[CCIH-AIDS] Educating and engaging church leaders in Vietnam to address AIDS

[MartinRS at aol.com]

For CCIH-AIDS readers interested in how local churches engage with their  
country's efforts to fight AIDS, we share a report from Vietnam, shared with  
CCIH by Bob Vitillo, the point person for AIDS at Caritas Internationalis in  
Geneva.
 
 
VIETNAM  Religious Learn About HIV And Sexuality To Fight  HIV And AIDS 
Epidemic


Union of Catholic Asian News, 19/08/2008
 
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (UCAN) -- The Church in Vietnam is trying to  
enhance the awareness of local Religious about HIV and AIDS so that they can  more 
appropriately support patients and help communities fight the  epidemic.
 
The stakes are high. Across the country every day, says the government  
health ministry, 100 new people are infected with HIV and 40 die from  AIDS.
 
The Church effort was boosted last month when 160 men and women Religious  
from 36 congregations and institutions all over Vietnam attended a workshop on  
Enhancing Abilities to Cope with HIV Epidemic and Improving Knowledge of 
Applied  Sexology. It was conducted July 28-30 at Paul Nguyen Van Binh Pastoral 
Center in  Ho Chi Minh city, 1,710 kilometers south of Ha Noi.
 
The Commission for Charitable and Social Actions of the Vietnam Bishops'  
Conference and the Paul Nguyen Van Binh Club co-organized the workshop. Members  
of the club named for the late archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City are priests,  
Religious and Catholic intellectuals who study local Church issues.
 
The workshop presented facts about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)  
and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) to which HIV often leads, as well 
 as how to treat HIV and AIDS patients and protect women from infection.
 
Other topics included reducing discrimination against HIV and AIDS  patients, 
Church-run programs for HIV and AIDS prevention, negative effects  facing 
couples who have premarital sex and pastoral activities for HIV and AIDS  
patients. A dozen priests and Catholic medical doctors addressed the  workshop.
 
Sister Teresa Vu Thi Sang of the Ha Noi-based Lovers of the Holy Cross told  
UCA News that HIV and AIDS patients and their families are separated from  
community activities by their neighbors. Aside from not visiting HIV and AIDS  
patients, local people do not invite patients' families to the weddings of their 
 children, Sister Sang added. Local Catholics also do not dare to go to pray 
at  the homes of people who have died of AIDS for fear of getting infected.
 
The nun works with HIV and AIDS patients in the capital and heads a group  
providing HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention to young people in  
marriage-preparation courses and to Religious at their retreats.
 
According to Dominican Father Paul Nguyen Thai Hop, head of the club, the  
workshop was designed to enhance HIV/AIDS knowledge among local Religious so  
that they can serve patients well and help communities prevent the  epidemic.
 
Father Hop told UCA News the workshop was "necessary for local Religious  who 
have little knowledge of HIV and AIDS." He hopes workshop participants will  
share their newly gained knowledge, especially with young parishioners.  
Ignorance about the disease results in many young people becoming infected, he  
added, so "HIV and AIDS knowledge should be taught at catechism classes."
 
Doctor Anthony Bui Duy Luat, who presented basic background about HIV and  
AIDS, told UCA News that Vietnam officially had 149,989 people living with HIV  
and AIDS as of March 31, but the real number may be higher since many patients 
 do not dare go to health centers for medical tests.
 
He also said that 60 percent of those people became infected with HIV by  
drug use involving needles used by others and 30 percent via sex workers.
 
Luat has been providing HIV knowledge for priests, Religious and  seminarians 
of many dioceses and congregations for three years. In his view,  many 
priests and Religious know too little of the disease to even discuss it  with people.
 
Some priests, the doctor noted, think HIV is transmitted by mosquito bites,  
while others refuse to administer last rites to patients for fear of 
infection.  Some priests, he added, do not allow people with HIV to receive Communion 
or  have their coffins placed in the church for burial services.
 
Luat said he is encouraged to notice that many priests and Religious who  
attend Church-run courses on HIV and AIDS have changed their attitudes. They go  
on to visit patients and ask lay Catholics to serve the infected, he said.
 
Precious Blood of Christ Brother Jean Vianney Nguyen Huu Loi, who joined  
such a workshop for the first time, told UCA News he will use what he learned in  
marriage-preparation classes he teaches at Hoa Hung parish where he  serves.
 
According to Father Hop, in the future the Church in Vietnam will hold  
courses and present talks on sex education, living skills, parental skills and  
ethnic values for young people and parents in  dioceses.




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