Minute for Mission: Presbyterian Awareness for All People Living with HIV

A woman is tested for HIV during a celebration sponsored by the FJKM Women of the Church branch in November 2022. Photo credit: Elizabeth Turk

During the past few years of Covid and other global crises, progress against the HIV pandemic has faltered, resources have shrunk and millions of lives are at risk as a result. This year, UNAIDS is challenging us to tackle the inequalities and inequities in HIV prevention and treatment. Inequity exists between countries and within countries. In Madagascar, only 15% of those infected with HIV know their status, while in the U.S.A., 87% of those infected know their status. Both countries are striving to reach at-risk populations.

The Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), the PC(USA)’s partner church, sees tackling the HIV problem as an important part of what it means to serve God. One of Madagascar’s goals is to decrease the mother-to-child transmission of HIV. If pregnant women get tested for HIV and those who test positive for HIV take anti-retroviral medication (ART), then the rate of transmission to newborns can be drastically reduced. However, in Madagascar, less than half of pregnant women seek prenatal care from midwives or doctors. As a result, Madagascar has one of the world’s highest rates of maternal mortality and continued maternal transmission of HIV to newborns.

This year, the FJKM is highlighting the need for pregnant women to seek prenatal care and get tested for HIV and to take ART if they test positive for HIV. It included training sessions on this at the biannual pastors’ continuing education this past August and at two events of the Dorkasy, FJKM’s Women of the Church branch. Over 1,300 pastors and 3,000 women were trained. Congregations are being challenged to share “five minutes on health” during worship services and highlight the need for prenatal care and treatment for pregnant women with HIV. Free HIV testing is being offered at special church events and celebrations. The PC(USA) has supported FJKM in many of these training and testing events.

To learn about the ways your congregation can help raise HIV awareness and address the problem in the U.S.A. and around the world, visit pcusa.org/toolkits/hiv-aids.

Elizabeth Turk, MPH, BSN, PC(USA) Former Mission Co-Worker serving in Madagascar

Let us join in prayer for:

David Loleng, Vice President, Church Financial Literacy & Leadership and Stewardship Education, Presbyterian Foundation
Christine Long, Church Consultant – Tacoma, WA, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

God of Life, we pray for those in our community and around the world who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. We pray that our church may be a place of compassion and protection for those in desperate need of healing. Amen.

Minute for Mission: World AIDS Day, Presbyterian HIV/AIDS Awareness

December 1, 2021

Poster of the skit tackling the stigmatization of HIV testing and PLHIV (provided)

Last September, the Youth Advocates Through Theater Arts, a group of thespians I work with, organized a webinar titled HIV HIV Haway (Haway is a local term that means “leave”). YATTA had partnered with the U.N. Population Fund, the Center for Health Solutions and Innovations Philippines and Y-PEER Pilipinas to promote HIV Combination Prevention. The initiative came with the assessment that the Philippines had one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the world, mostly affecting young, marginalized people not easily reached by mainstream health services and programs.

As part of the program, YATTA produced three recorded videos of five-minute skits. The first scenario explored a couple’s first night of intimacy after four years of abstinence. They realize, though, that the condom had expired and had a hole. The second scenario showed three friends openly sharing about their lives, including their intimate relationships. One of them talked about having an HIV test earlier that day and meeting a person that the other two in the group had sexual relationships with. The information led to malicious assumptions and shaming of the person. In the third scenario, Alec just found out that he is positive for HIV. Distraught and unsure of his future, he decided to burn bridges with his partner.

The scenarios were meant to present an undesirable situation, to provoke discussion and seek better models of thinking and practices that are informed and come from a place of kindness. So, in breakout rooms, participants were asked whether they agreed with the characters, and if not, what they would do differently. They were asked to rewrite the scripts, so to speak.

There is much rewriting to do to achieve a wholistic approach in addressing HIV/AIDS.

Dear God, grant us the compassion and courage to follow Jesus’ example to care for the sick and to love one another with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind.

Dessa Palm, Mission Co-Worker, Philippines, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Jhanderys Dotel-Vellenga and Ian Vellenga, Mission co-workers in Nicaragua, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Elle Rogers, Marketing Manager, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray

God of Life, we pray for those in our community and around the world who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. We pray that our church may be a place of compassion and protection for those in desperate need of healing. Amen.