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Some 5.5 million South Africans are infected with HIV. (Reuters)
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WINDHOEK — Three major Muslim organizations are
joining hands in catering for the different needs of destitute HIV
positive Muslim women and children in the South African capital.
"We can no longer hide. The idea that AIDS
should not be there just because we are Muslims has been overtaken by
the hard reality," Suriaya Nawab, the director of Care Center
told IslamOnline.net.
"Residents are provided with a home, food,
clothing, medication, a caring, hygienic environment, psycho-social
support and counseling."
The center, headquartered in Johannesburg’s
predominantly Muslim suburb of Mayfair, is run by the Muslim AIDS
Program (MAP).
It currently houses eight children and five women,
including Riana Jacobs, one of the two Muslims women in South Africa
to speak publicly about their HIV status.
Almost all the women residents have been identified
through the Islamic Careline, a confidential counseling service.
MAP, a non-governmental organization operating on a
national, provincial and community level, is a joint project of the
Jamiatul Ulama (the Council of Muslim Scholars), Islamic Careline and
the Islamic Medical Association.
In what can be described as a true meaning of smart
partnership, the Jamiatul Ulama attends to the residents' spiritual
needs; the Islamic Careline caters for the emotional sphere through
its counseling services and a monthly support group; and the Islamic
Medical Association has a group of doctors on call to deal with health
issues.
MAP seeks to sensitize, mobilize and equip Muslim
communities to become involved in AIDS prevention, using a value-based
approach.
It also hopes to mobilize and equip Muslim
communities to become involved in the care and support of those
infected or affected by AIDS.
MAP’s objectives also include offering AIDS
education based on moral values (abstinence before marriage and
faithfulness within marriage) to the broader community; and
implementing a comprehensive life-skills program for Muslim youth so
that they can make Islamically motivated choices for their future.
Accepted
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Piot believes Africans' increasing openness about AIDS is helping turn the tide against the epidemic.
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The benefit of enrolling at the Care Center is that
destitute women and children who are HIV positive can be cared for and
feel accepted, said Nawab.
"Obviously, there's no cure for HIV, but we
feel that if they live healthily in all the spheres, they'll live
longer and be part of society again," she believes.
Nawab insists that the center's residents are not
being stigmatized.
"The center assists in fighting stigma
associated with being HIV positive by creating awareness in the
community, and by treating people living with AIDS with dignity and
integrity."
She added: "The Qur'an clearly states that we
shouldn't judge. It teaches us to be compassionate and we are not
asking them to tell us how they got the disease."
In efforts to de-stigmatize, on the Care Center’s
grounds an HIV-positive couple from Soweto, South Africa’s oldest
former black only township, can be seen weeding and watering the
flower beds.
Africans' increasing openness about HIV/AIDS is
helping turn the tide against the epidemic, Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS,
said on Wednesday.
The UN official said he was seeing more Africans go
public with their HIV-positive status, key to reversing the social
stigma that continues to be one of the deadliest elements of Africa's
AIDS crisis.
Community Efforts
MAP has been operating for over nine years, but the
Care Center was opened three years ago after one of its counselors
discovered that an HIV-positive woman she was counseling had been
abandoned by her husband and could not find a shelter that also
catered for the religious needs of herself and her son.
After the woman's death, a plea was made to the
South African Muslim community to step in and assist its fellow
brothers and sisters who were also being caught in the vicious cycle
of the disease.
The Care Center is housed in a building donated by
a Johannesburg businessman and renovated by the Muslim community.
What catches one’s attention when visiting the
Care Center is the absence of some distinction from other buildings in
the area.
There is no sign outside to distinguish the center
from other houses.
South Africa has one of the highest HIV prevalence
rate in sub-Saharan Africa, with some 5.5 million people infected with
HIV.
A recent informal survey conducted by Positive
Muslims, a youth organization based in the coastal town of Cape Town,
shows that every doctor contacted in traditionally Muslim areas, had
dealt with Muslims who were HIV positive.
One doctor who is based in Cape Town’s Walmer
Estate said he was dealing with fifteen Muslim cases at present, most
of them married women in the thirties and upward.
"The reality is that HIV/AIDS is here in our
community and at all levels," says Positive Muslims.
