Oak Harbor Assembly of God

Challenge: In many parts of Africa, HIV/AIDS is considered a curse, that the people who have it "deserve" it. This is even evident in the church where it is considered a "sinners disease." The stimatization associated with HIV is so strong that most people just don't want to know if they're infected. And the few that do know, go to great lengths to hide it, keeping this difficult secret to themselves, not doing things that could help them to prolong their lives and continuing to spread the virus.

 

Response: The Communion Fraternelle network (church based HIV response groups) are working on educating their communities and churches about the realities of HIV/AIDS. Through skits and open forum times of discussion, churches and communities are encouraged to view HIV/AIDS as any other illness and those infected as human beings in need of love and attention.