DM: For World AIDS Day, Christian Aid is working with local churches in various parts [of the country]. Last night I was speaking in Derby Cathedral, tomorrow I'm speaking in Lichfield Cathedral on World AIDS Day.
HIV and Aids is an important issue for us in Christian Aid. Why is it important? Because it's not just an issue of disease and health, it's an issue of poverty, it's an issue of discrimination, it's an issue in which people are denied their humanity and denied basic human rights.
As people of faith we believe it is important for us to get involved. Christian Aid uses World AIDS Day and events around it for encouraging people here to put their faith into action, encouraging people here to speak out and stand up for the side of people who are excluded and marginalised because of HIV and Aids.
But also we want to show to our Government that people want the Government to spend their taxpayers money on these issues. So yes, this weekend is an affirmation of our own organisation's commitment and I think of the public's commitment to get our Government to lead.
CT: What kind of programmes does Christian Aid run around the world to tackle HIV and Aids?
DM: We do a lot of programmes. We are working for example in South Africa with the Anglican Church on a huge programme to get the Church involved with sharing and coping and helping bereaved families, but more importantly to be able to speak up and tell people 'when you are positive, come out'.
If we can get it out into the public arena and see it as another disease then we can do something about it.
We are working in Zambia where we have a special programme in equipping women who live there to help each other to support each other and to educate the community around what their rights are, because women unfortunately are often affected.
We're working in the Democratic Republic of Congo where sadly a lot of women after the recent civil war have been raped, and because of their rape and sexual abuse have got HIV and Aids and the problem there is to help them to handle this.
So we are working with local churches, local communities, local women and more importantly the people living with Aids to help them speak out and take a leap in serving their community.
We have 129 programmes in various parts of the world. The great thing about it is its integrated into our long-term development programme, because you can't handle HIV and Aids without handling the stigma, without handling the education, without handling the faith and religious dimension but also the human rights dimension, all of that has to be handled together.
