Christian & Muslim Leaders Conference - Zomba 10/20/09

This event had enormous possibilities as the research team wanted to share with them what we found in terms of how the religious organizations work to provide care for those who are HIV positive and their families and what strategies can be used to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS – especially in woman and children. The group included Christian and Muslim Religious leaders and of course the GAIA/UCSF Research Team.

Overall the program went very well – there are always a few unknowns but the group was engaged, participatory, and committed to the cause. The first session of the morning session covered the overview of the general study findings in terms of the demographics of the study participants which included central and local religious leaders and interviews with people who were HIV positive.

The second session covered had a justice theme if discussing women and their role in religious organizations and how religious organizations view the role of women. Theme was the injustice of treating women like second class citizens and how the oppression places women at risk for contracting HIV.

Next, Dr .Susan Kools presented her findings on youth and what they reported about HIV/AIDS prevention. The take home message to the group was that youth needed constructive activities that would occupy their time and that communication with adults that they trusted would allow them to get accurate information and their sexuality and HIV/AIDS. The participants were then divided into small groups to discuss ideas for strategies to help women and youth and instructed to report their recommendations after lunch.

My portion of the program was very exciting for me and involved a controversial topic. I moderated a panel with a traditional healer and a religious leader and the goal was to discuss how religious leaders and traditional healers can come together to assist people who have HIV/AIDS and their families. I must admit that I was a bit nervous myself because my findings of the initial interview were mixed in terms of traditional healers having any collaboration with religious leaders.

At the beginning of the session I shared with the group the preliminary findings from interviewing traditional healers last summer. The group was mixed with those from Christian and Muslims and one of the interviewees was a woman. The general research findings related to the current relationship between the traditional healers and religious leaders was mixed. Some traditional healers said that they had no contact with religious leaders and that the church preached against them and others said that they had been invited by their pastor or priest to provided presentations to the congregations on the topic of HIV/AIDS. One interesting point that the panelist made who was a traditional healer was that even though religious leaders may encourage their members to not seek out a traditional healer, the religious leaders do seek out the help of traditional healers, but in secret.

At the onset of the discussion the traditional healer was a very eloquent and articulate young man. He shared up front that he was a bit anxious about his being at the conference and was not quite sure of his role in discussing this topic. He spoke of the misconceptions and negative stereotypes that people have about traditional healers. The religious leader was open and honest about the myths people harbor about traditional healers. The discussion was very interesting and lively as the two panelists stressed the importance of both groups participating in the fight against HIV AIDS. The audience was very engaged although we had only a few minutes for questions. My sense is that religious leaders have strong opinions about the use of traditional healers and that there are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings. Traditional healers, witch doctors, spiritual healers, those who practice “black magic” are all regarded as one group or one in the same and this is not true.

The take home message from the traditional healer was that the fact that you are a traditional healer does not mean that you do not have faith or that you do not believe in God. The take home message from the religious leader was that because you use the services of a traditional healer does not mean that you have lost your faith or have turned away from God. For me personally that was a profound moment. Both panelists agreed that the two groups must work together in the effort to combat the HIV/AIDS crisis in Malawi.

It will be interesting to see what other research questions emerge from this experience. We were to have a person who has HIV to be part of the panel but that did not happen. We do have one for the Friday conference and I know their presence will make a dynamic difference for the conversation.

The afternoon concluded with group presentations on their strategies to help youth and women and with a presentation by Rev. Donald Schell on best practices that were identified through the research process.

It was indeed a very good day.