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Only four years earlier at the International
AIDS Conference in Barcelona, faith groups
were marginalized and only beginning to
mobilize resources, said Dr. Peter Piot,
executive director, UNAIDS. He noted thatthe Bangkok conference in 2004 was a turning
point where efforts really began to grow.
Looking forward to long-term strategies in
HIV and AIDS solutions, Piot joined the
Most Rev. Gunnar Stlsett, Bishop Emeritus
of Oslo, in opening the interfaith pre-confer-
ence, Aug. 12, on the eve of the 2006 Inter-
national AIDS Conference. An ecumenical
pre-conference was held Aug. 10-11.
In the beginning, faith-based organizationsengaged too slowly and in low numbers.
But in the last four years the faith-based
organizations have contributed more than in
the previous 20 years, Piot said.
AIDS has broken down some taboos regard-
ing religion in the United Nations systems,
Piot said. He noted the critical role of the
Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance in giving
faith-based organizations a voice as part
of civil society at the UNGASS meeting in
June. This was not an easy task due to the
history of culture clashes between the faith
community and the United Nations, he said.
Now the work is to gure out how to imple-
ment solutions for the generations to come,
Piot said. He said that no technology is go-
ing to x the pandemic; it is going to take
social change by addressing social injustice.
To date the global response has been haphaz-
ard, acting in crisis mode. The time is now to
develop long-term sustainable strategies, he
said. Now is the time to focus on a common
purpose: saving lives and defeating AIDS.
Stlsett, international co-president, Religionsfor Peace, and co-chairperson, Leadership
Program, International AIDS Conference,
noted that the faith-based
community has the
opportunity to build
upon centuries of
religious wisdom
to do the work
necessary to stop
(continued on page 2)
The AIDS pandemic breaks down barriersby Claudia Carthaus
INSIDE: Kay and Rick
Warren con-
front AIDS
Page 2
Religious
leaders living
with HIV
Page 3
Making and
keeping
promises
Page 4
AIDS 200
Issue no. 1
Aug. 13, 2006
Daily news and views on re
responses to HIV and
at the 16th International
Conference, Toronto, Cana
more information and articl
www.e-alliance.ch/iac_200
FAITH
inACTIO
Promises havbeen made tha
give people
hope. ... These
words must be
put into actionLinda Hartke, Ecumen
Advocacy Alliance
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Kay Warren was shocked when she at-
tended her rst HIV and AIDS confer-
ence in Bangkok two years ago. As a
new advocate for people infected and
affected by HIV and AIDS, she was
shocked not only by how many people
she met that had different worldviews
and values than she did, she was shocked
by the despair at the conference.
Twenty-three years into the pandemic
there was not much hope expressed,
only a list of failures no vaccine, no
cure and millions of deaths and orphans.
Now, two years later, she says that her
participation at the ecumenical pre-con-
ference (Aug. 1011) has been an incred-
ible moment and blessing for her.
Kay Warren and her husband, Rick, do-
nate 90 percent of their income through
three foundations addressing HIV and
AIDS, poverty and church leadership
training. Rick Warren is a best-sell-
ing author and pastor at Saddleback
Church, a California congregation of
more than 22,000 people. Kay Warrenis executive director of the HIV and
AIDS Initiative at Saddleback Church
and president of their Acts of Mercy
foundation.
Her wake-up call came four years ago
after reading an article about 12 mil-
lion AIDS orphans. It horried her that
there could be that many orphans due
to anything. She began to learn abou
HIV and AIDS and talk to experts. She
began talking to her husband, and her
passion became a passion for him as well
Much of their focus is on strengthen-ing local churches capacity to care for
those in need. Through their PEACE
Plan, they are hoping to mobilize a
billion Christians around the worl
through local churches, to care and take
responsibility for those infected and af-
fected by HIV and AIDS. Our goal is
to gure out simple ways that everyone
can do something, Rick Warren said.
