'Normalising' HIV/AIDS by involving Buddhist monks, Cambodia
Stigma and discrimination are still all too common in Battambang province, as well as many other parts of Cambodia, the country most affected by HIV/AIDS in Asia. This means that issues about sexuality are rarely mentioned in public. It also means that many people living with HIV/AIDS shun support because they fear being ‘found out’, resulting in isolation or confrontation for them and their families.
To help tackle this huge problem, the Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance (KHANA), the Alliance linking organisation, has enlisted the support of Buddhism for Development (BFD). KHANA is supporting BFD with funding and training to work in the Sangke Operational District.
BFD builds on the cultural and religious traditions of Cambodian society to create a more positive environment for action on HIV/AIDS. Much of its work is based on a yearly, six-week ‘Peace Development School’, which trains monks in issues relating to health, HIV/AIDS, education, vocational skills and agriculture. After the course, the monks are encouraged to return to their home communities and to use what they have learned to help others.
In practice, many of the 1,100 monks who have completed the course to date have gone on to get involved in HIV/AIDS projects, ranging from setting up centres for orphans and vulnerable children to doing prevention education in schools. While religious rules require them to be celibate, the monks use Buddhist ideas, combined with their high social standing in communities, to talk about the importance of caring and respectful relationships. Through this approach they can tackle subjects, such as the sexual transmission of HIV, that are often difficult to raise in conservative settings.
As members of home care teams – which include government and NGO workers and other local volunteers – the monks also help to give basic medical care, advice on income generation and social, emotional and welfare support. They also train family members in basic health care and nutrition and refer people living with HIV/AIDS to other medical services, such as testing for tuberculosis. As part of this work, BFD also supports people living with HIV/AIDS to join one of its two self-help groups. Here, the monks use meditation and prayer to help people to relax and reduce their stress. They also encourage participants to share their knowledge and experiences – about HIV/AIDS treatment, for example – and to build a sense of solidarity.
The work of BFD is beginning to make a real difference in Sangke. As respected local citizens, the monks are setting a positive example – not only putting their compassion into practice, but helping to ‘normalise’ a disease that was previously surrounded by silence and fear.
“People living with HIV/AIDS in our community used to encounter a lot of stigma and discrimination,” explains Heng Monychenda, Director of Buddhism for Development. “But since monks have been involved in educating the community, this has reduced substantially. For example, the villagers are now beginning to buy things from people living with HIV/AIDS, visit them and provide social support – things that they never did before.”
