Culture to Help Tackle HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific is encouraging Papua New Guineans to reconnect with their culture to tackle the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the country.
Wahroonga, New South Wales (PRWEB) March 22, 2006
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific is encouraging Papua New Guineans to reconnect with their culture to tackle the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the country.
“Our traditional culture calls for men to protect their women,” says Pastor Thomas Davai, president of the Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea. “Research shows the main mode of HIV transmission in Papua New Guinea is through heterosexual relationships, and that sexual assaults of women are high. If Papua New Guinean men will protect their women, we will increase our chances of addressing the epidemic.”
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific supports the government’s recent call for churches to encourage condom use to combat HIV/AIDS and has issued a statement on the use of condoms during its 13th business meeting in Melbourne last year.
“As a church, our responsibility is to promote the biblical model of intimacy within marriage,” says Jonathan Duffy, director of Adventist Health in the South Pacific. “Our other responsibility is to help people who make different life choices. Reality prevents us from moralising the issue. We need to educate people about safe sex practices and that includes the use of condoms.”
Pastor Davai also sees the need to go beyond the push for condom use in order to address the root of the problem. “This is about returning to our traditional culture where men take more responsibility of their actions,” he says. “We are telling people that HIV/AIDS is preventable, that women must be respected, that men must be sexually responsible, and that expression of sexuality involves choice and mutual consent.”
A Pacific wide forum on HIV/AIDS, attended by government representatives of South Pacific countries, is being organised for next year. According to Mr Duffy there is only a small window of opportunity to address the issue before it spreads out of control. “Adventists are committed to help,” he says.
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