CUAHA's work touches many different thematic areas. To find information about any particular theme, use the list below or on the left-hand navigation bar.
The content of these thematic pages is updated continuously as new stories are added. Many of them are still quite empty, but remember to return later to find out what is happening with each issue.
Ambassadors of Hope
Wherever there are people living with HIV, there is a need for role models: artists, activists and advocates who promote a positive lifestyle through their own example. CUAHA's Ambassadors of Hope are HIV positive people who are well-known in their own countries for their message of acceptance and positivity.
Arts & Culture
Countless artists share their talent with their own church. Since CUAHA hosts ecumenical cooperation, it's only natural that it has also become a forum for African artists to collaborate across national, denominational and cultural borders, while also promoting HIV awareness and human rights.
Capacity building
The CUAHA purpose is to have partners who are HIV and AIDS competent and capable to profit from multilateral and regional collaboration. Capacity building of CUAHA churches’ and partners is one of the network’s priorities to allow for a platform of learning from each other.
Care & support
Numerous households in Africa provide care and support to others who are have come to them in need, often orphans. Every church in Africa provides care and support to others in their communities. CUAHA therefore has seen the need to assist their partners to have the capacity to better their ability and knowledge about care and support.
Children & youth
Children are the hope of the future. The voice of the youth needs to be heard. In Africa, children and youth are the vast population, who are vulnerable and strongly affected by HIV and AIDS. It is important to focus on the youth, allow to give them a voice and to recognize the importance of the role that they play in awareness raising and advocacy campaigns. CUAHA has a Youth Campaign that focuses on empowering the youth, and the voice of the youth.
CUAHA partners
CUAHA is an ecumenical network that extends from rural to metropolitan areas, from local to national and international scenes. Its members include Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Orthodox and Pentecostal churches and organisations, non-denominational Christian groups and multi-faith movements.
Ecumenical cooperation against the HIV epidemic has never been simple. CUAHA's members have, however, managed to move past their theological and cultural differences and towards a common goal: a society where everyone is free to participate, the most vulnerable are cared for and no one is denied their rights because of their HIV status.
CUAHA was founded in 2002 by 20 African churches and organisations that had long-standing relationships with partners in Finland. The network has since grown considerably and established strong relationships with grassroots organisations, UN programmes and governmental AIDS institutes in different African countries.
Gender
Women are the most affected by HIV and AIDS in Africa. Women not only have the highest prevalence rates of HIV infection, but also they carry most of the responsibility to care for the children and the youth within their families, often as women-headed households.
It is only natural that for this reason, women’s groups are a focus and that CUAHA programmes such as Mother’s for Life, Daughter’s for Life, and Grannies for Life have developed to provide support for women and to promote a change in gender dynamics that hurt both men and women. It is also of significance that in the era of the necessary focus on women and women’s issues, that men’s issues and their support groups on HIV and AIDS are only now emerging. CUAHA has recognized this and encourages men’s support groups to emerge.
HIV competence
It is not a secret that churches have been criticized to have awakened to respond to HIV and AIDS slowly. Faith communities’ role in the context of HIV and AIDS is crucial and unique – they are in a position to change the whole course of the HIV pandemic. International, governmental and non-governmental organisations have recognised it, and most importantly, churches themselves have awakened to the importance of their role.
CUAHA has worked on developing a tool that churches and other organizations could use to observe their HIV competence: to measure their own strengths and weaknesses and to help to plan the way forward. This tool focuses on the issue especially from the point of view of religious organizations.
Media
The media plays a crucial role in HIV and AIDS issues: they send the message of advocacy and stigma, depending on the way the reports are reported. Working alongside and with the media is important for advocacy issues. CUAHA sees this as a unique opportunity to bring the two together, the media and churches, to teach and learn from each other. Through various forums, CUAHA has had media workshops, where church leaders and media have sat together to learn how to speak to the press, so the true voice of the church is heard, and for the press to learn how to report so as to promote advocacy rather than stigma.
Ministry
The main work of churches is their ministry within their communities. CUAHA believes that churches and religious communities should promote a deepened spirituality among their members - by challenging the discourses of fear and judgement and promoting a compassionate, inclusive, empowering spirituality.
Nutrition
This is a time in the HIV and AIDS pandemic that most people are informed of the benefits of proper nutrition in the care of those who are HIV positive to live a healthy life. However, in Africa, it is difficult for many people to access several nutritiously balanced meals in a day. Learning more about putting together well balanced meals through locally available produce is important for churches to inform their communities.
Positive living
No one has a stronger voice to advocate on HIV and AIDS issues than those who are living positively with HIV. The Ambassadors of Hope who promote positive lifestyle through their own example are role models to empower others to live positively and without fear, reducing stigma within churches and society. Everyone can learn from their example to spread the message of positive living with hope.
Poverty
In Africa, HIV and poverty go hand in hand. It is difficult to address HIV without addressing poverty. Churches and communities recognize the need to address both issues together, which involves a tangle of issues that are difficult to separate including education, human rights, good governance, etc.
Prevention
When addressing HIV and AIDS, prevention is a critical issue. One of the key prevention principles that CUAHA promotes is the ‘SAVE’ model: Safer practices, Available medicines, Voluntary testing, and Empowerment through education.
Stigma & human rights
Stigma has had entire societies in a stranglehold for decades, making it harder to take real steps forward when it comes to HIV prevention and care. Stigma creates fear. Since churches have the unique ability to influence the far reaches of society, they also have the responsibility to advocate responsibly.
CUAHA advocates for increased participation of churches to focus on rights based approach and full integration of people living with HIV, which is vital in the promotion and advancement of the rights of all people.
Theology & ethics
What brings churches together, and what separates churches in often theology and ethics. The approach to theology and ethics of individual churches is recognized within CUAHA, and the diversity of the various churches respected. Ecumenical churches coming together to speak with one voice about HIV and AIDS issues is a strength of the network.
Through the dialogue of the churches’ recognizing that there was not much literature on HIV and AIDS issues from a theological perspective, CUAHA has produced two books: “Challenging Current Understanding on HIV and AIDS: An African Christian Perspective†and “Grassroots Toolkit on HIV and AIDS: Responses to Common Questionsâ€.
Treatment
Wherever people have been tested and recognize that they need treatment for HIV, treatment should be available. This is not always the case, as shortfalls in access to treatment is an immense problem. CUAHA is committed to building the capacity of their churches so that they are better able to work with other partners in achieving the goal of Universal Access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.