Morals and messaging in the fight against HIV/AIDS

"We need to seek moral positions rather than to be moralists," said David Harrison, CEO of the loveLife anti-AIDS campaign, "starting where young people are at - and not where we expect them to be." Harrison was addressing an HIV/AIDS researchers and religious leaders' forum held in Durban during March 2003, co-hosted by the World Council on Religion and Peace (WCRP) and the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking (HIVAN).

Based on the recognition of the vital role that FBOs fulfill in educating and empowering communities in their daily struggle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the WCRP HIVAN Forum series was created in 2002 to facilitate engagement between religious leadership and HIV/AIDS researchers in constructive debate and discussion, to learn from one another, to clarify myths and misconceptions and to prioritise areas for future research and interventions within communities.

The focus of this session was on effective communication and the nature of contextualised messaging, particularly to the youth of our country. It was chaired by Pandit T S Maharaj, with guest speakers Bishop Purity Malinga and Cardinal Wilfred Napier representing the Moral Regeneration Movement, and Professor Lyn Dalrymple of the University of Zululand's DramAIDe project as discussant.

Harrison expressed his essential theme by submitting that "Real morality lies in saving the most lives, but if we polarise the debate between abstinence and safe sex, we do not address the underlying causes of the high risk behaviour that increases infection rates." He presented an overall statistical picture of HIV prevalence in South Africa, indicating that whilst the levels of infection were stabilising, this was occurring within catastrophic dimensions.

"Even the projections of peak prevalence are frighteningly high," Harrison said. "The maturing epidemic is still an unclosed tap, with the cumulative probability of a 15-year-old female becoming infected during the next decade being 15%." He also cited the drivers of high risk behaviour as being coercion, peer pressure, sex-for-money, low self-esteem, pessimism, lack of parental communication, poverty and low educational levels. "We've got to stop these large numbers of young people from becoming infected," he stressed.

According to loveLife's self-reported survey results, sexual debut amongst South African youth is occurring between the age-groups of 12 and 17 years. About half the sexually active teenagers polled say that they have had more than one sexual partner, and it is evident that the younger the individual, the less likely it is that condoms are being used, largely due to the fact that these encounters tend to be either coerced or forced.

Harrison explained that loveLife's goal is to effect a 20% shift in risk, and that this could be achieved by raising the age of sexual debut, increasing condom use and promoting monogamy as a safe sex practice. "We believe that this would result in a rapid drop in infection rates," he said, "and that within this perspective, we can view the current risk profile as providing us with opportunities to address some of the underlying issues directly."

Harrison urged those present, both as faith-leaders and as parents, to support parental communication with children and youth in the form of frank discussions about sex in general, romantic relationships and the facts about HIV/AIDS. "This is why loveLife has structured its national communication campaign to exploit the most influential vehicles of messaging to young people: TV and radio, magazines, chats with friends and discussions with teachers." loveLife's surveys reflected that while parents do discuss dreams and aspirations with their children, these interactions were not covering enough ground to help change behaviour in the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

He explained that the key trends influencing the experiences and outlook of contemporary urban youth were globalisation and social fragmentation, the phenomenon of "growing older at a younger age", and the desire to look beautiful and "be cool" according to current health and image paradigms. "The youth of today want to co-create the messages being communicated," he said, "rather than having images and identities imposed upon them, especially poor imitations of well-known brands." These are the factors that underpin loveLife's country- wide franchised multi-media strategy of billboard messages, "Y-Centres", "Groundbreaker" games, tours and train-campaigns as springboards for action around HIV/AIDS. "Chill-rooms" were being established within health clinics in order to promote a more youth-friendly environment, and training for a youth leadership corps of 18 to 25-year-old peer educators was being provided in marginalised communities. The tours, games and train initiatives were being linked with TV and radio broadcasts to roll out peer education via the "Groundbreaker" teams.

Harrison's view was that much common ground exists between faith-based organisations and other sectors in terms of a commitment to steering youth choices towards positive lifestyles and family values, in order to ensure an effective public health system in South Africa. "We in loveLife ask that faith leaders understand the bold moves inherent in our efforts, rather than feel threatened by them," he said.

Methodist Bishop Purity Malinga responded by saying that for Christians, the principles of abstinence and being faithful within marriage constituted a model framework for sexual morality, and so these messages were being preached actively by their leadership. "Most Christians won't or can't promote condom usage," she explained, noting that this topic is not covered specifically in Christian scriptures. "However, there are some Christians who do support the use of condoms in order to protect the sanctity of human life in the face of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases."

"As a parent and religious leader," she continued, "I am concerned about the essence of some of the loveLife messages, although at the Methodist Church National Conference in 2001, the church did agree to work with loveLife. I feel strongly that what we say to our youth is as important as having the conversation - and some of the loveLife advertisements seem to over-promote condom use, as if abstinence and fidelity are not options."

Bishop Malinga concluded that the church should take up the challenge to engage more effectively with youth on these issues, both from the pulpit and on the ground, by developing closer connections with them and tackling topics like gender inequity and the abuse of women and children more rigorously.

For the full write-up in MSWord, and David Harrison's PowerPoint presentation (read in WinZip), click on the links in the right-hand column.