ERD partnered with MAP (Medical Assistance Programs) to create an AIDS/HIV training program for four seminaries in Africa. MAP aims to provide essential medicines, prevent and eradicate disease, and promote community health development. MAP's international programs are eliminating the causes of sickness and disease by providing free medicines and medical care, improving water supplies and food production and establishing community directed health education and training.
Irene Ayallo, 23, will be graduating with a degree in Divinity from St. Paul’s Theological College. The four-year course has been difficult and demanding for her.
Besides the theological qualifications, Irene has also taken an HIV/AIDS course facilitated by MAP International. “Initially I did not see how the course was related to what I was doing, but the more I studied, the more I realized how it got integrated into theology,” she says.
“From a church perspective, it brings out the holistic aspect and interweaving of social life, economics, gender issues, and the whole question of health.” Irene will soon join her fellow Anglican clergy in Bondo, Siaya District to reinforce the HIV/AIDS outreach program team. Irene is enthusiastic to support her church’s fight against stigma in her culture-bound community. Before she joined the seminary, she played a role in the church outreach program to the infected and affected. “I participated on a social level but following the HIV/AIDS course, I can now intelligently integrate the AIDS activities and view them from the religious and theological perspective.”
Irene’s interest in HIV/AIDS began in 2000 after seeing so many of her friends and relatives perish because of AIDS. She realized then that for her to be able to help her community, she must have enough knowledge of the scourge. Her enthusiasm was propelled even more when she attended a workshop on HIV and AIDS organized by the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). “The workshop was educative and for this reason I started working with our AIDS team from our church,” she remembers. She then became key to the program that used theatre and plays to de-stigmatize HIV/AIDS. “But nothing I learned before compares with what MAP has taught us; it is deep and yet very practical,” she confesses.
Irene appreciates the time she has put in on HIV/AIDS courses facilitated by MAP and says that for her this was like a bonus: “When I joined this college I didn’t know that I would do a course on HIV/AIDS. I am excited that I now can advocate for abstinence comfortably.” She adds that she has acquired enough knowledge and wisdom to be able to challenge her colleagues in the clergy on sexuality. “I do believe that every clergy should be taught about sexuality in these days of the AIDS pandemic because we encounter these issues daily and we ought to tackle them with astuteness. Thanks to MAP I do have what it takes,” she beams.
Coming from a community entrenched in habitual cultural practices, Irene will be facing an uphill task while discussing sexuality. “In our social setting, bringing about behavior change will require more than knowledge of facts,” she says.“ The culture into which our lives are woven dictate our behaviors.” Irene’s concern is the unequal position an African woman finds herself in regard to sex. “Women are unable to negotiate for their sex and hence are subjected to cultural practices, most of which demean a woman’s stature and rob her of her dignity and the right to say “yes” or “no” because culture dictates otherwise,” she argues.
She is, however, excited that whatever challenge she may face, she is able to deal with it from what she has learned. “This course discusses issues like sin, care, love, forgiveness etc. These are core in Christianity and hence I will be an asset to the Church of Christ.” Unlike the many courses she took that dealt in abstract issues, Irene confesses that the HIV/AIDS course was practical and dealt with present issues that one can see and touch. “This course gave me the reality of situations and that is why it is different from other courses that I have taken,” she argues.
Her academic dean, Dr. Esther Mombo, acknowledges that MAP was among the first non-governmental organizations to wade into the murky waters of HIV/AIDS. “MAP started teaching the HIV/AIDS course in 2000. We have also received HIV/AIDS materials from MAP which have enhanced our learning resource center.” The academic dean says that because of the importance of the course, St. Paul’s has broken the traditionally set theological curriculum and added the HIV/AIDS course as a core course.
Even as she leaves St. Paul’s Theological College to join her church in the lakeside district, Irene believes that HIV/AIDS opportunities for transmission in her community are embodied in the social and cultural context, and until these traditions are done away with, knowledge and facts may not play a significant role in curbing the HIV/AIDS spread.
