POSITIVE MUSLIMS

MUSLIM INITIATIVES

4.6. POSITIVE MUSLIMS

their initial shock of ignorance on

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^I AIDS. Some of the officers do research on this topic and have a more detailed discussion on this when they next meet the president of the Institute. This shows that the talk has made a great impact on them to do research and further empower themselves on HIV/AIDS. Thus far (September 2003), over six thousand seven hundred (6700) seamen have been empowered with the knowledge on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.⁸⁷ The Institute works in consultation with the IMA on

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^I AIDS awareness and prevention programmes.

a) Research Forum

i) Interested researchers on HIV I AIDS have been put into a focus group and their first meeting was held on 15 March 2003. Sixteen researchers of whom eight delivered presentations of varying standards attended it. It was agreed at that meeting to make it a quarterly event; to develop an internet discussion list; and that all researchers should supply basic information about their work to the office for their records and the website.

ii) Webscan - to scan the internet web for all references to HIV/AIDS and MuslimslIslam with the intention to categorise these with a brief paragraph on the significant sites.

iii) HIV Prevalent Studies Project - a research on IllV I AIDS prevalence in the Muslim community in order to form a base to present intervention strategies inside the Muslim community.

iv) Fagbmeda Miller Scholarship - this is in honour of the courage of Ms F. Miller, an innocent victim of AIDS, who was the first Muslim to publicly declare her IllV/AIDS status. It is to promote scholarship inside the Muslim community about IllV/AIDS for a Master's student whose dissertation subject will be shaped and whose research will be used by the organisation.

b) Support and Counselling

i) The support group for people with AIDS (pW A) started meeting from 9 February 2003 and this has continued every fortnight thereafter. The group consists of about eight people who meet

regularly at the office for their group therapy sessions. Individual counselling is also conducted at the office with people with AIDS,

on a regular basis.

ii) Telephonic counselling has been an ongoing process, especially when people with AIDS are in a crisis, they make use of telephonic counselling extensively. Members who are too ill, as well as those who are unable to attend the support group, make use of this service. Those who wish to remain anonymous also make use of this service.

iii) Other forms of counselling includes home visits for moral and personal support; clinic visits; and prison visits when a member of the support group has been imprisoned.

iv) Developing a "buddy" system (a one-to-one friend who will be around on an ongoing basis) and offering spiritbal support. Thus . far (July 2003) collation of information for the first phase of the

manual has been completed as well as the selection criteria for buddies.

v) Other forms of assistance includes, networking with SANZAF who provide food parcels to some of the people with AIDS, assisting a local clinic in Retreat, in Western Cape, to form a support group for their area, and helping to access affordable treatment for people with AIDS.

c) Education and Awareness

i) Conducting workshops and presentation of talks in schools, masajid and factories in order to create and deepen an awareness among Muslims, about the prevalence of mY/AIDS in all communities, the ways in which

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AIDS is contracted and ways of avoiding it.

ii) During August 2001, six volunteers conducted eight workshops for women from various socio-economic backgrounds on the topic,

"AIDS, Islam and Women". The programme took into account the religious and cultural sensitivities of the participants. These workshops covered issues such as vulnerability of women, mY/AIDS and Islam, abuse, myths of mY/AIDS and empowered women to negotiate their sexuality within the dominant culture of patriarchy.90

iii) The organisation hosted a workshop on 4 February 2003 that was conducted by a visitor from the Quilt Making Project in the USA, on the different therapeutic effects of the quilt, and as an educational and awareness raising tool. On 8 March 2003, the support group celebrated International Women's Day at the office by conducting a workshop on making a quilt in memory of people they have lost due to mY/AIDS.

iv) On 26 March 2003, they co-hosted a one-day conference for Faith Based Organisations who work in Reproductive Health and mY/AIDS at the University of Cape Town Lung Institute. This

90 Positive Muslims Leadership in South Africa Report. June 2003.

conference was attended by thirty delegates from the religious sectors and was organised in partnership with the IMA of Western Cape.

v) They have published a number of articles in the Muslim press as well as in international inter-faith publications distributed throughout Africa They have also promoted their activities on local Muslim radio stations in the Western Cape. They have published 50 000 leaflets on HIV / AIDS and Islam and have distributed these at various masiijid in Western Cape with copies also placed in many doctors' surgeries.⁹¹ The leaflet covers the following aspects and the text has been adapted from NAZ (London).92

a) Who is this leaflet for?

b) Is HIV a threat to Muslim communities?

c) Do Muslims need HIV and AIDS education?

d) Islam's view on human life and health

e) Does the issue of modesty permit us to talk about sex?

f) How Muslims should act in this time of crisis?

g) What is HIV?

h) What is AIDS?

i) Can you tell if a person is HIV positive?

j) How does HIV get into our bodies?

: Pos~~ve Mus~ ^- A firm basis for AIDS work among Muslims Report. June 2003.

Positive Muslims. InVI AIDS and Islam Leaflet December 2000.

k) Is blood transfusion safe?

1) Can you get IDV through everyday contact?

m) How can you protect yourself from IDV?

n) How should Muslims behave towards people who are living with IDV or AIDS?

0) IDV/AIDS and Islam

The organisation lobby all the relevant structures, both in government and in civil society, particularly among Muslim religious leadership, for greater support for people with AIDS and a deeper awareness of the need for openness and empathy. Whilst their work is primarily among Muslims, they are committed to working with all other progressive groups working with HIV/AIDS.⁹³