At the start of the 1980s, Christian leaders looked with excitement toward the emergence of sub-Sahara Africa as a Christian continent, filled with growing churches and potential missionaries ready to reach the world. But as the 1990s begin, they now look with dismay at Africa as a new and deadly disease radically reshapes the land. In the past five years, AIDS has spread across the continent, touching urban and rural communities, rich and poor alike, wiping out entire generations, and draining precious financial and human resources from countries already struggling to develop.
“AIDS is probably the greatest social disruption that has hit the African continent, certainly in our generation, and possibly in this century,” said Robert Wenninger of Africa Evangelical Fellowship, superintendent of Mukinge Hospital in Kasempa, Zambia, in a recent issue of the missions newsletter Pulse. In some parts of Zambia, one of the hardest-hit countries, more than 20 percent of adults are now infected with the AIDS virus (HIV).
Though the reporting of AIDS cases remains unreliable—and politically sensitive—it is improving. But with greater accuracy have come greater fears. In 1987, World Health Organization (WHO) officials estimated that about 2.5 million adults in Africa were infected. They have now doubled or tripled their figures for many countries. Even cautious estimates place the infection rates of most central African nations above 10 percent, and several—Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia—above 20 percent. (In the U.S., while “high-risk” groups such as gay men and intravenous drug users face similar likelihood of infection, less than 1 percent of American adults overall are believed to be infected.)
Helping AIDS’s Littlest Victims
When AIDS is added to war and famine, already-vulnerable children can become the hardest-hit victims. In Uganda, for example, health officials estimate that between 1 and 3 million children have been orphaned by the deadly combination of AIDS and nearly two decades of civil war.
Ugandan First Lady Janet Moseveni, a woman of deep Christian faith, has taken up the cause of her country’s orphans with a high-profile international campaign. In 1986, Moseveni organized the Uganda Women’s Effort to Save the Orphans (UWESO), which has concentrated on food, housing, education, and foster parenting for the children. Earlier this year, UWESO began construction of a model village that will house orphans. In Moseveni’s vision, the village will not be a traditional orphanage, but rather a family setting where five to seven children will share a housing unit with a “mother-like” caretaker.
“We are trying to make this more personal, so that these children grow up like other children in families and feel that they belong there,” Moseveni told CHRISTIANITY TODAY during a recent visit to the U.S. She would like to see other villages constructed for orphans all over her country. But first, she said, income-generating projects need to be developed so that the villages can become self-sufficient.
Moseveni’s efforts have been aided in the U.S. by the support of a group of congressional wives led by Janet Hall, wife of Rep. Tony Hall (D-Ohio), and Carolyn Wolf, wife of Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.). Five of the wives traveled to Uganda last spring and have since worked to raise American awareness about the situation plaguing central Africa. “If we can come alongside them with our money, our spiritual support, and our prayers, that will be the best way to enable them to do what they know best to do for their own people,” Hall said.
Lost Generation
“Risk groups are irrelevant” in Africa, says Richard Goodgame, a missionary physician who worked in Uganda for eight years. The estimated five million-plus cases of HIV infection now touch virtually every segment of society. The disease has been transmitted primarily through heterosexual intercourse, spread by promiscuity, prostitution, and the constant movement of workers from one area to another. It was only three or four years ago that testing of blood supplies began.
Venereal diseases, also widespread throughout Africa, have made transmission of AIDS easier, doctors say. And AIDS runs its course more quickly among African victims. Recently, public-health officials have linked outbreaks of tuberculosis with AIDS infection.
One of the most devastating effects of the AIDS epidemic on African culture is the disintegration of the traditional family. In many AIDS-infected communities, the extended family—the backbone of societal structure—has lost its middle generation. Elderly Africans, usually cared for by their children, are forced to assume primary responsibility for their orphaned grandchildren (see “The Littlest Victims”).
Given the extent of the spread of AIDS, churches in Africa have most certainly been touched. Yet discussion of the problem and a response to it are generally lacking in the church, just as in many segments of society. “There is a void of information [about AIDS] in the Christian community,” said Debbie Dortzbach of MAP International.
One recent study, conducted by a sociologist at Uganda’s Makerere University, found that while all 40 of the Church of Uganda clergymen contacted had heard about AIDS, and almost all had spoken of it from the pulpit, their actual knowledge about the disease and its transmission was poor. Only one-fifth could name HIV as the cause; less than a third could name at least two methods of transmission (though all named sexual contact as one).
Offering Answers
The churches’ general lack of resources has prevented most of them from developing education and social-service ministries to deal with AIDS. But there are exceptions. In Zimbabwe, the Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT), begun by 20 ministers in 1987, provides education and counseling in churches, schools, and businesses. Preaching a message of Christian compassion and prevention by strong moral standards, FACT organized 120 meetings attended by 12,000 people. Fear and lack of information about AIDS have opened some doors wide for Christian involvement.
In Uganda, which has dealt with AIDS most openly, missionary physician Goodgame helped develop a tract that provides medical information and biblical guidelines for living. With government support, 2 million copies have been printed in 12 languages. Still, counseling about AIDS remains controversial because of cultural beliefs. “Many believe that diseases can be caused by someone,” Goodgame said, “and if you know about a disease, you may be viewed as an accomplice.”
The situation has placed medical missionaries in a difficult position. They often risk alienating their host countries by disseminating sensitive information and statistics, says David Sorley, a physician at Mathere Valley Baptist Dispensary in Kenya. They also face decisions of how to allocate their limited resources among the growing number of AIDS patients and the multitude of other medical cases.
While some observers say churches thus far have been spared the devastating effects AIDS has brought upon other parts of society, all agree that the church will not be able to avoid the issue much longer. With only a few exceptions, rates of infection continue to rise in most areas, according to WHO. And none can speculate what the economic, social, and spiritual impact of another decade of AIDS will be.
