December 1st is World AIDS Day. Every year, the Day has a special subject and for 2008, the theme is leadership. Feba's Spotlight programme producers have developed a special programme called Religious Leaders and HIV (spoken in Specialised English). Read more on this website.

They look at a particular kind of leader. This leader is not a doctor, not a health worker, and not a government official, yet he or she can play a big part in the struggle against HIV and AIDS. In this programme, they look at the important work of the religious leader.*

In many communities, a religious leader has great influence. He (or she) has authority. That authority can influence the way communities treat people who have HIV or AIDS. That authority can influence efforts to prevent the spread of the virus in their communities.

Pastor Maxwell Kapachawo is a church minister in Zimbabwe. He became sick in 2001. He did not believe that his sickness was connected to HIV. But in 2004, he discovered that it was. He was HIV positive. He said: "It seemed like the end for me. I wanted to die fast before my community knew about it." Pastor Maxwell stopped leading his church. But then he spoke to a friend, another church minister. His friend told him that having HIV did not make him a bad person. He told Maxwell that he should begin to serve God again. Maxwell attended a conference for religious leaders with HIV. And soon after this, he decided to go back to church. He decided to tell his church that he was HIV positive. Pastor Maxwell remembers: "Three weeks after I told them, about half the church people had gone for HIV tests. They were happy to have the tests because they had seen life in me."

Pastor Maxwell knows that church leaders can act positively and negatively towards people with HIV. He says it is tragic when a religious leader rejects someone because they have HIV. He says: "Religious leaders need to be better informed. They need training about how to help people with HIV. Then, they would be able to act in a more understanding and supportive way."

Pastor Maxwell is part of an organisation that encourages people to speak openly about HIV and AIDS. Its members are all religious leaders. And they are all personally affected by HIV. They either have the virus themselves or they know someone with it. The organisation helps its members to see their situation positively. It helps them see how they can lead and guide other people. The organisation began as a movement in Africa, but today it is an international organisation called INERELA+.

*This is an excerpt of the Spotlight programme script, Religious Leaders and HIV. The entire script is located online at: http://www.spotlightradio.net/listen/religious-leaders-and-hiv