There's no cure for Aids but religious leaders believe that they may have a faith based strategy to contain the spread of HIV. The Caribbean Conference of Churches along with the National Aids Commission has organized two days of workshops in which the faith communities of Belize will come together to strategies on how best they can help in the fight against Aids. Facilitator is Ainslie Reid of the Caribbean Conference of Churches in Jamaica who is himself a persons living with HIV.
Ainsley Reid,Facilitator
"Today's workshop is really geared to helping pastors to dialogue more on HIV/Aids and to come up with some plan of action that that would see them being engaged more in the response to HIV and Aids in Belize."
Alfonso Noble,
How important is it for the church to be roped into the grander picture of the HIV/Aids pandemic?
Ainsley Reid,
"It is important because the churches are opinion shapers, they are opinion leaders, and in that regard they are able to shape opinions of the communities where they are. They are able to shape the opinions and the beliefs and the position of their congregants. So it's very important for churches to be involved. The church is a leader in the Caribbean and they need to be involved in the shaping of opinion and also in creating some type of leadership because they have a greater outreach in communities.
We need to have out of this workshop faith based leaders creating dialogue, not leader to leader, but leader to congregants because congregants include people living with HIV and Aids so there needs to be that dialogue. We are also hoping that part of that larger picture is a commitment from all the leaders who are participating in the workshop so that together they can commit to work together, to respond to HIV/Aids in a very effective way."
The workshop concludes tomorrow.
