By Bremen Leak
In the AIDS-ravaged regions of Africa, being a Christian means more than just going to church.
For Dimas Makua, an elders” quorum president in a small branch in Windhoek, Namibia, being a Christian means supporting 13 nieces and nephews, single-handedly. He is the sole provider for the orphaned children of his four brothers and sisters that died as a result of AIDS. Without him, the children would have little hope for a future.
A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Dimas is no lone soldier in the fight against AIDS. Educational programs developed by the Church have taken a foothold in Africa, promoting abstinence and faithful relationships as a higher form of AIDS prevention.
The projects, which challenge traditional campaigns like condom distribution, are teaching chastity both in and out of the church.
“These programs are teaching the principles of abstinence before marriage and fidelity in marriage in the schools in Namibia and Zimbabwe,” said Rich McKenna, director of humanitarian field services for the church. “The problem with most AIDS programs is they focus heavily on condom distribution as the solution.”
Dr. Allen Palmer, BYU communications director of international media studies, traveled to Namibia this summer to study failing conventional AIDS prevention campaigns. Condom distribution is common, especially on holidays, he said, but the disease continues to spread.
“The primary problem is people are dying — and the hospitals are full,” Palmer said. “More than half of all the hospital patients are there for HIV-related problems.”
Palmer said the average male life expectancy in Namibia is 43 years, a dilemma prompting locals to deal with a rising number of orphans in the heavily affected country.
According to world development indicators from the World Bank Group, 70 percent of the world”s 42 million people infected with AIDS or HIV live in Africa. So far, the disease has killed 25 million Africans and orphaned more than 12 million children.
In many affected regions, the Church of Jesus Christ has introduced AIDS prevention materials into Sunday School curriculum, in hopes that members will help neighbors learn the dangers of promiscuity.
“They had started a program just before I left,” said BYU student Patrick Lewis, from Richfield, Ohio. Called to serve in Kenya, Lewis completed his mission last summer. “They launched a program where every Sunday during gospel doctrine class the teachers educated people about AIDS. The students were assigned homework, first to teach their children about AIDS prevention during family home evening, then to teach their friends. The idea was that it would start in the church and then it would spread. Education was the key.”
Area Welfare Manager Ike Ferguson, currently working in Accra, Ghana, in the Africa West Area, was instrumental in organizing volunteers to develop the materials. He said most of the effort has been made in the Southeast Africa Area, under the direction of the welfare directors there.
Today, materials have been translated into French and Portuguese, and a simplified version now exists for primary-age children. A non-LDS version includes quotes from LDS prophets but no reference to the Book of Mormon.
“We have still not decided what to do with these materials, but will probably make them available to the many church groups that have expressed an interest in teaching these principles to their congregations,” McKenna said. “We are also considering what to do with a puppet show version that could easily be incorporated into the church”s health fair.”
Flipping through photographs he took of AIDS awareness billboards and posters in Namibia, Palmer said many government programs rule out abstinence as a solution to the problem.
“The conception of communication as a health warning is based on some very old, outmoded ideas,” he said.
Palmer cited new abstinence programs like Uganda”s ABC-strategy as controversial but successful communication models. The program teaches: abstaining from sex outside of marriage, being faithful to sexual partners, and using condoms properly. According to the Wall Street Journal, the strategy has reduced Uganda”s infection rate from 30 percent in the early ”90s to 6 percent today. Still, while many NGOs keep hawking condoms, Namibia”s infection rate hovers high at 23 percent.
Palmer said that while the AIDS pandemic in Africa is far-reaching in its impact, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, through chaste lifestyles, are generally less affected.
“Promises of protection really come home in all this,” he said.
For Dimas and his family, that protection is welcome every day of the week, not just on Sunday.
SIDEBAR
Members of the BYU community have joined the fight against AIDS in Africa through local groups like All One People, a non-profit organization committed to improving living conditions in Africa.
“Basically what we do is try to promote awareness about AIDS and fidelity in marriage,” said BYU graduate student Karl Jarvis. “We also teach English and other vocational skills.”
All One People has teamed up with the Kenya-based group, Friends of AIDS Victims and Orphans, to improve living conditions in western Kenya. The group travels to Africa in the summer, helping orphans and teaching AIDS prevention. They also host an annual 5K run, which has generated thousands of dollars for education projects and service efforts in Kenya.
Information is available on the group”s Web site, www.allonepeople.org.
