The clerics have a religion to spread, but the state has a responsibility to
save lives.  With what HIV/AIDS has done and will continue to do in Africa,
it baffles me why folks come preaching abstinence to us.  If those that
claimed celibacy cannot keep that promise, how on earth can the Church come
to us with abstinence when Africans are dying in droves from this scourge?
When the Church is willing to spend some of the billions they're sitting on
to find a cure for HIV/AIDS, then we can talk.  However, it is irresponsible
of any Government or people to entertain concepts such as abstinence in the
face of HIV/AIDS.  If folks are murdered for committing certain crimes and
others still commit those same crimes, why would any think that the us of
"Effective Behavior Change Techniques" can spare Gambians?  Folks are going
to do that which biology dictates, even with HIV/AIDS present.  Thus, I say
give them condoms to do that which they will do with or without condoms.
Render to the state what belongs to the state.

Chi Jaama

Joe


>From: Amadu Kabir Njie <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fw: Gambia: Condom Campaign Angers Catholic Cleric
>Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 17:20:06 -0500
>
>Gambia: Condom Campaign Angers Catholic Cleric
>
>UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
>NEWS
>September 15, 2004
>Posted to the web September 15, 2004
>Banjul
>
>The Roman Catholic Church has voiced its opposition to the use of condoms
>to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Gambia, challenging a government-
>backed prevention campaign based on the distribution of cheap
>contraceptives to the country's youth.
>
>Father Edward Gomez, a well-known Catholic priest who regularly presents
>discussion programmes on local television, made the church's position clear
>at a workshop on Advocacy and Effective Behavior Change Techniques,
>sponsored by a Catholic youth organization called Gambia Aids Service
>(GAS), in Banjul last week.
>
>"The church does not teach that condoms should be used for the prevention
>of HIV/AIDS or for contraceptive purposes," Father Gomez said.
>
>He advised the Catholic youths to seek more knowledge about their faith and
>its teaching on the issue of HIV/AIDS in order to avoid being "misled by
>public opinion that condoms should be made easily accessible for sex".
>
>The church's reaction against condoms was triggered by an increasingly
>aggressive media campaign launched by the state-sponsored Gambia Social
>Marketing Management Programme. This seeks to put condoms and contraceptive
>pills within easy reach of all sexually active Gambians.
>
>The campaigners have packaged the condoms and pills in chocolate-style
>packs which are sold cheaply under the brand names of "cool" and "kairo".
>
>About 85 percent of the Gambia's 1.3 million population is Muslim, but the
>christian churches still exert a strong social influence in the small West
>African country, especially among its educated elite.
>
>The Gambia has a relatively low HIV infection rate, officially estimated at
>1.6 percent of the population aged between 15 and 49.
>
>However, many humanitarian workers fear that the real HIV prevalence rate
>is much higher because of an increase in the sexual abuse of local
>children.
>
>Gambia has long been linked with sex tourism from Western Europe, but the
>United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a study published in May
>that the main abusers of local children were Gambian males.
>
>It warned that for most of the girls involved, this was just the beginning
>of a downward spiral that often resulted in child pregnancy, clandestine
>abortion, violent abuse, HIV infection and exposure to AIDS.
>
>Between 1986, when the first case of AIDS was reported in Gambia, until
>2001, the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) reported that over 1,500
>people died from AIDS in the country. A further 8,500 people are estimated
>to be living with the HIV virus that eventually causes AIDS.
>
>Father Gomez recognized the reality of the pandemic in Gambia.
>
>"AIDS is real and it exists in our country," he told the Catholic
>youths. "Those who dismiss the virus and disease as American ploys to
>discourage sex are the actual joke."
>
>But the priest, who administers the Roman Catholic cathedral in Banjul,
>pledged that his church would fulfill its responsibility to by providing
>its members with "moral guidance" to protect them from HIV infection.
>
>John Sylva, the director of the Catholic Development Office, proposed an
>alternative interpretation of the ABC AIDS control slogan, which stands
>for "Abstain, Be careful, Condomise."
>
>He recommended that 'C' should simply stand for "Change Behaviour."
>
>
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