A National Faith Coalition on HIV is to be established in Guyana following consensus reached among faith leaders at a roundtable held last week.
According to a press rlease from the United Nations Joint Pro-gramme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), faith leaders, while pledging to continue supporting and caring for people living with HIV, said they did not want to be subsumed under ‘civil society’. National AIDS Pro-gramme Secretariat Manager Dr Shanti Singh then suggested the establishment of a national faith coalition which would partner with government and other stakeholders in the response to HIV in Guyana.
According to the press release, faith leaders concluded that they needed to identify ways to move forward using evidence-based strategies that fit the teachings of their faiths as well as the science and teachings of HIV experts. They also said that there was need for greater government-faith collaboration to ensure that national HIV messages found comfort with the religious community.
The roundtable was set up to identify the challenges preventing religious leaders from adequately addressing HIV-related stigma and discrimination.
UNAIDS Country Coordinator Dr Ruben del Prado appealed to the religious community to believe that they could be instruimental in re-moving the stigma whiuch exists. “The only way of making progress against this epidemic is to replace shame with solidarity and fear with hope,” he told them.
The United Nations Population Fund was represented on the roundtable as well and Youth Minister Dr Frank Anthony also addressed the participants.
