UISG Nouvelles

First of all I would like to thank the Assembly for the invitation to illustrate briefly the Aids Project which inaugurated the work of the Health Commission. This project can be said to be the fruit of the Meeting on Religious Life in 2004 in which we saw that one of the prophetic signs of our times is a greater collaboration between our Institutes.

A decision was made to give priority to HIV/AIDS and consequently a group for this particular work was nominated (The AIDS Group). The decision arose from the gravity of the pandemic as well as the awareness of the great commitment of religious who have faced up to this situation from the beginning. We have responded to this tragedy by our commitment to the sick and to their families, by developing health programmes, by giving support and by setting up preventive health initiatives. In many cases these initiatives have spread to other countries and have offered models of intervention on a large scale. However, we also have to recognise some limitations, the first of which is our rather disconnected way of working. We are now being called upon to collaborate with all our strength in the fight against AIDS. The first step is to overcome the lack of connectedness that exists among us in order to build up a network with the Organisations that are involved at various levels right up to the big international Organisations. As a result we decided to accept the challenge of collaboration and to present an “AIDS Project” whose general aim would be to improve the vitality we have shown in response to the pandemic and to make it more visible. We decided to begin with a census of our activities world-wide in relation to this, to help us understand scientifically and accurately how much work we already do, the gaps in what we do and the difficulties we encounter and to make suggestions for improvement.

The first step was a meeting of religious already working in various HIV/AIDS projects in Rome from 12^th – 14^th December 2005. Two representatives from UNAIDS and the Rev. Bob Vitillo of Caritas Internationalis were also present. During the three days we examined the global situation of the pandemic in the world. We shared theological and ethical reflections, we looked at examples of concrete programmes carried out by religious, and we drew up a “Concept Paper” as well as planning the way we would carry out the census.

The next step was to send out the questionnaire through UISG and USG to the Superiors General and through them to Provincial Superiors and superiors of communities, in order to collect the necessary data.

To date we have received more than 600 replies, not really a very large number in respect of all the religious communities which are involved in this field, but enough to carry out a serious study on the impact of our work. I would like to encourage you to a further participation: the big Organisations are particularly interested in interacting with us and we have something to say, something which has authority because it does not come out of theoretical deliberations but from real life situations in which we share with the people who suffer. We walk alongside people, families and youth through the tragedy of HIV and AIDS; we know their fears, their real needs, their anguish and their hopes. We have the right and also the duty to present these to the “big people” and, in a very real sense, to become a “bridge” between the poor and those who can help, to become involved so that the economic resources which are available may be directed to those who need them. We cannot imagine that we are able to sustain our very long-term projects simply with our own resources. We need to get to the point of having greater access to these funds and we need to get there together!

At the opening of the United Nations Special Meeting on HIV and Aids In June 2006, the then Secretary General, Kofi Annan, said,

“25 years have passed since the world first heard of HIV/AIDS. Looking back that “age of innocence” – if I may put it that way – seems to belong not only to a different time, but to a different world. Since then, HIV/AIDS has unfolded along a pattern we tend to see only in nightmares. It has spread further, faster and with more catastrophic long-term effects than any other disease. Its impact has become a devastating obstacle to the progress of humankind.”

Let us summarise the magnitude of this frightening pandemic and its impact on the human family:

§         According to the statistics published by UNAIDS, at the end of 2006 there were 39.5 million people living with the virus. 4.3 million were infected in the course of the year, 2.9 million died and of these 2.1 million in Africa.

§         This means that every day there are 11,000 new infections, 1500 of whom are children under 15 years of age; and 8,000 dead.

§         The greatest incidence of HIV is still in developing countries (95%). This illness afflicts mainly young people and 50% are women. This means 15 million orphans!

§         Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected in the world. A little over ten percent of the world’s population lives in this area but more than 64% of all the people living with the virus are here. (24.7 million) Three quarters of HIV positive women live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

§         The greater part of the epidemic seems to arrive later in Asia and the Pacific. However, the experts are very worried for what seems to be emerging in this area where the population density is high. The prevalence is growing in China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and India.

§         Central and Eastern Europe are also experiencing a worrying situation.

§         The Caribbean is the second most affected region.

§         In the Middle East and North Africa, even though the incidence is low, the data show that it is growing.

§         In countries with high economic resources people infected with the virus live longer and maintain a better quality of life because they have access to medication. However, a higher number of women are becoming infected in these countries as well as a higher number of dark-skinned people and those who are poor or live on the margins. It seems the disease is again on the increase among homosexual men.

However important the statistics, it is important that we be aware of the impact of HIV on social life and development. What we are seeing are the effects of HIV: premature loss of human life and of technical expertise, of knowledge and culture, the destruction of families, millions of orphans, and a lack of respect for human rights. Economic and social development is in decline as is health care; there is a marked reduction in life expectancy, a slowing of economic growth, greater poverty and an increase of food shortages.

However the roots are to found at the social, cultural and all kinds of levels: in situations that debase human dignity, including structural injustice, prejudice, a lack of distributive justice, all kinds of inequality, sexual abuse, human trafficking and sexual commerce, little commitment to the education of children and young people and especially of girls. As well as all this there are extremely poor living conditions, malnutrition, very little decision-making power for women and girls, inadequate sanitation, the lack of work opportunities and recreational facilities for the youth…All of this provides a fertile ground for the transmission and development of the illness.

We religious are present among the people who suffer: in our schools we are with the young people, in our pastoral activities we are everywhere. We are very involved too in advocacy, in Justice and Peace activities, in theological reflection, but in these places we have to be even more present. I believe we have something to say, for example, about the ethics of access to medicines and the ethics of human life, beginning with the ethics of sexuality, not based so much on the negative but rather on positive values. We have something to say against stigma and discrimination and against silence and the denial of the epidemic in many countries. In places where everything is concentrated on the medical we can stimulate a greater commitment to prevention.

We religious women have something to say about its feminisation which springs from the constant inequality and exploitation of women.

The areas in which we can act are many and I would say that there is room for the expression of all of our charisms. This terrible epidemic is a new call for each of our Congregations, born of the heart of God and born of the compassion and proximity of God towards suffering and needy humankind. For us as consecrated women this is also a call to redirect the fire of our charity for the benefit of women and girls in particular.

Our project has brought about our participation in several international meetings. We were invited to these meetings because it is considered an interesting and a particularly promising step forward in the fight against AIDS, both on the part of UNAIDS and other International Organisations, and on the part of African Bishops who are slowly coming to know us. We have attended meetings in Geneva, Toronto, Nairobi and Rome. We will attend further meetings in the next few months. George Town University in Washington is collating the information we have received through the questionnaires and we hope to have the initial results soon. We see that as we take part in various meetings the network expands and opportunities for collaboration appear. It would be opportune for other Congregations to free people to carry on and expand this work and explore new areas of work.

I feel it is important to keep in mind a key concept: that we welcome even those things that challenge us, such as interaction with big organisations, so that we can speak out, so that we can suggest ideas according to our way of thinking and be there in those places where policies are made. And so let us overcome our fear of confrontation for the sake of many poor people. The dialogue which has been opened up with some of the big Organisations is promising and we hope it can be strengthened. Let us intensify the collaboration between our Religious Institutes, as we wrote in the Concept paper, so that we can learn the best strategies from one another and above all so that we can be faithful to the passion for Christ and for humankind which has always animated and guided the choices we make. Over the years these choices have led religious men and women to act prophetically as they took the roads less travelled.

Rome 09/01/07