On the occasi
on of this years world AIDS DAY I invite you to consider the story of the Good Samaritan which was told by Jesus.
Despite the prevailing bad relationship that existed between Jews and Samaritans, the Samaritan gives generous assistance to the Jew.
Just as the Samaritan scaled the walls of division and prejudice towards Jews which prevailed at that time, so is the modern day family of humankind called to overcome the prejudice that manifests itself in the stigmatisation of those amongst us who live with HIV/AIDS.
Accepting that HIV/AIDS doesn’t diminish in anyway the dignity everyone has by virtue of being created in the image of God, we should scale the walls of stigmatisation by ensuring that our HIV positive brothers and sisters are not deprived of any advantage or benefit just because they are HIV positive.
This will ensure that they get all the care and support they need.
This freedom from the chains of stigma will promote open sharing of information about HIV/AIDS and instil behaviour which will stem the tide of new infections.
In this way zero stigmatisation, zero deaths from HIV/AIDS and zero new infections by HIV Our society is not only characterised by zero discrimination towards HIV positive persons but also has zero deaths due to HIV/AIDS.
Fr M. Makama