In the years since Aids emerged as an epidemic, the disease has taken over 19 million lives worldwide.

Today, over 42 million people live with HIV/Aids, 95 per cent of whom are in the developing world.

As the crisis grows, it exacerbates existing emergencies in health and hinders communities’ development.

Governments work in conjunction with numerous local and international organizations to stem the spread of Aids and help those infected.

However, religious institutions can play a vital role in these efforts as well, and holds a powerful position to change the future of Aids in Africa.

In many African countries, faith based organizations provide up to 50 per cent of health services.

If HIV/Aids continues to erode the capacity of communities to care for those affected, faith-based organizations will be even more important.

The Christian Life Assembly (CLA) in Kigali is one church in Rwanda that has set up a department for helping HIV-positive people in the community with what they call ‘mercy homes’.

According to Prisca Mukinisha, the project coordinator, "as members of the church we have established a mercy home which will be helping people with HIV.

We found that people who are HIV-positive are not cared for. People don’t want to stay with them or help them, but as a church we feel it’s our role to fight this.

We visit HIV-positive people in hospitals, and provide those who are discharged from hospitals who have nowhere to stay with shelter.”

She added that "we try to teach to them the word of God. We counsel them. And they learn how not to spread the disease to others.”

Every Sunday the church collects money from the congregation to contribute to the Mercy home.

George Shimanyula, the administrator of churches Aids department, says "true religion is caring for the widows and orphans.

That’s why we find it important for the church to play a role in this epidemic.

It should be an obligation of the church to help the needy, especially those with Aids.

People should show them love and care.”

Other churches also need to move on from praying for a cure for Aids and realize they too can help people struck with the disease, and promote safe sex and healthy behaviours that can prevent HIV infection.

They need to emphasize that with a little foresight and self-awareness, HIV is preventable.

One thing that all world religions have in common is followers who are HIV positive.

Religious organizations and communities are confronted by this disease not in the abstract, but with stories of their own church members suffering, destroyed families, and also hopeful testimonies of individuals whose spirit has been emboldened by the challenges brought by the disease.

Many argue religious leaders and institutions are slow and sometimes even counter productive in fighting the epidemic, in particular the Catholic Church’s stunning refusal to encourage, or even condone, condom usage.

It is widely acknowledged that in order for religious leaders and religious institutions to respond appropriately to a public health issue like HIV, they must tone back their focus on theological morality.

Christian groups have developed the expression "The Church has Aids” to convey their solidarity with HIV/Aids sufferers and to remind the rest that people living with HIV/Aids are part of their communities.

They base this on a saying of Jesus that "if one part of the body suffers, the whole body feels the pain.”

In this vein, they hope to remind their parishioners to practice what they preach, and reach out to their neighbours in need.

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