Blantyre Synod University has challenged the faith community and key stakeholders in the HIV national response to mobilize for solutions towards an age old challenge of faith healing. Spearheading the agenda within the Synod is Professor Isabel Apawo Phiri. Speaking on the sidelines of the first phase of the national dialogue on HIV treatment versus exclusive faith healing workshop held at Grace Bandawe Conference Centre in Blantyre on 12-14th August, 2024 Professor Phiri started by explaining the background to the meeting. “You know the United Nations Joint Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) is looking at how do we reach the 95:95:95 targets? Remember one of these 95s is to prevent further infections so they are looking at what are the issues that are still outstanding which could promote an increase of new HIV infections. One of these issues is treatment adherence.
Professor Isabel Apawo Phiri : research has shown people are stopping taking HIV medications for various reasons
Research has shown that people are stopping taking medications for various reasons. One of these reasons is that they’ve been prayed for and they’ve been told to stop taking medication. As a result of that they begin to show opportunistic infections which leads to deaths and yet this could be prevented. So this workshop is to explore what faith leaders, health service providers, academics and civil society can do to prevent the situation. This meeting has validated the reality of faith healing in Malawi as testified by people living with HIV, service providers and faith leaders themselves. The meeting created a safe space for reminding each other that there is the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Management Act (2018) which prohibits misinformation around HIV cure or treatment. So all participants have agreed to promote collaboration against exclusive faith healing. This position does not undermine the fact that God heals beyond the physical realm. Gods healing can be emotional or social. So people have to take their medication as prescribed by the service provider”
From a global stage the Executive for HIV Pandemics at the World Council of Churches in Geneva Gracia Ross says “the messages on exclusive healing by faith which is saying you don’t need your medications, you just pray and God will heal you is a message that some faith leaders are giving. This is happening in many countries in Africa, in Latin America, even in Asia and the United States of America. There are many misleading messages and the consequences of this are that some people abandon the medication, they get sick and die. In the case of Malawi; it’s even illegal to do this, but faith leaders ignore this. So the World Council of Churches is trying to respond to this by bringing the right information. For example; the effectiveness of HIV treatment.
Gracia Ross : We are doing this in many countries
Now we have the strategy of U equals U which in Malawi is T equals T which is very important. The key message in this strategy is that any person with HIV who is taking the treatment as prescribed by the service provider adherently and achieves undetectable viral load can no longer transmit. In this regard the churches should be helping the people living with HIV to stay on treatment. Faith should not be a source of people abandoning the treatment. Thus; we are doing this kind of workshops in many countries. We did it in Nigeria, Uganda and now in Malawi. We are going to do this also in Nicaragua and in Zambia because in all of these countries you have these misleading messages. In terms of support; there are some donations that come from the church itself but also from the UNAIDS PEPFAR initiative. We work mainly with two partners; the National Council of Churches and the networks of people living with HIV in targeted countries”.
Explaining their role in the initiative; the General Secretary of Malawi Council of Churches Reverend Alemekezeke Phiri said “we are here representing all the 37 protestant churches in Malawi because we are fully engaged in health related issues. As you know Malawi Council of Churches is one of the founders of the umbrella body of Christian Hospitals called Christian Health Association in Malawi (CHAM). We encourage member churches to be part and parcel of the healing process and have hospitals to be fully engaged in the fight against HIV and AIDS to ensure that they encourage both prayer and treatment adherence.
Alemekezeke Phiri: We are appealing to government to help us have people get the right message
This is the message that has always been with the council to ensure church leaders are very responsible in encouraging people on treatment adherence. Faith healing is a real issue and we are not making headway because in the faith sector there are some religious institutions that are not duly registered. As a result; they are not accountable to anybody. We are facing problems because of these unregistered faith institutions. This meeting is an eye opener in that we need to engage all faith leaders who are communicating the wrong message. The meeting has given us a foothold so that we can engage them with the right message. So we are appealing to Government to help us to ensure that people are getting the right message especially the unregistered faith institutions so we can move together”.
Sheikh Dinala Chabulika the Publicity Secretary of Moslem Association of Malawi who participated in the meeting had this to say on behalf of his constituency “Yes this meeting to me it’s like an eye -opener. I’ve been hearing about the faith healing but not up to this magnitude and it’s really touching. It’s the responsibility for each and every religious person to ensure people living with HIV are getting medication. Sometimes we religious leaders we just hear about the funeral of somebody but what has caused that death we don’t know. Now it’s an eye -opener that some of these people who are leaving this world today it’s because of that issue of absconding treatment or not adhering to the HIV treatment. The other thing is that I think we need to be passionate, if we can just do things without having a passion on this issue definitely we are going to lose people because we give a chance for those who are misleading people to continue doing that. But when we come out and discourage them; this thing will not be there anymore. Most of the people who are involved in faith healing are not here. We need to approach them. We need to engage them. We need to civic educate them. Some of these things are because of ignorance. So it’s our responsibility to civic educate the people to say look these two things are one. Faith healing and also getting the medication is just one. Don’t separate them because both are from God. So what has come out from this meeting is that we have got a responsibility to assure people that the medication that we are getting though not an HIV cure, but if taken adherently is very effective to the extent that the virus can be undetectable and the people can go back to their normal lives. They cannot transmit and so enjoy their family lives. So this is the main thing that people should know that the medication is very effective and we need to go and make sure each and every person with HIV must go and continue getting the medication”.
