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United Against AIDS

by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton

6/5/2005

But when he heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."  -- Matthew 9:12

The people are poor and the life is hard -- you already knew that about Honduras. But did you know that Honduras is the epicenter of HIV/AIDS in Central America? It accounts for more than half of all AIDS cases there, with only 17% of the region's population.

Still, Honduras' rate of infection has not yet reached the devastating levels we see in Africa. And Honduras is small - a little more than six million people. That means that it is early enough in the Honduran epidemic to make a real difference, to forestall the full bloom of horror for the tiny nation and its people. With our help, the Great Physician can come before everyone is sick, and many lives can be saved.

Episcopal Relief and Development partners with the Episcopal organization Siempre Unidos -- "Always United" -- which offers a variety of very realistic services to affected families and individuals, working creatively within the limitations imposed by poverty and isolation. There are now WHO guidelines for treating patients in impoverished countries with the successful but costly anti-retroviral drugs that have made such a difference in the lives of North American patients, turning a sentence of speedy death into something approaching a chronic but manageable condition. ERD and Siempre provide visits from United States doctors experienced with the drugs two or three times a year for case management, so important in consistent retroviral therapy. These visits are supplemented by ongoing care from Honduran doctors and health workers, supported by regular teleconferencing with the North American team.

We are so rich and they are so poor. We can get medicine they can't. But that is changing, and we are within sight of reversing the trend of HIV/AIDS infection in one small Central American country. Through ERD we are "always united" in Christ with people in need whom we will never meet, united in the Christ whose energy goes naturally toward those in need.