Catholics take campaign to overturn Vatican's opposition to condoms to AIDS Conference

Catholics for a Free Choice took its campaign to overturn the Roman Catholic Church€™s opposition to the use of condoms to the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain, asking attendees to e-mail the Vatican stating their support for condom use as a means of preventing HIV transmission, Agence France-Presse reports.

Church advises Swazi girls on sexual abuse and AIDS

Churches in Swaziland are going beyond their traditional functions as places of religious and social congregation to assist young women. Religious leaders are assuming new activist roles as combatants of child abuse and AIDS.

"Assembly of African Religious Leaders" focus on HIV/AIDS

In June 2002, the World Council of Religion and Peace (WCRP) International facilitated an "Assembly of Religious Leaders" from all over Africa. The Assembly represented the HOPE FOR AFRICAN CHILDREN INITIATIVE (HACI), a community-based pan-African effort created to address the enormous challenges faced by more than 113 million children who have been orphaned by the AIDS pandemic in Africa and the millions more whose parents are sick and dying.

Please support concert in aid of children in crisis

Young orphans of AIDS housed at God's Golden Acre in Cato Ridge, KZN, will be performing in a special production at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall on Wednesday 2 October 2002 at 7 p.m.

Imams trained in campaign against HIV/AIDS

A three-day seminar organised by the Centre National de Lutte contre le SIDA (CNLS) concluded on Friday in the city of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), with the aim of training 60 Islamic religious leaders as HIV/AIDS educators.

SCIENCE AND SPIRIT: Uniting in the struggle against HIV/AIDS

The first of a series of seminars convened to forge firm links between KwaZulu-Natal's religious leaders and HIV/AIDS medical researchers in response to the epidemic was held at Durban's Jewish Club this week. Co-hosted by HIVAN (Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking) from Natal University and the Interfaith AIDS Forum of the World Council of Religion and Peace (WCRP), the seminar focused discussion on the ethics of AIDS vaccine trials and prevention of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV.

Rights and responsibilities - prisoners and HIV/AIDS

A Memorial Prayer Day for prisoners who have died of and are living with HIV/AIDS, hosted by the SA Prisoners' Organisation for Human Rights (SAPOHR), was held at the Westville Prison in October 2002. Executive Director of SAPOHR, Derrick Mdluli, described the event as an opportunity for those who care not only to commemorate the AIDS-related deaths of inmates, but also to pray for those infected and affected in their communities.

HIV/AIDS - the price our children pay

In recognition of 6 November being International Children's Day, we have republished, with kind permission, three items featured in the October/November 2002 edition of ChildrenFIRST Journal (Vol 6 No. 45), each with a specific focus on children and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Catholics and condoms - the debate continues

The ongoing debate around the Catholic Church's ban on the use of condoms resurfaced this week after a Catholic bishop publicly repeated his view that the Church should permit the use of condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS.

Tanzanian Muslim leaders praised for leading by example

Senior Muslim figures from around Tanzania who recently underwent voluntary HIV tests were praised this week by health officials for "leading by example, rather than just talking about what people should do".