Volume 23 No. 3 | Spring 2013
4
Missionaries launch community campaign to fight HIV/AIDS
in Democratic Republic of Congo
Divine Word Missionaries in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) are taking the fight against HIV/AIDS back
to the grassroots by launching a campaign in their local
communities which aims not only to help those who are
infected, but to prevent infection by educating people in
behavioural change.
Government figures show that almost 1 million people are
living with HIV in the DRC, but efforts to stop the spread of
the virus have met with only limited success.
Br Fabien Fula SVD says the number of new infections
continues to rise.
“In spite of the multiple efforts of the DRC to fight against
this scourge, the results are perceived as meagre or
unsatisfactory,” he says. “That’s the reason why the SVD
province of Congo encouraged us to undertake this
apostolate and fight against HIV/AIDS in order to weed out
this scourge in our population.”
Br Fabien says the pastoral aims of the SVD program are to
reduce the propagation of HIV/AIDS by persuading people
to engage in positive and responsible behaviour; and to
reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS for those living with the
infection by educating patients on effective means of taking
charge of their situation.
He says the objectives of the project are to:
• Sensitise and increase awareness of the vulnerable
groups (the young, military personnel, sex workers)
as to the gravity of the pandemic by providing them
with ‘true information’ about the mode of prevention
and the fight against HIV/AIDS;
• Encourage the population to accept mass AIDS
screening in order to know their serology state, and
thereafter, to behave positively;
• Ensure the medical, psychological and the spiritual
accompaniment of people infected with HIV/AIDS,
to such an extent that they hope in the Lord and live
harmoniously in Him.
• Advocate on behalf of those infected with HIV/
AIDS so that the local community, the public and
private institutions and the national and international
political world accept and respect their rights.
• Set up a community network of support in different
parishes to facilitate the socio-psychological support
of people infected with HIV/AIDS.
In the town of Bandundu, the campaign kicked off by
sending a team of nine local people, including a journalist,
four nurses, a psychologist and three teachers to educators’
training.
“They were all active Christians engaged pastorally in the
parish,” Br Fabien says. “We sent them to Kinshasa, the
capital of DRC to attend a training seminar.
“The first team of animators (the three teachers and
journalist) was trained to be educators regarding HIV/AIDS
and other sexually transmitted diseases.
“The second team (composed of four nurses and a
psychologist) was trained to be well equipped to help
people psychologically who are living with HIV/AIDS. The
aim of their training was also to equip them to train other
people in our parishes in how to provide psychological
support to people living with HIV/AIDS and their families.”
Br Fabien says that in targeting young people for HIV/AIDS
education, they concentrated on Divine Word Missionary
schools, as well as other local schools in Bandundu town
and its surrounds.
