Anglican Communion News Service

The Anglican Church should capitalise on its strengths, and use these to bring people together in order to effect change in the war against HIV/AIDS, according to former first-lady, Graca Machel.

Speaking to delegates and partners at the All Africa Anglican AIDS Conference, in Boksburg today (15th Aug) she added, “These gatherings should be opportunities for educating, informing and bringing about change.”

Mrs. Machel referred to the network of people and resources that the church has in place around the African continent.

“Our communities need the contributions of each one of you – not only as spiritual leaders, but also as mothers, fathers, teachers and facilitators. You have the moral authority to speak and influence change in people’s lives.”

She asked delegates to, “use the networks that already exist as a basis to inform our communities about prevention, and fighting stigma”.

Speaking passionately, and with great eloquence, she touched on issues such as the vulnerability of women and youth, the role of poverty in HIV/AIDS and the need to shift our thinking to see past the horrendous HIV/AIDS statistics to real people.

“Every time you hear a figure or a number, you should imagine a face behind that number. If you yourself have a child between the ages of 15 and 25 I want you to think about him or her now!”

Mrs. Machel called on the church to embrace the vision and commitment needed to make the HIV/AIDS pandemic into simply a disease. “My hope is this: If each one of us commits to communicating a message of prevention to every young or vulnerable person that crosses our path, then we will begin to make a difference in fighting HIV/AIDS.”

“HIV/AIDS is preventable”, she urged, “I cannot stress this enough. We can prevent the spread of this disease!”

Other speakers today included Methodist Archbishop, and head of the South African Council of Churches, Mvume Dandala and the General-Secretary of the World Council of Churches, The Revd Conrad Raiser. The conference is an initiative to find an African solution to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It has attracted international support and is being attended by 130 delegates, representing 34 countries across Africa, as well as donor groups, organisations involved in HIV/AIDS work, government departments, other church groups and pharmaceutical companies.

The Anglican Communion has more than 73 million members in more than 160 countries.