Live 'pure and morally clean'
2006-05-25
Susan Botha
Go, tell the people in your communities, there is a cure against the spread of the HIV/Aids pandemic said Charmaine Manuel, Executive Mayor of Drakenstein, at the ecumenical candle lighting memorial service in Mbekweni on Sunday.
“We must live as God had intended us to live; pure and morally clean. Make use of existing structures and co-ordinate with them in order to help those who cannot help themselves.
“For we, as human beings created unto the Image of God, are after all not isolated and islands unto ourselves.”
According to UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation’s estimates in November last year, 40,3 million people were living with HIV/Aids in 2005.
Furthermore, it is calculated that more than 25 million people have died because of this pandemic since 1981 and Africa has at least 12 million Aids orphans. Some Internet web sites even say that figure is closer to 50 million.
“Does it really help us to quote statistics at every turn and corner?,” asked the Mayor.
“I believe not. I hope my words won’t be interpreted as unfeeling and unkind. Instead, I would rather say: Let’s think about those of our friends and relatives who have already been infected by this virus.
“We could also think of those people who will still be infected in future.
“Let all of us think about the living people who have been infected and what we are going to do to make their lives more bearable.
“Let’s think about the people who are slowly but surely wasting away in hospital beds or at home. Let’s think about what we are going to do in order to help infected people.
“With my previous statement I did not mean that we should ignore HIV/Aids campaigns. Surely not, because as they say: Forewarned is forearmed.
“The public at large must always be informed about the dangers of this virus, of what they could do in order not to fall victim to the virus.
“What I would like to see is that the community, that means all of us here today, take hands and help the victims, our sisters and brothers. I know it’s easy to say that you don’t know anyone who has been infected with the HIV/Aids virus.
“However, it’s our moral and Christian duty to help all people in need, and that includes people who suffer from HIV/Aids. The broad community out there has many structures, such as those of churches, social clubs and sports clubs. And might I mention, the Paarl Aids Action Group (organisers of the service).
“By means of those structures they can very easily become involved in helping patients. Were it up to the municipality alone, we would never succeed, because we don’t have the necessary structures or money of the private sector.
“It is up to us to help people who suffer from HIV/Aids. We, the community, can do a lot to soften the plight of sufferers.
“I’m sure that if all of us work hand in hand; local government, the churches, the home-care based organisations, the NGO’s and all community-based organisations, we can combat or at the very least, make a dent in the spread of the pandemic.
“For too long too many people have said that this curse is something that doesn’t affect them. They always try to pass the buck, as it were, to someone else.
“It’s always someone else who has to look after infected people. Or they say that it’s the duty of Government to look after infected people.
“But as we all know, Government does not nearly have enough money to deal effectively with all problems in our country, let alone a pandemic of such proportions.”
She also spoke on stigmatisation: “We must especially stop stigmatising infected people.
“Too many people think that we, as Africans, live on some backwoods continent and that we also cannot solve our own problems.
“Furthermore, the world at large thinks that we as Africans do not have the guts to stand up and look after our own.
“But let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, we have Ubuntu, something that the rest of the world does not have. We are close to the soil, we are close to nature, and we are close to God.
“Africans do not exclusively have to rely on foreign aid forever; we can look after our own. We must find the solutions from within, and not always look to others to help us.
“We have our self-respect that was taken from us for too long during the period of colonization and rape of our continent.
“The question arises: what are we as a Christian community, going to do about this pandemic? From the pulpit and elsewhere we have the authority, the obligation and the power to spread the message of hope.
“We, the people of South Africa, and Africa as well, have a communal duty to our sisters and brothers out there. This, together with our moral duty and love for our neighbours, are our first and foremost mission in life.
Therefore, let’s love our neighbours, let’s un-stigmatise people who suffer from the Aids infection and let’s show them by our example how to lead morally sound lives.”
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