Miss Getrude Tayali Nthambala is a survivor of death that hovered over her life as a result of her experience with exclusive faith healing against HIV medication. During the meeting she shared a story of how a prophet led her into stopping taking the HIV medication and concentrate on prayers alone. But the opposite happened as her immunity lowered due to increased viral load. She was subjected to serious opportunistic infections including tuberculosis which almost took her life. At the edge of her life; some relatives took her back to a clinic where with appropriate medical care which included counselling; she resumed the HIV medication. It was due to this intervention that she has survived the threat that HIV if left unattended poses to life. Reflecting on the experience of exclusive faith healing today; she observes “doctors advise us really well that praying is important and no one is forced to stop doing that. But they also urge us not to stop treatment. I am still prayerful and I continue believing in God since the scripture says that we should always praise Him. But I am also always taking ARVs. Let me take this opportunity to urge all recipients of care not to stop the treatment we are given by service providers despite our belief in God. I am appealing to all religious leaders and followers, people in rural and urban areas who are on ART not to stop treatment while we are also being prayerful and believing in God. These two should be complimentary. The meeting we had today was very important for those of us living with HIV and on treatment. We have been trained on the need to continue taking medication while we still believe in the word of God and being prayerful. It has acted as a wakeup call and reminded us not to stop treatment at all cost because it has so many benefits. I am a living example of what it means to have HIV and stop treatment because of exclusive faith healing”.
Mrs. Margret Chigona; an ART Provider at Blantyre District Health Office validated the experience that Getrude Tayali Nthambala went through. That when recipients of care stop taking HIV medication; immunity lowers due to increased viral load. This exposes the recipient of care to opportunistic infections. She bemoaned a situation in Malawi where 98% of the population believe in some faith.
Margret Chigona: When people living with HIV stop ART their immunity lowers
This includes faiths led by prophets who call for exclusive faith healing against HIV medication. This makes people living with HIV vulnerable to opportunistic infections and consequently death. She felt the meeting was important because it will help all religious leaders to share correct information to their followers about the ART treatment and faith healing.
The National AIDS Commission was represented at the meeting by Mr. Elias Chasukwa who expressed appreciation to the organizers for bringing together high caliber faith leaders to discuss the issue of exclusive faith healing against HIV medication. He said the topic under discussion was critical because it has affected a lot of recipients of care that were deceived that they were prayed for and cured so they were told to stop taking ART. But soon afterwards they started developing poor health problems due to lowered immunity as a result of increased viral load. He said some recipients of care who were not brought back to care have even been lost. He said as a nation this vice need to be addressed. “As requested by the Advisor to the President on Religious Affairs; the National AIDS Commission will submit a report with recommendations for actions to his office.
Elias Chasukwa : NAC is going to submit a report to the Presidential Advisor on Religious Affairs
We are going to compile all the information that has been generated here and send it to the office of the Presidential Advisor on Religious Affairs. The critical area of interest was to organize a follow up higher level and more inclusive conference for all concerned parties to participate. We will ensure that each and every leader who claims to be a faith leader participates including those that do not belong to organized institutions like the Malawi Council of Churches, Muslim Association of Malawi, Pentecostal and Charismatic Network Of Malawi, Prophetic Association, Seventh Day Adventists and Episcopal Conference of Malawi. We will reach such leaders through the Malawi Interfaith AIDS Association which was established to work with the faith institutions on issues of HIV and AIDS.
Speaking on behalf of her organisation; the Executive Director of the Malawi Interfaith AIDS Association Miss Pilira Ndaferankhande confirmed about the problem of exclusive faith healing in Malawi. She felt the meeting was productive because many faith members, CSOs, health workers and affected communities came together to discussing prayer versus the uptake of ARVs. “What we have agreed on is that prayer and ARVs should go together and we should also consider nutrition. We should therefore go around educating people on how treatment and prayer works complimentarily. We have not said that people should stop praying or believing in God who heals. God heals in many ways. But it’s the same God that has been saying in Jeremiah 8:22, is there any Balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of my people recovered? And it is the same Jesus who was going around with Luke, who was a physician.
Pilira Ndaferankhande: we have agreed prayer and ART should go together
So we have agreed that the ARVs themselves are a miracle to Malawi as a nation and to the whole world. For this reason; we encourage people to be taking ARVS. We have further seen the need for more meetings of this nature. As the Presidential Advisor on Religious Affairs has indicated we need more faith leaders to engage. These include prophets, Zionists and the Apostolic community. As MIAA, we will continue working with our structures at the district level through the district interfaith committees and also independent religious leaders as well as religious umbrella bodies to go in our churches and mosques to talk about the advantage of taking ARVs and go for prayers. We need to sensitize even our religious leaders on the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Management Act and disseminate it in all the churches and mosques for people to know what they don’t”.
