Pre-Conference Overview

2. Pre-Conference Overview • 480 faith-based delegates from 77 countries gathered for the pre-conference • Under the theme ‘Faith in Action Now,’ pre-conference delegates gathered together for worship, plenary sessions, workshops, and to highlight the critical role that Christians are playing in the global response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

3. Faith in Action Now! • There has been a significant shift, recently, in the way faith contributions are perceived and valued within the global response to the epidemic. • Faith plays a critical role in combating denial and stigma • There is a need to develop partnerships, build coalitions, and honour each other’s contributions.

4. Children and HIV • FBOs have been at the forefront in working with orphans and vulnerable children since early in the HIV pandemic. • Although the response is faith-based, it is not faith-focused; the support is based on need and not creed. • We have not been listening enough to children.

5. Children and HIV • Children and HIV is a topic that is generally mentioned, but often forgotten at International AIDS Conferences. • People of faith have a role to play in ensuring this issue is adequately addressed.

6. Gender Based Violence and Trafficking • Trafficking of women and girls is now the largest transactional crime in the world • The church has a mixed history when it comes to addressing gender and sexuality. • Poverty and immigration are promoters of violence against women and HIV and AIDS • Churches should break the silence surrounding gender-based violence

7. Stigma and Discrimination • Christian faith has a powerful contribution to make because its founding ideas are love, community and fellowship • For people living with HIV or AIDS it is essential to take control of one’s life, to live responsibly and to believe in the future.

8. Stigma and Discrimination • Churches need to ‘move from exception to expectation’ in the way the leadership and influence of HIV positive people are perceived. • Religious leaders should make public acts of repentance. • We need to campaign vigorously against travel bans on HIV+ people.

9. Prevention • FBOs need to continue breaking the silence • We need to develop prevention messages that are evidence-based • The challenge is to overcome cultural differences and unite around a common purpose • With no cure in sight, prevention remains our first line of defense. We must intensify prevention, treatment, care and support

10. Leadership • Collaboration is easier when there is common ground. • Truth, freedom, justice and peace are key values for finding common ground in the AIDS response.

11. Leadership • Religious leaders have a role to play in promoting inclusivity, social justice, and partnerships beyond the faith community • Make it personal. Practice a message of proximity.

12. Workshops Fifty different workshop sessions were held under the streams of Accessing Resources, Advocacy and Collaboration with Key Players, Care and Support, Gender Based Violence, Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV (GIPA), Prevention, Theology for Action, and Youth.

13. Accessing Resources • Project reports must measure impact. • There is a need to always collect baseline data at the start of the project to help monitor impact at a later stage. • The Church Strategic Audit Tool helps churches decide if searching for external funding is a good idea. • Technical support is available to faith-based organizations interested in funding from the Global Fund.

14. Advocacy and Collaboration with Key Players • Church programs implemented in communities do not necessarily equate with messages coming from the leadership. • Harmonization of a definition for an ‘AIDS Competent Church’ is a very current issue and needs committed people and organizations. • UNAIDS is a key partner in working with FBOs. • Religious leaders need to be empowered more to enable them to hold government leaders accountable.

15. Advocacy and Collaboration with Key Players • People of faith are engaged in important advocacy with pharmaceutical companies to improve access to medicines. • Religious entities, governments and donors are working in collaboration with one another. • In countries of the South, there are often limitations to confronting government and the pharmaceutical industries.

16. Care and Support • It is important to note the intersection between the psychological and social domains of life in adults, adolescents and children, especially in the era of HIV. • The church needs to respond to the Gospel and not just to social and cultural influences.

17. Gender Based Violence • There is a need to challenge church leaders to speak out about alcohol abuse and domestic violence. • It is important to understand our own perspectives on gender, where they come from, and how they are influenced by society’s views. • The ‘relationship building’ approach seems to provide an avenue that could lead to quicker results and transformation than ‘cold-cut programmatic’ gender approaches that have been used.

18. Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV and AIDS (GIPA) • There is no “them” versus “us.” We are all children of God. • In Christ there is no difference between HIV+ and HIV-negative. • Statistics are numbers without tears. • God is an equal opportunity employer. What about the church? • God loves the whole of us, including our HIV statuses. • Ensure HIV+ leadership in church responses. • Faith-based communities should be encouraged to adopt the GIPA principles.

19. Prevention • Many faith-based prevention programs do not target marginalized groups like commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men, and injecting drug users. • Couples counseling is needed, and helps serve as a prevention tool for discordant couples. • The involvement of men is critical in HIV prevention; we need to start young to address underlying issues. • Women often do not have a choice. • ABC does not address gender-based violence, gender inequality, the sex trade and human trafficking.

20. Prevention • SAVE (Safer Practices, Available Medication, Voluntary Counseling and Testing, and Empowerment and Education) is an alternative to the ABC approach to prevention. • Don’t dismiss any technology that brings results. • HIV prevention can be mainstreamed into humanitarian and emergency settings. • Make faith-based leaders aware and knowledgeable about HIV and AIDS. • Gender is not just a women’s issue; involve men too.

21. Theology for Action • Church structures are not dealing with reality. • We need to move towards theologies of liberation and inclusivity. • The contents of the first ever HIV and HIV curricula by a very prominent Union Biblical Seminary was very well accepted by the participants.

22. Youth • Make the family the place where boys first learn to respect women and to speak about their sexuality. • There is a possibility for action with clinics together with faith-based organizations and families. • We have not been listening enough to children. • Be intentioned in inviting and involving youth. • Patriarchal culture has heavily influence the legal system. Male youth have been cultured to believe it is a sign of manhood to be able to control relationships.

23. Youth • Programs need to be developed for married youth. • The YWCA of DRC provides comprehensive HIV prevention training (including male and female condoms) to young women from diverse backgrounds, who establish clubs of young people and engage in music, dance, recreation, and drama designed and delivered by young women.