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Lutheran_Estonian Lutherans support those affected by HIV (April 22)
22.04.2008
Jekaterina Manko comes from a well-to-do family in Narva, northeast Estonia. She divides her professional time between two organizations in the capital, Tallinn, heading up projects that fight the spread of HIV.
It’s a complete turnaround for Manko, a teenage drug user who tested HIV-positive at 18. Now the 25-year-old speaks at seminars run by the 163,500-member Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The seminars are part of the church’s campaign to give its leaders information about HIV, HIV prevention, and theological resources for pastoral care and counseling. The church’s work includes a Lutheran World Federation handbook translated into Estonian and Russian; a video about an HIV-positive church leader in Uganda’s Anglican Church; and “Stepping Stones,” an HIV-prevention program leaders can use to talk with young people about alcohol abuse, drug use, violence, sexuality and sexually transmitted infections.
At each seminar, Manko—or another young woman—tells her story. That’s because, as Irina Moroz, a medical doctor in Tallinn, said: “The AIDS epidemic here has a woman’s face.”
Manko’s face shows someone who has emerged from drug and alcohol dependency, thanks to follow-up meetings with specialists from an AIDS center and a Narcotics Anonymous group. Today she has the medicines she needs and considers her health good.
At first, Manko feared discrimination and the loss of friends if she spoke openly about being HIV-positive. Now most fears are in the past and friends know she lives with HIV. Two years ago she met her future husband, who is HIV-negative. They dream of having children, and Manko said there is medication that enables women like her to give birth to healthy babies.
But Manko is better off than thousands of others in Estonia.
Invisible a decade ago
Dealing with this health issue is a major challenge for Estonia’s Lutheran churches, which are called to be open and welcoming places for those infected and affected by HIV. The church’s AIDS awareness project began in 2007 with support from the LWF Department for Mission and Development.
HIV was first reported in Estonia in 1988, with only about 10 new infections recorded each year for the next 12 years. Before 2000, HIV and AIDS were almost unknown in this country of 1.3 million.
Not so today. In all of Europe, Estonia now has the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses (504 per 1 million people) and the highest rate of adult HIV infections (1.3 percent). Many, like Manko, became infected from drug use, according to “AIDS Epidemic Update,” a December 2007 report by the Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS.
The perception that HIV is only a problem for drug users is strong in many places, including Narva. But infections through sexual relations are on the rise. Women are disproportionately affected.
Andrei Antonov, a medical doctor in Narva, said 3 percent of the city’s 70,000 residents have tested positive. Yet many don’t seek further support or treatment, he said. “Are they careful not to infect others?” he asked. “We don’t know.”
Many people don’t share their HIV-positive status for fear of judgment and rejection, Antonov said. Others “don’t see the point in getting tested,” he added, noting that the real number of infections could be triple that of official figures.
Reaching all church leaders
Church HIV seminars—in Tallinn, Narva, Pärnu, Jõhvi and Tartu—help leaders from across the ecumenical community learn more about the disease. But EELC Archbishop Andres Põder said much work lies ahead. It takes time to get all church workers on board. While most of its pastors commend the denomination’s AIDS work, some argue they don’t need seminars since the parishioners they serve aren’t HIV-positive.
Yet Põder stressed that the church has “made a big step forward” from simply organizing events on World AIDS Day (Dec. 1). “Not only are church members better prepared to communicate with those who are affected, we are also more informed about prevention work,” he said. “The church has become a new support group for those in need.”
The long-term goal is to establish a network of Christians working in the field of AIDS in the country. A denominational working group of pastors and diaconal and youth workers would monitor the project and create a strategy on supporting people living with HIV.
http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=7058&key=49815362
 
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