Every person has to care about HIVand AIDS, Kay Warren said. If we
dont, it will just continue to gallop un-
impeded into the next generation.
(Read more online about the Warrens a
www.e-alliance.ch/iac_2006.jsp.)
Take responsibility for the next generationby Claudia Carthaus
Theology is slowing churches
response to HIV and AIDSDoes the church have to aban-
don all its morals? We have a call to
make the love of God a real and tan-
gible presence today.
Develop plans to prevent HIVtransmission after natural
disasters, churches toldNatural disasters can leave
pockets of the population more vulner-
able to HIV. Prevention must be part of
emergency response.
Too little for children, 25
years onThe next generation needs
prevention, treatment and care now
to block the spread of HIV into
the future.
Page 2
For women, it is not as
simple as ABCThe impact of HIV and AIDS
on women ties into their social, po-
litical and economic circumstances.
ABC is a black-and-white approach in
a grey world.
Read more online
Visit http://iac.e-alliance.ch/ for full stories (site includes articles in
French, Spanish and German)
Visit http://iac.e-alliance.ch/gallery for photos
Pandemic breaks down barriers
(continued from page 1)
the AIDS pandemic. All religions have
ethical stories that can be referenced by
faith-based coalitions as models of in-
spiration, he said.
The crisis has brought us together. The
AIDS pandemic is bringing every faith
together, and it shall ignite a new era in
religious history, Stlsett stated.
Although a tragedy, the AIDS pan-demic has actually been a blessing in
disguise as it has helped break down
boundaries and barriers, between reli
gions, in order to serve, Stlsett said
He suggested that the faith community
now needs to move from dialogue to
practice through cooperation, coordi
nation and unity of purpose.
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Global network of religious leaders to
be launched by Elly Wamari
The International Network of Religious
Leaders Living with or Personally Af-
fected by HIV and AIDS (INERELA+)
will be ofcially unveiled Aug. 16 at the
XVI International AIDS Conference.
INERELA+ arises from a growingneed of a global platform for religious
leaders living with or personally af-
fected by HIV and AIDS to coordinate
activity for eliminating stigma and dis-
crimination, said the Rev. Jap Heath.
INERELA+ will be an advocacy
agency working for the rights of people
living with HIV, and will move actively
towards breaking stigma and discrimi-
nation, and challenge action or inaction
around HIV and AIDS, Heath said.
We have a number of people around
the world who are already speaking of
themselves as INERELA+ members,
even though we havent launched it for-
mally, he revealed.
Heath is the General Secretary of the
African Network of Religious Leaders
Living with or Personally Affected by
HIV and AIDS (ANERELA+), from
which INERELA+ has been born.
Formed about three years ago and pri-
marily aimed at challenging stigma
and discrimination, ANERELA+ has
experienced a dramatic growth from
only three people to an active network
with more than 1,500 members and re-
gional representation in 13 countries
across the continent.
As we grew in Africa, we becameincreasingly aware of religious lead-
ers around the world, who were in the
same position we were in, Heath said.
Later, there were open calls for us to
expand this concept more broadly than
Africa. That, really, is the concept from
which INERELA+ has developed.
Heath noted that one of the major stum-
bling blocks in ghting HIV and AIDS
around the world is still stigma and
discrimination, which has kept people
from knowing their status, from ac-
cessing treatment and care and from
adjusting their behavior.
If we are going to make any future in-
roads into HIV and AIDS it is spe-
cically stigma and discrimination that
we are going to have to overcome as a
rst step.
