World AIDs Day

At the request of my sister, I thought I would offer some thoughts from my experiences abroad.  I should point out that for me thoughts are directly related to our actions in the world.  How we think, is directly related to how we act and interact with others.  So, I hope these thoughts can spur some conversation, that leads all of us to be involved somehow.

This last summer, I was in South Africa for a gathering of church leaders from the African continent.  This was a chance for people to discuss the nature of the church in Africa and dream of ways that Africa can enrich the global church.  This can be both encouraging and tiring as one wrestles with where we are (in the now) and where we would like to be (in the future).  Sometimes this divide seems to great.  But that is the tension.

While I was there, I had the chance to visit a development project in Swaziland.  Swaziland has one of the highest AIDs rates in the world, if not the highest.  The Population Reference Bureau charted it at 33.4% in 2006, being the highest rate in the world.  Groups like World Vision are working hard to help the country deal with this epidemic (Almost half the population receives help from World Vision).

What surprised me was not the numbers, which are staggering enough.  But the type of work that World Vision was doing.  One of the biggest projects was training church and communities leaders in the nature of AIDs.  Many people where living under stigma that people with AIDs where disloyal, promiscuous, or amoral in some way.  This was a view that the Swazi's heard in church, school, and from aid groups (like USAID pictured above).  This stigma ruined peoples lives.  Having sex with a virgin was a widely viewed supposed cure.  Which led to the rape and continued prevalence of AIDs.  People where scared to check, which was an issue we ran into in Uganda.

World Vision is working to teach leaders healthy was of viewing the AIDs and those affected by it.  By dismantling the stigma, people where able to talk about AIDs and move forward.  This made me reflect on our own situation in the US.  What mythic views are we teaching and practicing?  What stigma do we have around AIDs, or heart disease, or any other medical issue?

As we stop to reflect on the affect of AIDs on our world, we must reflect also, on humanity.  This not an issue for "others" as if we can let someone else come up with solution.  We suffer when we ostracize our brothers and sisters.  The AIDs community has had to deal with the pain of not only the disease but of being pushed to the margins of their communities.

I will post more on how this relates Christian communities especially, as well as, ways of engaging our communities.  I think there are amazing things being done by groups like World Vision.  They continue to be a hope in places with little perceived hope.  We can learn a lot from groups like this.