Michelle Loubon

Dur­ing the Christ­mas sea­son, peo­ple reach out to the less for­tu­nate, ill and down­trod­den cit­i­zens with an in­creased out­pour­ing of love, sup­port and com­pas­sion.

They come bear­ing gifts; es­pe­cial­ly toys for the chil­dren. On De­cem­ber 10, Pas­tor Mer­le Ali from Evan­gel Taber­na­cle Min­istry,?Barataria, spear­head­ed the Faith Based Lead­ers Signed De­c­la­ra­tion of Com­mit­ment and Call to Ac­tion in re­sponse to HIV and Aids in T&T. Ali felt it was nec­es­sary since sta­tis­tics in­di­cate T&T?is sec­ond to sub-Sa­ha­ran Africa.

Ali was al­so act­ing in her ca­pac­i­ty as co-or­di­na­tor of HIV/Aids Min­istry at Res­cue Mis­sion (Evan­gel Tem­ple) and as­sis­tant di­rec­tor of Aids/Op­er­a­tion Mo­bil­i­sa­tion. The sign­ing took place at the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain. The ini­tia­tive was sup­port­ed by UN­AIDS and wit­nessed the com­ing to­geth­er of de­nom­i­na­tion­al lead­ers from the Chris­t­ian, Mus­lim and Hin­du faiths. Twen­ty-eight or­gan­i­sa­tions signed the pledge.

Asked about the de­c­la­ra­tion, Ali said, "The sign­ing is a wa­ter­shed mo­ment. The mile­stone is to have a com­mon voice. We can­not do it on our own. But if we form part­ner­ships we can do it. It would help if stake­hold­ers like ma­jor re­li­gious de­nom­i­na­tions came to­geth­er.

"All the main faiths were there and we agreed there must be ze­ro tol­er­ance against dis­crim­i­na­tion and stig­ma. The doc­u­ment is user-friend­ly and time­ly."?She waxed warm about the role of the church and the need for it to make a pos­i­tive in­ter­ven­tion.

"I?can't em­pha­sise how much the church needs to get in­volved in fight­ing stig­ma and dis­crim­i­na­tion against per­sons liv­ing with HIV/Aids. The church can make a dif­fer­ence in help­ing peo­ple get ac­cept­ed and get­ting dis­crim­i­na­tion down to ze­ro. ?The church can play a lead­ing role. We felt as FBOs (faith-based or­gan­i­sa­tions) we could all work to­geth­er."??

Fol­low­ing on the heels of the sign­ing, Ali said in Jan­u­ary 2013 there would be more col­lab­o­ra­tion to move for­ward. "The sign­ing was just the start. It would take a lot of work. "FBOs are part of the strate­gic plan to pro­vide care, coun­selling and bring hope." Apart from elim­i­nat­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion, Ali said the fo­cus would be on re­duc­ing HIV in­fec­tions and HIV/Aids-re­lat­ed deaths.

Peo­ple dis­crim­i­nat­ed against in church

Not bury­ing her head in the sand like the prover­bial os­trich, Ali said even with­in the church, peo­ple were dis­crim­i­nat­ing against peo­ple with HIV/Aids. "You would think with­in the church you would get ac­cep­tance. Where is the love for their fel­low­men? But even there, peo­ple are dis­crim­i­nat­ed against by mem­bers of the con­gre­ga­tion when they learn about their sta­tus."

She cit­ed the ex­am­ple of HIV/Aids-pos­i­tive ac­tivist Lor­na Hen­ry who claimed she was dis­crim­i­nat­ed against "even in the church." The sce­nario con­tin­ues to un­rav­el it­self like a night­mare in sec­u­lar so­ci­ety. "Peo­ple are afraid to tell their em­ploy­ers they are HIV-pos­i­tive.

They are afraid to get test­ed. Some peo­ple lose their jobs. They are sent home for the sim­plest of rea­sons. They are shunned and os­tracised by their col­leagues. Peo­ple are afraid to dis­close their sta­tus. It is sad the man­ner in which peo­ple are treat­ed by their loved ones, friends and rel­a­tives. Peo­ple are put out of their homes. They are left to die on a bed of news­pa­pers."

Ali felt ed­u­ca­tion would stem the tide of dis­crim­i­na­tion and stig­ma. "If peo­ple are ed­u­cat­ed, they would know how to deal with some­one who is HIV-pos­i­tive." She re­mem­bered in times gone by, di­a­betes and can­cer car­ried the same stig­ma.

"Peo­ple were afraid to say they had di­a­betes and es­pe­cial­ly can­cer. Peo­ple did not want to say their rel­a­tive was dy­ing with can­cer. To­day, it is the same with HIV/Aids. We have not reached that stage where we are com­fort­able with it. We should know bet­ter as a so­ci­ety."?

Re­vert­ing to the sa­cred role of the church, she said, "It has what it takes to make a dif­fer­ence in val­ues. They have cer­tain morals and stan­dards that are en­trenched in their re­spec­tive faiths. And we be­lieve we could make a dif­fer­ence."

About Mer­le Ali

Ali is a reg­is­tered nurse who worked in Britain and the Unit­ed States. Back home in 1986, she launched a pro­gramme Res­cue Mis­sion to as­sist sub­stance abusers. "We de­cid­ed to ex­tend it to HIV/Aids. We felt we could get oth­er FBOs to come on board. It be­gan in earnest in 2012," said Ali. But she was pleased with the strides made in com­bat­ting HIV/Aids via an­ti-retro­vi­ral drugs.

"Now it is not easy to tell if a per­son has HIV/Aids. They can get test­ed and coun­selling." Ali en­joys trav­el­ling and has rep­re­sent­ed T&T at HIV/Aids sym­po­siums in Nepal and South Africa. She lives at Freeport, cen­tral Trinidad, with her spouse/pas­tor Has­ratt Ali. She is the proud moth­er of boys Kim­rol and Ron­del and grand­moth­er of five.

Ap­peal­ing to the cit­i­zen­ry, Ali said, "Each of us can con­tribute to mak­ing a pos­i­tive dif­fer­ence by putting an end to dis­crim­i­na­tion."?Ali al­so ap­pealed to cit­i­zens to get test­ed. In the spir­it of the sea­son, Ali said, "We must all re­mem­ber the gold­en rule about be­ing your broth­er's keep­er. Let us reach out to each oth­er with love. It is the mes­sage of Christ."

• More in­fo: Con­tact Mer­le Ali at 674-0567.

EX­CERPT from the De­c­la­ra­tion of Com­mit­ment

"It en­com­pass­es a holis­tic ap­proach in ad­dress­ing the is­sues re­lat­ing to HIV/Aids and ac­knowl­edges the mag­ni­tude of the chal­lenge and im­pact on lives and com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing faith com­mu­ni­ties. It em­pha­sis­es the neg­a­tive im­pact that can be al­le­vi­at­ed by ed­u­ca­tion, com­pas­sion and re­fusal to tol­er­ate stig­ma and dis­crim­i­na­tion against per­sons in­fect­ed and af­fect­ed by HIV and Aids.

It re­in­forces the role of par­ents as pri­ma­ry ed­u­ca­tors of their chil­dren, de­lay­ing sex­u­al ini­ti­a­tion un­til mar­riage and mar­i­tal fi­deli­ty. The de­c­la­ra­tion recog­nis­es the moral and civic re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of FBOs to pro­vide a proac­tive voice on the coun­try's HIV epi­dem­ic and lead­ing by ex­am­ple in the ar­eas of pre­ven­tion, care, sup­port, coun­selling and ad­vo­ca­cy."