World AIDS Day is a unique moment each year when all of humanity is challenged to reflect on the way that HIV and AIDS affects us and how we can respond to the pandemic. The theme this year focuses on Accountability. Since Logos is about Faith and Public policy, I hope that you will take the time to visit the links that lead you to a variety of faith groups that are involved in promoting and commemorating World AIDS Day this year.
I have spent most of my professional career working on issues related to HIV and AIDS in one way or another, and one thing that surprises me again and again, it how many people still find it odd that I am so personally committed to my faith as a follower of Jesus. Too many long-time, committed Christians either find it distasteful that I have worked with people with AIDS and continue to advocate for things like clean needles for injection drug users and free condoms for anyone who will use them to protect their own lives and the lives of their partners. Too many others find it odd that I consider my work as an important part of my ministry, along with my advocacy for hungry and poor people around the world and my modest efforts to keep those whom I consider more radical Christians on the political "right" in check. Both are true. Both are important to me. And, if you keep visiting me here, I will try and share with you more of what I believe and why. Who knows, maybe you will choose to write about similar values on your own blog and if you do, I will try my best to mention it here.
About 10 years ago, I started working with Bread for the World as a consultant on a short term contract to help the organization stay connected with Bread members in the Western states. It was great and though there are many things I could say about my early experience with Bread staff and members, perhaps I have been most impacted by a man who speaks softly, clearly, and with great conviction - Rev. Art Simon, founder of Bread for the World. Art reminds me of my grandfather Rev. Jose Angel Hernandez, but that is not the reason I credit him so highly. It is because Art wrote a book called Faith and Public Policy: No Grounds for Divorce. Like Art I am concerned that people of faith, in my case, Christians, need to do a better job of living out our experince of the Love of Jesus Christ, which arguably can only be accomplished when we simultaneously work for justice in God's world. St. Augstine said, "Faith without works is dead." and what he meant was that it is not enough to pray for healing and not tend the wound before you. Similarly, it is not enough to provide someone with food today without also working for justice that offers a chance to build a life and provide for themselves and their families. I am concerned that there may be a growing divide between those who selectively refer to passages of the Bible to support their political positions and those who struggle with political powers to honestly live into our ministry to love and serve the Lord. Thank you Art for helping me to see that I am often happiest when living my live at the intersection of faith and public policy.
World AIDS Day
This years theme is Accountability - "Keep the Promise" to Access to Medicines The UNAIDS 2006 AIDS Epidemic Update reports an estimated 4.3 million new HIV infections worldwide in 2006, 400,000 more new infections than in 2004. The highest rates of new infections are among those ages 15 to 24 and among married women in their twenties and thirties. Two-thirds of people infected with HIV worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa, and women make up 60 percent of those infected in that region.
In the United States, over one million Americans are estimated to be living with HIV. Moreover, an estimated 250,000 of these individuals are not even aware of it. Unfortunately our system of HIV/AIDS care and community services is increasingly over-burdened and fragile. Indeed, with an erosion of federal funding for these programs, they have become little more than a patchwork. Over time, the nature of HIV disease has changed, but the programs have not. We must do more to fund sound, effective HIV prevention, care, treatment and support programs for people living with HIV and AIDS in the United States and we must do our part to help countries who are doing all they can to help overcome HIV and AIDS among their own citizens.
"Declines in national HIV prevalence are being observed in some sub-Saharan African countries, but are neither strong enough nor widespread enough to diminish the epidemic's overall impact." ~ UNAIDS 2006 Report.
The report from UNAIDS concludes that "in many countries, HIV prevention programs are not reaching the people most at risk of infection, such as young people, women and girls, men who have sex with men, sex workers and their clients, injecting drug users and ethnic and cultural minorities." The U.S. has invested a great deal of money into fighting AIDS around the world through what is known as PEPFAR. (Read about Global AIDS legislation)
On the subject of accountability, the Center for Global Development has been working to track investments in development assistance and health care including PEPFAR and the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Mead Over is a researcher and Senior Fellow at CGD, where he works on issues related to the economics of efficient, effective and cost-effective health interventions in developing countries. According to Mead, resources committed to AIDS have grown at an extraordinary rate.
Mead says, "The AIDS treatment community is still learning how to spend these resources effectively. Even if resource flows flatten off at current levels, which they do not yet show a sign of doing, the treatment community will play catch up for a few years as it learns how to spend these resources most effectively." (Please note: The Center for Global Development borrowed the graph below from the medical journal Lancet and so I am borrowing to share with you as well.)
What Mead says is true and sadly, this is proven when we learn that resources, both U.S. dollars and money from other donor countries is not always reaching the right people, those at greatest risk for becoming HIV positive, and those who need help to stay alive, work, and care for their families. Bread for the World often partners with the Center for Global Development and other organizations that work to make sure that the resource we spend to help people in need are truly reaching those we seek to serve.
Money Well Spent
Aid effectiveness, weather it is poverty-focused development assistance to help small farmers, or funds for purchasing life-saving medicines to treat AIDS and T.B. or just mosquito nets to protect children from Malaria, is always a top priority for Americans, and the good news is that it is money well spent. Still, what truly encourages me is the fact that my sisters and brothers - the majority of voters in the U.S. - who despite being concerned that money won't get where it is intended - nonetheless report in survey after survey, that not enough is being done to combat hunger and disease in the world and that they want U.S. political leaders to do more. Democrats and Republicans alike responded in large numbers to questions like these and it is among the things that let me take heart. We, Americans, citizens, are taking reresponsibility not because we owe anyone anything, but because it is simply the right thing to do. (Note: Learn more about the Alliance to End Hunger)
What can I do?
Learn more about HIV/AIDS and get involved. I am struck that just yesterday, not long before I gave my talk at American University about World AIDS Day, Faith-based and secular human rights advocates joined together in a call for accountability in US Global AIDS prevention policy to ensure that U.S. funds are used for comprehensive prevention strategies worldwide. Can you believe it, there is so much going on and so many ways to get involved that I did not even know that good friends and colleagues of mine were in the midst of such important work. Read the statements by these leaders and stay informed.
Worship
I am truly blessed that my work allows me to pray, correction, they encourage me to pray as often as it takes to get the job done. As someone who has lost too many people to AIDS, my former partner and many close friends, I can say with conviction that without prayer, I would not have the strength to write to you now. No matter what your faith experience, take the time to day to seek God in whatever way you can best approach the divine in your life. I am Christian, Presbyterian in fact, so for me things are fairly clear. If you would like more information about worship activities and faith groups who commemorate World AIDS Day, follow the links on this blog, or check out the http://beta.blogger.com/Connect
Find out what your church or faith community has said about HIV and AIDS and ask religious leaders what they have done to follow up on their statements. Learn about the commitments toward universal access to education, treatment and support made by governments and how you can join in civil society to ensure that effective targets are made and kept. http://www.ungasshiv.org/
Link up to other community events around World AIDS Day. Promote and take part in them. Support efforts of networks of people living with HIV and AIDS.
