Rick Allen teaches about HIV/AIDS in Kenya.
When he headed for Kenya 17 years ago, Presbyterian missionary Dr. Rick Allen didn’t picture himself handing out wooden models to ministers and influential community members so they could use them in condom demonstrations.
“The idea was that I would get involved in community health,” he said. “I guess originally I had pictured something broader. But when I got there in the 1990s, the whole HIV/AIDS issue was very big and was not being addressed very well.”
Around the time he arrived, the country’s national HIV prevalence rate (the percentage of people tested who were found to be HIV positive) hit a high of around 14 per cent. But the epidemic wasn’t a priority for churches.
“They were still calling HIV and AIDS a sin, and saying that it wasn’t something in the church but something outside the church,” Allen said. “There was a sense of denial. But I think it was largely due to a lack of information and a lack of understanding.”
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) has long been associated with behaviours religious institutions condemn, such as injection drug use, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality and prostitution, because the infection spreads through bodily fluids. Yet in places like Kenya, church leaders are well-suited to help raise awareness about HIV and its deadly escalation into AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).
Allen and a handful of concerned ministers organized a three-day symposium in 1996 that brought together 200 church leaders from the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. There was only one resolution from the conference, but it was the only one the organizers were looking for: the church would encourage more education about HIV and AIDS.
“It was an interesting three days,” he said. “I think it was the first time the word ‘condom’ was openly mentioned in the church, actually.”
Although the idea of HIV and AIDS education didn’t inspire a flurry of donations, he and his colleagues eventually scraped together the funds to launch their first training program in 1998. A number of courses have been offered over the years since then. One program—supported by Presbyterian World Service and Development—trained a total of about 400 influential community members who then trained about 20,000 local people to teach others about HIV and AIDS.
A memorable one-week course in the year 2000 reached about 400 of the church’s ministers. Many came with little knowledge—and a few misconceptions—about HIV. “How quickly they changed,” Allen said. In addition to touching on social and economic factors affecting the spread of the virus, the training session included mandatory condom demonstrations with wooden models.
“You can imagine the initial shock,” Allen said. “I think they saw it as a little humorous. It was a desensitizing thing … Because when there are sexual problems in a marriage, where do village people go? They go to their minister. There’s nobody else.”
And the church has made progress. Of the many things he has been involved in during his years in Kenya, Allen says he is most proud of the church’s policy on HIV/AIDS, which he calls “the best in Africa.”
“It comes right out and says that HIV is an infection like any other infection. It is neither a sin nor a curse from God,” he said. The policy also states that, although abstinence and faithfulness are the HIV prevention methods endorsed by the church, if someone chooses to go against the church’s teachings regarding sexual purity, he or she should use a condom. It says someone’s HIV status should not in any way impede his or her involvement in the church. And it pushes for voluntary—not mandatory—HIV testing.
“There was a time when the ministers would insist—and still do in some places—during premarital counselling that both the man and the woman go for HIV testing or they wouldn’t perform the marriage,” Allen said. “But that’s not voluntary testing. The policy says that the role of the minister in premarital counselling is to make both partners aware of HIV and AIDS. They can suggest testing, but that’s up to the couple. If one of them comes back positive, if the couple wishes to marry they should be able to marry in the church.”
Stigma and discrimination have grown less severe but they persist.
Since Allen began his work in Kenya, the national HIV prevalence level has declined. According to UNAIDS, the 2009 rate was 6.3 per cent. An estimated 1.4 million Kenyans continue to live with the infection. If left untreated by antiretroviral medications, HIV can escalate into AIDS.
“Often when you talk to people they all know the word ‘AIDS’ and they’re tired of hearing about it,” he said. “But if you ask them some questions, you’ll find out they don’t know all that much.”
These days Allen teaches a mandatory HIV/AIDS course and three community health courses at the Presbyterian University of East Africa. On days off, he continues to lead training sessions in communities when there is funding and interest.
“We often say churches are very influential,” he said. “Here in Canada, the churches are on the periphery in many ways. In Africa, they’re on the forefront. When they speak, people listen.”
<img src="http://pccweb.ca/presbyterianrecord/files/2012/04/Africa2.jpg" alt="Africa" title="Africa2" width="450" height="338" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-22911" />Rick Allen and assorted resources about HIV and AIDS
