KAMPALA – Youth leaders have challenged religious leaders to desist from misleading people living with HIV/AIDS, especially young people by advising them to stop taking medication.
Speaking at post-world AIDS Day intergenerational dialogue with religious leaders on the prevention of the three intersectional crises of GBV, Teenage Pregnancies, and HIV prevention among young people, the youth said they are disappointed with the manner some clergymen were misleading people living with HIV/AIDS by ill-advising them to stop taking medication.
Vallery Chemusto, a youth advocate under the Every Hour Matter, an SHR arrangement said that some of these members of the clergy are weakening the fight against HIV/ AIDS because of misinforming patients that only taking anointing water and not medication would heal them.
Many Pentecostal churches in Kampala invite the afflicted to be cured.
Chemusto said that several young people living with HIV/AIDS have died after they stopped taking life-saving antiretroviral medicines in the belief that God had healed them after prayers with pastors.
“When it comes to HIV, some religious leaders are giving wrong information, because the fact that instead of them, telling people who are HIV positive to take their medication, instead, they tell them that you know what, we can pray about it,” she said. “Praying isn’t bad. It’s a very good thing to pray about it, but we should give them the correct information and let them take their medicine, and remember, if you take your medicine you’ll be very okay. You’ll be very healthy and everything will be in place”.
She added that although the Church was against the use of condoms, protection measures should be recommended when one party of a couple planning to marry was found to be HIV-positive and still wanted to go ahead with the marriage.
Mr. Charles Tumwebaze Ganza, the Chairperson Board of Directors for the African Youth and Adolescents Network (AFRIYAN-Uganda) which co-organised the dialogue said religious leaders in Uganda are of significant importance in the fight against HIV because of the power they hold.
He said that engagements like this are particularly important since they help sector players to equip religious leaders with the right information to pass on to their congregants.
“We know that religious leaders are people that hold power in a way; they are people that are believed in a lot and so when they say do this, everyone in the church or the mosque will do that. So that’s why we have these conversations because these are key stakeholders in everything that we do,” Mr. Tumwebaze said.
He said it dangerous that some categories of religious leaders were giving unverified and contradicting reports against HIV/AIDS, noting that dialogues like this are particularly important since they create an open and inclusive space for dialogue between youth and religious leaders for a mutual understanding of the challenges faced by young people.
Ms. Praise Mwesiga, the Programs Manager, Uganda Youths and Adolescents Health Forum, and a member of AFRIYAN-Uganda urged religious leaders to keep the private information of young people confidential.
“From the different engagements with the young people, one of the things they always talk about is the judgments they receive, but also finding that information they speak to the different stakeholders, including religious leaders is not kept confidential,” Mwesiga said, urging stakeholders, including religious leaders to ensure that they keep the information that young people discuss with them private and confidential.
That’s the only way that young people can keep opening up to them. Because if they do not, if they don’t keep it confidential, then they cannot open up to them. They’re opening up because they believe you’re going to give them a solution. And so of course, that’s why we ensure that in advocacy, we ensure that the stakeholders do keep confident the confidentiality, bit of information that young people, share with them”.
Mr. Fred Makubuya, a church leader for Banda Martyrs, Church of Uganda in Kamuli Parish under Namirembe diocese said most congregants fail to contextualize the message their religious leaders preach to them.
“I believe in prayer. I know that prayer is a fundamental aspect of the spiritual world, however, I think it’s important that we contextualize the message. Many times when we preach the congregants fail to contextualize the message that we share with them,” Mr. Makubuya said, noting that “so sometimes they move out with different information”.
He also urged congregants to have their way of perceiving life.
“I can tell you, that there are many things that shape the perceptions of individuals, some people are professionally shaped, others are shaped spiritually, others are shaped cognitively. So if you cannot be in a position to develop your perception about life, then many times you’re getting to a church, carrying the message. If you can’t understand it, then at the end of the day, you go out with the wrong message. So it’s important that even Christians must come to a point of being in a position to know that this message works for me or this message doesn’t work for me,” he said without denying the accusations made against clergymen.
