communities.”

Strong partnerships in focus, as Zambia mobilizes to overcome HIV

“To fight HIV, we are convinced that faith-based organizations have a big role to play,” says Munyaneza. “If religious leaders are convinced and take the lead to lead by example, then we know that people will follow. But we need strong partnerships at all levels to make this happen.”

“So therefore, we now try to move from work at the global level, to the ground level. To make sure people on the ground, those who do the manual work on the ground, that they have the information they need, and know that they have our support.”

Dr Kenneth Mwansa, community mobilization institutional networking adviser at UNAIDS, concurs. “We have had so much interaction on the national level,” he says, “but if things are not then brought down to the local level, if things do not happen at the most local level, then they do not happen at all.”

Reflecting on processes and methodologies to strengthen partnerships and relationships at the most local level, YWCA programmes manager Miriam Mwiinga continues, “as the YWCA, we have worked hard to encourage young women and girls to learn about sexual and reproductive health, and to make sure they can enjoy their human rights. But we have also realized that as we empower young women, often when they return to their everyday lives, they meet friends and family who have not been made aware of the same issues. In Zambia, therefore, the YWCA has taken steps to empower not only women, but to also invite and employ our safe-space methodology to target and empower religious leaders, parents, the school community, as well as young men and boys.”

Julie Baratita, who is monitoring and evaluation adviser and acting executive director at the Zambia Interfaith Networking Group, concludes, “When two or more people are gathered together, we know that the Lord is also around. And in Zambia, we say that if bees move in swarms, lions live in packs, and the breams swim in schools, then why would there be a reason for us as humans to not journey together?”

Mirroring the consultation in Nairobi, Kenya, on 11-13 October, the consultation in Zambia culminates in a roadmap and call-to-action to guide implementation of the PEPFAR-UNAIDS faith-based initiative, and ultimately forms part of the UNAIDS 2016-2021 strategy On the Fast-track to End AIDS. A shared platform for both countries will also be established to develop national faith action plans for 2017.

Kenya: Voice of faith communities crucial in overcoming HIV (WCC press release of 14 October 2016)

WCC Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy (EHAIA)

Religious leaders and HIV testing