New Delhi (Fides Service) - A new nation wide plan to stop the advance of HIV/AIDS has been launched by the Catholic Church in India involving priests, religious, laity and seminarians, formation houses, religious congregations, parishes, church movements, Catholic schools and movements in all 149 of India’s dioceses and also the rest of society.
The project, sponsored by the Health Pastoral Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, aims to increase awareness firstly with regard to the prevention of AIDS and secondly to promote proper care of HIV/AIDS sufferers, particularly terminally ill patients often abandoned with no one to care for them and excluded by society.
The project will not remain within the limits of local Christian communities: the Commission hopes to involve as many people as possible in places where Christians come into contact with non Christians. Courses and seminars on methods of prevention and treatment will be given by experts in the medical and scientific field. Special care will be given to the formation of teachers, youth leaders and catechists who in turn will then instruct school pupils and young people in parish groups and associations with regard to the danger and risk of HIV/AIDS.
The Commission intends to build at least one centre for the prevention and treatment of AIDS in each of India’s 12 ecclesial regions and to offer specific formation to nursing religious Sisters, lay hospital nurses working in Catholic hospitals and clinics.
The Bishops’ Commission recalls that AIDS affects not only the infected person, it also produces family divisions, orphaned children, social costs and a negative impact on the economy.
Concern with regard to aids has grown in the local Catholic Church as in the government and other bodies, after reports from several international organisations warning that after the first giant wave of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa a second wave will strike India, China and Russia.
According to the Indian government 4.5 million Indians are infected by the HIV virus and the average number of new cases registered per day is 1,600, most of them sexually transmitted. 70% of India’s population lives in rural areas and 65% of villagers no nothing about HIV/AIDS.
The Church in India runs 4,700 centres of healthcare, hospitals and dispensaries all over India mainly located in rural areas. About 40 of these Centres are exclusively for people with HIV/AIDS. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 31/3/2004 lines 31 word 342)