Church, Veritable Tool For HIV/AIDS Prevention -RIVSACA BOSS

The Church as an institu
tion has been identified as a stakeholder in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Executive Director of the Rivers State Agency for the Control of AIDS (RIVSACA), Dr Chimiesi Okeh stated this at a one -day HIV/AIDS training programme for pastors, Ministers of God and Church leaders in  Etche Local Government Area.
Acording to Dr Okeh, the Church as an institution is stratigically placed to reach all levels of People in  the society, who constitute their congregation.
“We believe that the church because of its nature, can sustain it (fight against HIV/AIDS) with their resources.
“Not resources in terms of finance but in terms of faith and obedience to authority, which makes it more possible that if you train a Pastor, he or she can train members without money,” he said.
He emphasised that “we are here to train you as church Pastors, Ministers of God, and leaders of flocks. We want to fortify you with knowledge about HIV/AIDS which you are going to use personally, and more importantly, for your flocks.”
Dr Okeh  explained that the choice of Etche LGA as the first point of call in the HIV/AIDS campaign, was necessitated partly by the fact that the local government ranked 4th in HIV prevalence among the 23 LGAS of the state.
“HIV/AIDs is a big problem worldwide and it’is a big problem in Etche. We had looked at how HIV is spreading  in the state, and from analysis we’ve got so far, Etche is fourth in the state,” he said.
The other reason, he continued, was that individual members of the church took the initiative to combat the pandemic and sought for support from relevant authorities, with RIVSACA as the pivote.
While thanking Bishop Samuel N. Nwala, Vice Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Etche LGA and Pastor Joshua for the initiative, he urged the church to sustain the campaign and not depend on the state or local government and assured them of RIVSACA’s support at all times.
Declaring the training open, His Lordship, Rt Reverend Okechukwu Previous Nwala, noted that the involvement of the church in HIV/AIDS campaign couldn’t have come at a better time.
“The church has been so much carecless about HIV/AIDS. It is rarely mentioned at the pulpit. It is never mentioned in women gathering, neither is it mentioned among the men, and the youth of the church do not have proper knowledge of HIV/AIDs.
“This has posed a lot of concern because most times we give the wrong information because people are not open to discussions about HIV in the church,” he said.
Bishop Nwala, who is the Anglican Bishop, Etche Diocese and Chairman of CAN in the LGA urged participants to take the training seriously so as to achieve its objective.
In his presentation, the Director, Partnership Coordination in RIVSACA, Dr Naaziga Francis, gave detailed facts about the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the world and Nigeria.
Among other information, Dr Naaziga noted that over 35 million people currently live with HIV, and that 5,700 people contract HIV daily, while an estimated 240 people contract it hourly, worldwide.

Sogbeba Dokubo