Zambia’s Care and Compassion Program Involves Religious Leaders

LUSAKA, Zambia — Zambia’s religious and traditional leaders have joined together under a new program to promote care, support, and compassion for persons living with HIV/AIDS. Effectively mobilizing religious and community groups is the foundation of a new program called the Care and Compassion Movement in Zambia, where about 1.6 million people are living with the virus that causes AIDS. The Care and Compassion Movement is designed to engage Zambia’s religious and community groups to get passionately involved in all efforts directed at halting further spread of HIV/AIDS and efficiently managing the present level of infection through promotion of greater care and compassion.

The Care and Compassion Movement is supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It is being implemented by the Health Communication Partnership (HCP) in collaboration with the Zambian Ministry of Health, the National AIDS Council, and the Zambia Interfaith Networking Group on HIV/AIDS (ZINGO).

More than 700 religious leaders and members of their congregations, mosques, and temples from Christian, Muslim, Bahai, and Hindu faiths participated in a launch event held in October 2005.  Seven leaders of the religious mother bodies in Zambia (Christian, Muslim, Bahai and Hindu) signed a declaration calling on all religious and community leaders to make the formation of care and support groups a priority. They also strongly condemned all forms of stigma, discrimination, and isolation against persons living with the disease in their churches, mosques, and communities and called on all Zambians to go for counseling and testing.

A song titled “It’s not over till God says so” sung in English and seven local languages by 13 local musicians was also introduced at the event. Television and radio spots, posters, and brochures carrying messages of hope, care, and compassion that will support educational activities nationwide were also displayed.

HCP is a global communication initiative based at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development, Save the Children, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, and Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

For more information, contact Kim Martin at kmartin@jhuccp.org or 410 659-6140.

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