Family Care International Looking for Faith-Based Responses
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Dear Friends,
Hello! Christine Clarkson has asked me to pass this posting
along, and hope you will do the same! There are some folks read-
ing this who I know do work with faith-based groups -- if not
religious leaders themselves -- so hope you will tell your col-
leagues. With many thanks and please contact Christine directly
at: mailto:cclark@familycareintl.org
All best wishes,
Janet Feldman
mailto:kaippg@earthlink.net
Dear List-Serve Members,
We need your help! Family Care International, a US-based inter-
national NGO dedicated to improving women's sexual and reproduc-
tive health and rights, is conducting research to see if and how
religious leaders and organizations, particularly in Kenya and
Tanzania, are working to "mainstream" HIV/AIDS prevention and
sexuality awareness messages into their work. We have come
across many resources, toolkits and other materials to assist
religious leaders and organizations in mainstreaming HIV/AIDS
and sexuality but we have found very few documented examples of
actual work being done by them.
If you're a religious leader (of any denomination) or work with
a religious organization/institution, we would very much appre-
ciate you taking a few minutes to answer the questions below.
Whether you are currently mainstreaming these issues into your
work or not, we would love to hear from you.
Please note that the information we gather from you is ONLY for
internal FCI use and NO personal or organizational information
you provide will be made public at any time.
Please send your answers directly back to me at
mailto:cclark@familycareintl.org
Thank you so much for your time. I look forward to hearing from
you.
Kind regards,
Christine Clark
Family Care International
588 Broadway, Suite 503
New York, NY 10012
mailto:cclark@familycareintl.org
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INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
Your Name:
Your Job Title:
Your Organization/Institution:
Your Religious Denomination:
Would you mind if FCI contacts you in the future to get addi-
tional advice/input on this topic?
QUESTIONS ABOUT MAINSTREAMING HIV/AIDS AND SEXUALITY INTO YOUR
WORK
First, an example of mainstreaming:
In Uganda, imams from 850 mosques are including information
about HIV/AIDS in religious lectures and Friday sermons. Koranic
verses that deal with sexual ethics and integrity are being
widely used in educational campaigns and counselling sessions.
Nearly 7,000 community volunteers have visited more than 100,000
households since 1992 to spread the message about prevention.
(From What Religious Leaders Can Do About HIV/AIDS: Actions for
Children and Young People, UNICEF, New York, 2003. Document can
be found at http://www.unicef.org/aids/Unicef_HIV_Aids.pdf. )
1) What are you and/or your organization doing to mainstream
HIV/AIDS and sexuality awareness into your work as a religious
figure/organization? If nothing, why not?
2) What messages do you send about HIV/AIDS prevention and sexu-
ality? For example, who do you say is at risk for HIV/AIDS? How
do you present sexuality? How do you handle the issue of con-
doms?
3) What do you, as a religious leader/organization, think would
be an effective, non-threatening way to encourage religious
leaders to mainstream HIV/AIDS prevention and sexuality aware-
ness messages into their work?
4) If you have worked with other religious leaders/organizations
to encourage them to include HIV/AIDS and sexuality messages in
their work, how have you done that?