Teresa Rehman
The sermon is in progress at a Dimapur church. People from all walks of life, dressed in their Sunday best, listen with rapt attention to the pastor as he speaks of HIV/AIDS, the safeguards to take against it, the vulnerability of those living with the disease and how great their need is for love and compassionate care.
The Church in this overwhelmingly majority-Christian state has effected a quiet revolution in spreading HIV/AIDS awareness. With 90 percent of its population Christian, Nagaland has a very high church attendance rate in both urban and rural areas. Breaking all taboos, it is active in advocacy for treatment, education and other services and also for a comprehensive intervention that addresses HIV/AIDS-related issues such as stigma and discrimination.
The Nagaland Development Outreach (NDO), a wing of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC), supported by the Catholic Relief Services, has been actively involved in HIV/AIDS intervention programmes since 2004. The organisation specialises in capacity-building programmes to train church leaders to work with HIV patients. According to Jongpong Chiten, an NBCC counsellor, “Our programme targets 1,327 churches all over the state, with two church leaders from each church. We have mobilised more than 400 association leaders so far, and we are now going to the grassroots.”
Most intervention programmes are usually presented in modern scientific parlance which often conflicts with religious values. The approach the Church in Nagaland is using puts HIV in the context of Jesus’ healing ministry. “We try to change mindsets by integrating Jesus’ work as a healer with the concept of pastoral care in counselling,” says Meren Jamir, the NDO’s associate director.
Jamir adds that the Church, however, has reservations about risk reduction strategies that include free condom distribution, as it seems to endorse promiscuity. “The Church’s basic position is that building a family life based on trust and understanding, and abstaining from adultery and premarital sex are vital measures in checking the disease.”
Picking up on this premise, the Nagaland State AIDS Control Society has evolved what it calls its abc strategy: Abstain, Be Faithful and Consistently Use Condoms to prevent HIV. Says Jamir, “The campaign is spreading like wildfire. We are also coming out with a curriculum for theological colleges — there are nearly 40 in the state. We will also bring out a children’s Sunday school curriculum on HIV-AIDS. And for young people, we have the message of abstinence and being faithful with the slogan ‘True Love Waits’.”
The Eleutorus Christian Society and the Churches Alliances for HIV both run projects in Tuensang district, which has the highest number of HIV cases in the country. Social activist Neichu Angami links the increase in HIV prevalence in Nagaland to the prolonged conflict in the state, the tremendous mobility of the population not only from village to town areas but also across the international boundary between India and Myanmar. The easy flow of drugs across the border contributes to the menace. As many have noted, among the reasons why young people in Nagaland take to drugs are the lack of recreational facilities, a traditionally liberal lifestyle, high unemployment and no sustainable development.
Surveys have shown that in Nagaland, around 13.6 percent of intravenous drug users were HIV positive. In Tuensang, 34 of 41 iv drug users tested were HIV positive. As of 2003, Nagaland had 370 full-blown AIDS cases out of a population of 19,88,636. At 0.018 percent people infected, it is now the second most vulnerable state in the Northeast, next to Manipur.
Sociologist Kedilozo Kikhi feels that the Church has a prophetic mandate to reach out in love and understanding and speak out for the rights of its people. “Almost every church has a youth wing. The Church can use these platforms to influence young minds,” he says.
The Church, however, cannot begin functioning like an ngo, running intervention programmes and projects, says Kikhi. It must give policy guidance not only to ngos but to government and other agencies to ensure that quality health care is provided to all. The Church is in need of technical training and capacity-building exposure that will give it the tools and confidence to take on its expected role.
Angami adds, “Presently, we are facilitating a process that will help the Church develop an HIV/AIDS policy founded on a rights-based approach.” This process is bringing together key stakeholders of the Church and civil society to engage in dialogues to address critical issues around the disease.
The saddest part of the anti-AIDS campaign is the stigma HIV patients suffer. “For prevention strategies to work there is a critical need for the active involvement and empowerment of people living with HIV(PLHA). The Church is aware of this need and is actively engaged in consultations with PLHA to give them space to share their experiences,” says Angami.
Some major challenges in HIV programmes are the lack of open and active PLHA participation, which is mainly due to the atmosphere of humiliation around their disease. The Church has a major role to play in breaking this barrier. One primary step towards doing so is to ensure that services are friendly and that PLHA have access to quality health care as well as means to meet other needs.
“But it is not just the Christians, we are together with people of all religions, be they Hindu or Muslim, when it comes to combating HIV/AIDS,” claims Chiten.
Tehelka