Page 3
CHECK IT OUT
Interfaith prayer room
Sun. Aug. 13; 13:00-21:00
Mon. Aug. 14 - Thurs. Aug. 17;
08:00-19:00
Fri. Aug. 18; 08:00-14:00
North Building, Room 103A
Joint faith-based exhibit
Sun. Aug. 13; 12:00-16:30
Mon. Aug. 14 - Thurs. Aug. 18;
10:15-18:30
Exhibit area A, Booth number 4
Multifaith networking zone
Sun. Aug. 13; 08:30-18:00
Mon. Aug. 14 - Thurs. Aug 17;
08:30-20:30
Fri. Aug. 18; 08:30-12:00
Global Village, just inside the
entrance
Keep the promise - Letters to
the World exhibit
Ongoing
South Building, Level 600
Concurrent sessions - Religion
and new leadership: the challe
to deliver(World Conference of Religions
for Peace; Ecumenical Advocac
Alliance)
Mon. Aug. 14; 10:45-12:15
South Building, Session Room 2
Level 800
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+ 41 22 791 6723 + 41 22 710 2387 [email protected] on recycled paper
Ecumenical Advocacy
Alliance
150, route de Ferney
PO Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2
Switzerland
Keeping promises is an attribute of faith that can and must
be applied as people respond to HIV and AIDS and their
many related issues. Speakers challenged the 500 partici-
pants of the ecumenical and interfaith pre-conferences,
Faith in Action: Keeping the Promise, to assess their
own work while advocating for people living with HIV and
AIDS.
If our generation does not step up to the plate and recog-nize and act on the fact that we are sisters and brothers to
all who suffer, then we risk the loss of more than fortune,
culture and a way of life. We risk having our very human
identity slip between our ngers. Sister Patricia Talone,
Catholic Health Association, St. Louis, USA
We, the faith communities, are the people who are called by
God to be the caregivers, the hands, the heart, the ears, the
eyes, the feet of God in the world. The Rev. Jap Heath,
African Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Per-
sonally Affected by HIV and AIDS (ANERELA+), Johan-
nesburg, South Africa
Faith leaders should actively involve people living with HIV
in developing workplace policies, liturgies or working to
launch initiatives to tackle AIDS. Andy Seale, Joint Unit-
ed Nations Programme for HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS)
Davids biblical response to Goliath is like the response to
HIV and AIDS. God has already provided the resources,
and people of faith must recongure the battleeld and use
those resources to slay the giant. The Rev. Adam Taylor,
Sojourners, Washington, D.C.
People of faith from all religions need to discern their com-
mon values and join hands for this common endeavor, to
eliminate stigma and discrimination, to stop the further
spread of HIV and to provide compassionate, non-judgmen-
tal care, support and treatment for all those affected by the
pandemic. Father Alex Vadakumthala, Catholic Bishops
Conference of India, New Delhi
I publicly promise to stand in solidarity with you and letthe commitments made here and articulated here shape my
leadership and my rhetoric. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, Lu
theran World Federation and Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America, Chicago, USA
We are responding to Tim and Freds lives. Bishop
Albert Frederick Mutti, United Methodist Church, Kansas
City, Missouri, USA, shared his experiences and those of
his wife, Etta Mae, as two of their sons died of AIDS-related
illnesses. Through the Global AIDS Fund, the couple is
working to keep their churchs promise and their personal
promise.
Before I was HIV positive, I stigmatized. I know that I can
say that the stigmatizer does not know when they are stig
matizing. The Rev. Patricia Sawo, ANERELA+, Kitale
Kenya, focused on the promise many churches have made to
do away with the stigma and discrimination linked to HIV
and AIDS.
Views expressed in this bulletin are not necessarily those of theEcumenical Advocacy Alliance.
Produced by t he Ecumenical Media Team, [email protected], Mobile: 1.416.825.2256
Photos, stories, audio and video available for free use with at tribution atwww.e-alliance.ch/iac_2006.jsp.
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance is a broad international net work of churches andChristian organizations cooperating in advocacy on global trade and HIV and AIDS.
Cover photo Jedrzej Chelminski/EAA, remaining photos Melissa Engle/EAAInterfaith AIDS ribbon logo donated by Andy Marino / Marinodesign LLC
Faith in action: Keeping the promiseby Frank Imhoff