CAFOD’s response

Stance, priorities and ways of working
CAFOD, HIV and the Catholic Church
The Millennium Development Goals and HIV

All around the developing world, CAFOD is fighting back against HIV and AIDS. Given the scale and urgency of the problem, this has been a priority area of ours and our partners work for over 20 years.

The impact HIV and AIDS have on individuals and communities varies depending on a variety of different factors.
The complexity of the challenges surrounding HIV and AIDS demand a cohesive, wide-ranging response.

CAFOD works through partner organisations in three key ways:

• care: supporting people and communities living with HIV
• prevention: reducing the spread and impact of HIV
• advocacy: defending the rights and dignity of people with the virus and fighting injustices that can lead to infection.

In addition, CAFOD considers carefully how HIV and AIDS could impact on any of its programmes, right across its work.

Prevention
The prevention of HIV infection calls for an all-round strategy. There is no ‘silver bullet’. CAFOD has a three-way approach:

1. Reducing the risk of infection

People must be helped to reduce or remove their risk of infection. There is no simple solution.
With its partner organisations, CAFOD is committed to providing full and accurate risk reduction information. CAFOD respects a person’s right to make decisions consistent with their religious convictions and with individual circumstances. CAFOD funds are not used for the purchase, promotion or distribution of condoms.

2. Tackling the root causes

Many underlying problems make people more vulnerable to HIV infection, like poverty, lack of education and gender inequality. Tackling these problems is CAFOD’s core work.

3. Lessening the impact

CAFOD works to stop the circular effect of poverty and infection. For example, supporting an HIV-positive mother means her children are not orphaned. This reduces their vulnerability to exploitation and infection.

Care and Support
Advances in HIV treatment over the last five years have dramatically increased life expectancy for those who receive proper care.
Access is increasing to antiretrovirals (ARVs), the drugs that can control HIV. Meanwhile, with or without these drugs, CAFOD partners can do much to prolong and improve life.

Some care is strictly medical:

• basic medicines for HIV-related infections
• nursing and hygiene
• ARV therapy where possible.

Emotional and spiritual care is also vital:

• home visits by volunteers
• counselling
• pastoral and spiritual support.

CAFOD believes the best care also includes wider support:

• income-generating activities to keep money coming in
• support for children affected by AIDS
• good nutrition
• keeping children in school.

CAFOD recognises the link between care and support, and prevention.

Advocacy

CAFOD’s advocacy work on HIV means speaking up for the rights and dignity of people living with or affected by HIV and AIDS and fighting the injustices that can lead to infection.

Some areas of focus are:

• Stigma and discrimination
• Access to treatment
• Legal rights
• Debt

HIV work and the Catholic Church

Catholic Social Teaching requires us to work against injustices and discrimination, whether against individuals or countries.
In the fight against HIV and AIDS, there are many special strengths in being a faith-based organisation (FBO), like CAFOD and most of its partners.

• Trust
• Outreach.
• Spiritualmandate
• Influence

CAFOD’s work, including its HIV-related work, has the full support of the Bishops of England and Wales.

The Millennium Development Goals and HIV

The Millennium Development Goals impact on the HIV pandemic in two ways.
Firstly, AIDS is specifically addressed in the Millennium Summit Declaration, whereby the assembled governments resolved among other things, by 2015:

• To have halted, and begun to reverse the spread of HIV, of malaria and other major diseases that affect humanity.
• To provide special assistance to children affected by HIV and AIDS.

Secondly, the Millennium Development Goals address the economic, political, social and cultural factors that affect individuals and communities vulnerability to HIV.
This is crucial to a sustainable and expanded international response and is integral to success in alleviating the impact of AIDS.
See http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals

CAFOD is fully committed to pursuing all of the Millennium Development Goals through its development and humanitarian response work.