Posts
To combat HIV/AIDS stigma in
African-American churches, black pastors are educating their congregations
using a new 61-page NAACP activity manual and an intervention program called
“TIPS: Taking It to the Pews.”
In Alabama, TIPS is operated through
the Alabama Council on Substance Abuse under its “Turning Point” project,
funded through the Minority AIDS Initiative. “Turning Point came about because
there was an increase of new HIV cases in Montgomery County and Alabama,” said
Kwatasian Hunt, its project manager. Eleven churches have presented the TIPS
program to their congregations; Hunt said about one in three churches offered
the programming accepts it.
A target population is
African-American women and their sexual partners. In 2009, black women
accounted for 30 percent of new HIV infections among blacks - more than 15
times the rate for white women, according to CDC.
Some of the behaviors associated
with HIV/AIDS make it difficult to bring up such a “taboo subject” in Southern
churches, said Marxavian Jones with Montgomery AIDS Outreach.
The Rev. Benjamin Jones of St. James
Missionary Baptist Church said his congregation has come to accept discussing
HIV, although “it was a little shock to some of the older members” that their
pastor would broach the subject.
Pastor Tony Peoples of Love Center
Church has a younger congregation, so he uses modern technology to convey AIDS
education, including statistics in texts. As a result of TIPS, many of the
congregants have had HIV tests. “Many of them just didn’t know HIV was that
prevalent,” Peoples said.
Shavon Arline-Bradley, NAACP’s
director of health programs, helped oversee the manual’s creation. “People look
at us as just civil rights, and what they’re missing is that health is one of
the most pressing civil rights issues of our time,” she said.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
