Ellen Ott Marshall
HIV is Our Disease: Reflections on the UMC Global Aids Fund Conference

Like most people who saw it, I was stunned by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center's new campaign, "HIV is a Gay Disease." I do believe that those who organized that campaign are right about the problem, that there is a deadly complacency about this disease that infected another 4.1 million people in 2005. And I can certainly understand the motivation to jumpstart the community's education, prevention, and advocacy work. However, despite the understandable motivation, the campaign slogan is inaccurate in two ways. First, according to the Center for Disease Control, 31% of persons diagnosed with HIV in 2003 became infected through heterosexual intercourse. By the end of that year, 22% percent of people living with AIDS were women (of whom 80% became infected through heterosexual intercourse and 19% through drug use).^[1] Secondly, because we are all responsible for the prevention and treatment of HIV, it is everyone's disease. It is our disease.

In 2004, the United Methodist General Conference accepted this responsibility by passing the Resolutions on HIV/AIDS and establishing the Global Aids Fund to raise at least $8 million by 2008. On September 8 and 9, 150 United Methodists gathered in Washington D.C. to learn more about the Global AIDS Fund, to study the recent data on infection, prevention and treatment, and to share practices for education, care, and advocacy. I was very fortunate to be able to attend the conference as a representative from CST, and I learned more than I can convey in this brief article. However, I did want to share a few of the sobering statistics, encouraging stories, and valuable resources that I carried home with me.

According to the United Methodist Committee on Relief, there are nearly forty million people infected by HIV globally. Five people die of AIDS and nine people are infected by HIV every minute.

As part of a pre-conference mission experience, I joined ten other participants on a visit to The Women's Collective (www.womenscollective.org), which is a woman-focused, peer-based, and family-centered organization working with women in the D.C. area. In addition to their own information and stories, the staff of the Collective gave us a fact sheet on "The Impact of HIV/AIDS in the African American Community." The fact sheet compiled by the Center for Disease Control (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv) told us that "HIV/AIDS was the number one cause of death among African American women aged 25 - 34" in 2002. Women are much more susceptible to heterosexual transmission of the virus than men are, and "teen girls ages 13 - 19 [were] 51% of all newly diagnosed HIV infections in 2002." The staff also talked with us about the ways in which poverty, lack of education, sexism, and domestic violence intersect to increase women's likelihood of infection. And they told us about female condoms and the Global Campaign for Microbicides (www.global-campaign.org). Microbicides would empower women (and men) to protect themselves rather than relying on their male partners' use of a condom.

The Women's Collective was founded by Patricia Nalls who was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 and lost her husband and 3 year-old daughter to the disease. Her commitment and the core tenet of the Collective is that "living with AIDS shouldn't mean living alone." The Collective does mobile testing out in the community, offers case management and early intervention services as well as peer-based and group counseling for women who test positive. They also provide prevention case management and support services to women whose test is negative. I was deeply impressed by the holistic approach of the Collective. In addition to these services, they also provide emergency financial assistance, a resource room where women can relax, make phone calls, read, talk with others, and they even offer massage and acupuncture. And all of these services take place in an environment that is comfortable, non-judgmental, and supportive. The Women's Collective does indeed constitute a community for women who might otherwise be living alone and in silence with the virus.

In other conference workshops, Dr. Pauline Muchina of UNAIDS and David Gartner of the Global AIDS Alliance also stressed the fact that HIV/AIDS disproportionately impacts women and girls. And Dr. Muchina introduced us to the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, a United Nations initiative (http://womenandaids.unaids.org). From Dr. Muchina, I also learned that there are now 15 million orphans due to AIDS, and 12.3 million of them are in Africa. In 2005, 1 million children died from AIDS. I also learned that it is possible to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus with a treatment that costs only $30. Yet only 7% of women currently receive the treatment. This was one of many examples of unrealized potential for prevention.

To learn more about the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, go to www.firelightfoundation.org. Through that webpage, you can get free copies of From Faith to Action: Strengthening Family and Community Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Resource for Faith-Based Groups and Donors Seeking to Help Children and Families Affected by HIV/AIDS. UMCOR is one of twenty-three other organizations that endorsed this excellent publication

From David Gartner of the Global Aids Alliance (www.globalalliance.org), I learned how important education is in AIDS prevention, and I don't mean just AIDS education. The World Bank has gathered data indicating that Ugandan children who make it through primary education have ½ the rate of infection; and those who make it through secondary education have ¼ the rate of infection. The message here is not only to make sure kids stay in school, but to actually waive school fees (like Uganda did) so that poor kids are not prohibited from receiving an education that just might save their lives.

In his remarks during a plenary session, Dr. Cherian Thomas (Executive Secretary of Health & Welfare Ministries for the General Board of Global Ministries) told us about a truck stop in India where prostitutes move from cab to cab while truck drivers take a break from their routes. India now has the highest number of infections of any country in the world. In fact, in its publication, "Mobilizing to End HIV/AIDS Stigma," Church World Service reports that local pastors estimate an infection rate of "25% in some villages" (4). In an effort to slow the spread of the disease one truck at a time, a Norwegian, United Methodist missionary has made this truck stop one of her primary sites for outreach. She moves among the trucks with information and condoms, doing what she can to prevent further transmission.

We also heard from a panel of people living with the virus and working on prevention and treatment in the D.C. area. This was a rich discussion, full of meaningful story-sharing and appropriately challenging comments. For me, the most poignant lesson was this: Never ask how someone got the disease. It simply does not matter, and the question itself is deeply hurtful. What matters is that there are people in our families, classrooms, churches, and communities suffering in silence and fear with a terrible disease. What matters is that after 25 years of familiarity with this disease and the steps necessary to prevent it, infection rates continue to climb. What matters is that people are dying of a preventable illness.

There were many other valuable lessons, meaningful moments, and important data from the conference. I have not even mentioned the powerful sermon by Rev. Dr. Musa Dube of Botswana and the important message from Bishop Machado of Mozambique, let alone all of the helpful information from Bishop Fritz and Etta Mae Mutti, the coordinators of the Global AIDS Fund. However, you can read more about the conference and watch video excerpts of the speeches by going to the UMC webpage. Click on the news archives for September 2006 and look for articles dated September 12. Also, read more about the Global AIDS Fund on the webpage for Global Ministries (http://new.gbgm-umc.org/work/initiatives/aids/globalaidsfund).

In closing, let me return to my opening paragraph to say that I think HIV is our disease in another sense as well. After 25 years of its presence among us - in our families, in our classrooms, in our churches, in our communities - HIV continues to be our dis-ease. For the most part (and I know this generalization does not apply to everyone), our churches and our seminaries are uncomfortable talking openly about HIV/AIDS. This discomfort costs lives, destroys community, and prevents us all from living out commitments to unconditional love and care for those in need. I am proud that the United Methodist Church is raising awareness and funds to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, and I am certain we can all do more.