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23rd
July, 2004
MANUEL
QUINTERO
| According to the leaders
of the research, Dr. Reimer Gronemeyer and Dr. Georgia Rakelmann,
faith offered them emotional security and “provides,
in a metaphorical sense, the affected with a second immune
system.”
Consequently, “they are more likely to live positively
and cope with the emotional pressure that goes with fear,
marginalization and stigma.” |
Namibia
is a country devastated, not by civil war or ethnic and religious
conflicts, but by an increasing mortality linked to AIDS. Today
over 230,000 people in the south-west African nation - 22 percent
of the total population - live with HIV and AIDS. The average life
expectancy continues to decline.
In a country where 80 percent of the population is Christian - the
largest percentage in Africa - and the rest of the population following
traditional religions, religious beliefs have become a key factor
for Namibians to cope with the epidemic.
That is the conclusion of a research carried out between 2001 and
2003 by specialists from the Institute of Sociology of the University
of Giessen, Germany, whose results were presented at the International
AIDS Conference in Bangkok. The study took place in the rural region
of Ovamboland, where nearly half of the country’s population
lives.
“People who have a strong faith are less likely to blame others
for their infection. Only God is seen as having the authority to
judge,” the study indicates, based on qualitative interviews
with 95 families who have a member living with HIV and AIDS.
Because of this attitude, the fact that infections are caused by
individuals becomes less important, and there is an extraordinary
high frequency of reconciliation in families and in the communities.
Faith also plays a significant role in the acceptance of physical
harm and death through AIDS. “Everything comes from God, so
just take it”, is a common attitude.
This kind of fatalism provides people with what researchers defined
as “a certain sedation in the face of the presumably painful
future that is part of AIDS illness”.
According to the leaders of the research, Dr Reimer Gronemeyer and
Dr Georgia Rakelmann, faith offered them emotional security and
“provides, in a metaphorical sense, the affected with a second
immune system.”
Consequently, “they are more likely to live positively and
cope with the emotional pressure that goes with fear, marginalization
and stigma.”
This
report was first published as part of the coverage of the 15th International
AIDS conference by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (www.e-alliance.ch).
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AIDS STUDY: THE DIFFERENCE FAITH IN GOD CAN MAKE