Talking about AIDS

Sometimes, people don’t believe Ephraim Disi when he tells them he has HIV.

That’s partly because he looks healthy and energetic. But mostly it’s because he’s a pastor in the Brethren in Christ Church.

“I’ve gathered the courage to speak openly about my status,” said Disi, of Malawi, speaking to about 200 people Aug. 16 at a workshop on AIDS during the Mennonite World Conference assembly.

“I ask God, ‘Can you keep me for another five years, for another 10 years?’ “

Disi, 45, was diagnosed with HIV, the AIDS virus, in 1996. He was infected by his wife, who has since died. He said she must have been infected by a medical accident.

Now, he is contributing to the fight against AIDS by setting an example of openness about the disease and by teaching moral behaviour. “I encourage parents to take the role of teaching their own children,” Disi said. “The message to youth must be abstinence.”

The tragedy of AIDS in Africa – where the disease claims 6,500 lives a day – was the subject of several seminars at the MWC assembly. Participants discussed the AIDS pandemic, which affects Africa more severely than any other continent, and told how African Anabaptists and foreign workers are offering compassionate ministries and moral teaching in response to it.

In Ethiopia, the Meserete Kristos Church, the nation’s Anabaptist denomination, strongly encourages engaged couples to get tested for HIV. The MKC will not marry a couple if one member is HIV-positive, said Samson Estifanos, national director of the church’s AIDS prevention program.

The MKC has 475 AIDS orphans among its families, Estifanos said. An AIDS orphan is defined as child who has had at least one parent die of an AIDS-related illness, or whose wage-earning parent cannot work due to AIDS. Nationally, Ethiopia has 1 million AIDS orphans.

Ruth Thiessen, a Mennonite Central Committee worker in Botswana, said the social consequences of having so many AIDS orphans were far-reaching. “We are looking at a future of dysfunctional adults who do not know how to be spouses or parents,” she said.

Easter Siziba, chair of the BIC Church AIDS project in Zimbabwe, cited sobering statistics about the spread of AIDS in his country. One in three Zimbabweans is infected with HIV. The Zimbabwean BIC Church has a program of home-based care for AIDS patients, Siziba said.The church stresses sexual abstinence before marriage and faithfulness within it.

“We say, ‘Don’t die; you are precious. Do it God’s way and you will live,’ “ he said.

People were invited to put together a square for a quilt that will be used to raise AIDS awareness. The squares were hand-sewn and quilted before the end of the conference.

Poverty is an obstacle to AIDS treatment, said Esther Kawira, a doctor in Tanzania. “Most people earn no wages at all but have a subsistence income,” she said. “I have not found even one AIDS patient who is able to afford anti-retroviral drugs.”

MCC has eight workers in Africa serving specifically in HIV/AIDS ministries, said Sarah Adams, MCC’s HIV/AIDS coordinator, who helped lead the workshops.

—Paul Schrag