WINDHOEK – 30 March 2010-(New Era)-An article by the Namibian Catholic Bishops Conference (NCBC) that states that “HIV/AIDS is a moral issue”, has dismayed the Solidarity Community Care Organisation.

The article was published by New Era last week.

According to the Solidarity Community Care Organisation, the NCBC statement indicates that the Namibian Catholic Church is yet to adjust its position to the realities of HIV/AIDS in the country.

“It reflects the 1980s and 1990s when the Namibian State and Church wasted time arguing about the best methods of combating HIV/AIDS, especially about the use of condoms to prevent HIV infections.

“While arguing, HIV was spreading fast and when they realised that quarrelling was allowing HIV to spread, it was too late; many people were already infected, with the national HIV prevalence rate rising to 22.0% in 2002 from 4.2% in 1992, and many people died as a result,” a statement signed by the organisation’s chairperson, Hishiyukifa Mwandingi reads.

The organisation said discouraging the use of scientific and proven methods of HIV prevention, including condom use and circumcision, in a country with a national HIV prevalence rate still at 17.8% as reported in 2008, is unhelpful.

It urges churches to encourage the use of all available means to prevent HIV/AIDS in Namibia, besides promoting the moralistic approach.

The organisation said it is time to abandon HIV prevention approaches that have not worked for the past 26 years and promote those that are practical and effective.

“There is now consensus that piecemeal application of HIV prevention measures is useless. The advocacy these days is for the application of packages of HIV prevention strategies and actions that present a real potential to prevent HIV transmission,” the statement reads.

It said the preaching and insistence on the application of the traditional ABC approach alone must be forgotten.

“Ironically, the NCBC issued its statement when the Catholic Church, especially in Germany and Ireland, is facing sex scandals that are likely to undermine its moral authority in the sphere of sexual righteousness,” the care organisation charged.

In a statement signed by the NCBC president Reverend Archbishop Liborius Nashenda, last week, the body said mechanical means including advising the use of condoms correctly, having condoms in your handbag, practising circumcision, and taking a warm shower after sex, simply degrades the human being to the level of a machine and are short-range and quick fix solutions.

The NCBC noted that HIV/AIDS is about right or wrong in the eyes of the Lord, about responsible behaviour, respect for human life, self-control, honesty to God and others, about a positive, reasonable and responsible response to a given situation.

It further stated that the solution could only come through a spiritual and human renewal, bringing a new way of behaving towards one another, a way of behaving that is just towards one’s own body and the other person’s body.

The Solidarity Community Care Organisation was formed in 2006 to make a meaningful contribution towards the fight against HIV/AIDS.

By the end of 2007, Solidarity Community Care consisted of 125 community members and operated in four regions in Namibia (Khomas, Oshikoto, Ohangwena and Oshana).

Ninety-one of the volunteer members had been trained in HIV/AIDS and home-based care with the organisation reaching more than 1 000 community members on a monthly basis.

Online at: http://www.newera.com.na/article.php?articleid=10117