WCC Webinar about HIV Stigma

[Dave Barstow]

Dear CCIH Colleagues,

Last week, the World Council of Churches hosted a webinar about HIV stigma and discrimination, marking a renewed push to address these critical barriers to an effective HIV response.  In retrospect, four things stood out to me:

Why haven’t we solved this yet?

One of the speakers, Rev J-P Mokgethi-Heath of the Church of Sweden, reminded us that we have known about the importance of stigma and discrimination since the earliest days of the HIV epidemic and then asked why it is still such a barrier, forty years later.  I remember asking myself the same question when I first became involved in the faith response to HIV and AIDS, “Surely, after so many years, we should have been able to get past this.  Why haven’t we?"

Positive self-worth is very important

The webinar's first panel focused on the effects of stigma and discrimination from an epidemiological perspective.  I was struck by the repeated emphasis on the significance of self-worth.  Positive self-worth is an important component of empowering people affected by HIV to deal effectively with the disease.

The faith response must be rooted in love

Canon Gideon Byamugisha of the Church of Uganda emphasized the centrality of love to both Christian doctrine and to ending stigma.  Being loved unconditionally certainly increases one’s sense of self-worth.

Mobilizing local faith communities is critical

Local faith communities have enormous influence on the attitudes of their members and of the wider society.  Last year, the WCC undertook a case study of eight local congregations from diverse settings around the world that had undertaken stigma reduction programs.  Based on the lessons from this case study, combined with an analysis of several sets of training materials, we have identified fifteen recommended practices for local faith communities to combat HIV-related stigma.

A recording of the webinar is available here https://youtu.be/GtAfYRRU-WU, with translations into French https://youtu.be/CwdN1_qCKO0, and Spanish https://youtu.be/zI_qaeCDMFs.  The presentations of the speakers are available here https://nextcloud.ecucenter.org/s/MFFCgppXj5ztgPD.  In addition, the World Council of Churches published a news release about the webinar, which you can find here

Webinar explores ways to eradicate HIV stigma and discrimination | World Council of Churches (oikoumene.org)

The WCC has long been a leader in the faith response to HIV.  I’m glad to see the continued commitment.

Dave

Dr. David R. Barstow

AIDS Activist, Computer Scientist, Author

da...@drbarstow.com

www.AIDSTwoFutures.com