The experience of African women theologians has been a crucial element in helping faith communities respond to the challenge of HIV and AIDS in Africa, says the coordinator of an ecumenical network on the pandemic on the continent.
"Many of the issues we are addressing today, the key drivers of HIV such as violence, the cultural aspects, the misinterpretation of scriptures have all been part of the discussions of African women theologians," said the Rev Dr Nyambura Njoroge, coordinator of the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA).
Njoroge was interviewed in Vienna, where she was attending the 18th International AIDS Conference. Njoroge has been EHAIA coordinator for the World Council of Churches (WCC) since 2007.
EHAIA also has five regional coordinators and two theological consultants based throughout Africa. It was launched in 2002 to enable churches in Africa to access information, training, resources to help them deal with HIV and AIDS in their communities. In its first four years of operation it reached 9000 participants.
"Our goal is to have HIV-competent churches and theological institutions," said 53-year-old Njoroge, a Kenyan who is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa.
Njoroge first joined the WCC in 1999 to coordinate its programme on theological education. In this role she quickly became aware of the role played by theological education in training HIV-competent theologians and pastors.
This led to a series of consultations that was followed by the creation of EHAIA.
"Looking back I see that my ministry has been shaped by the dynamics of HIV, especially in the African context," said Njoroge. "As an African it has a personal angle to it. I stopped counting the number of people in the extended family we have lost."
Njoroge, who has a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary on "African Theology and Christian Social Ethics", also brought to EHAIA her experience in the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, a network inaugurated in 1989 in Accra, Ghana.
"It was very obvious that the most affected on the continent were women, both as care providers and because we are on the receiving end," said Njoroge. "The majority of those who are HIV-positive are women. So we couldn’t ignore asking why there is a gender imbalance."
As African women theologians, "We have wrestled with these issues," said Njoroge, "and now we had to bring them to workshops with pastors who have not been socialised around these issues."
Still, she noted, advocacy on HIV is not always easy for church leaders because the dynamics and complexity of the pandemic, and the need, "to talk about sexuality with all of its diversity".
That is one reason, she said, why theological education is so important, "so that when you come to the parish you are not scared of the issues."
