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A Voice for Those Who are Not Being Heard
by Caiphas Ngarivhume, Zimbabwe
21 May 2010
In the early 2000s people in Zimbabwe could not talk about HIV and AIDS without guilt and shame; it was regarded as a sickness for immoral, sinful people. Those nursing the sick would not disclose it, and the sick would not go for HIV testing. Instead they suffered in silence. At Mutare Teachers’ College, where I was a lecturer, we lost about five students per term. The lecturers were dying too. And no one wanted to accept that it was AIDS. I was deeply burdened, but not sure what to do. Then the college announced that they were looking for someone to go for training in AIDS education. I wanted to take it up, but was not sure whether I would manage the stigma. When the principal asked me to consider it, I was surprised and glad. He had confirmed my burden, without any prompting from me. So I went to Malawi for training. On my return, I crafted the HIV and AIDS education curriculum that is still being used today in colleges in Zimbabwe. I trained a team of lecturers to help me teach the facts about AIDS, and it started to get easier for people to talk about the illness. But I observed the same horrible stigma in my church, the United Baptist Church (UBC), and in many others. Pastors preached that those dying from AIDS were getting what they deserved. yet I knew that children were getting it from their parents. And adults might be infected by their unfaithful spouse. So I joined SIMer Tricia Barrow, volunteering to teach churches about HIV and AIDS. We formed a National AIDS Committee, and ran awareness workshops for pastors and church leaders. But, because we were fully employed elsewhere, we could not match the pace at which the epidemic was spreading. In 2002 the UBC and SIM asked me to attend an AIDS conference in Washington DC. There I heard the Church described as a “sleeping giant,” failing to fight back as people perished. Each denomination was urged to appoint a person to spearhead the AIDS ministry. I prayed, wondering who that person would be in my church. The Lord made it clear it was me.
Choosing to careMy wife agreed to go with me into this new calling, and at the end of the year I resigned from the Ministry of Higher Education and joined Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT). I ran HIV awareness activities for young people in schools and communities, and later I moved into Home Based Care. In 2004 SIM and the UBC asked me to lead the HOPE for AIDS ministry, and by 2006 I had built a team. It was a rough road, with a lot of criticism and discouragement, but the Lord gave us strength. My Enabling Officer, Angela, who had contracted AIDS from her late husband, decided to disclose to churches that she was HIV positive, to encourage others to go for testing. The Church began to see that HIV was there among its members, and this was a major breakthrough. Soon women started volunteering to serve with us. And then the men started trickling in too. We trained these volunteers, so they could help sick people and orphans who were struggling. Many are repenting and joining our churches as a result of our HOPE ministries. My own church has accepted 22 new members this year. All glory to God our Father, who changes people’s lives when believers choose to care. Caiphas Ngarivhume worked in high schools and teacher training colleges for 18 years, before becoming involved in HIV and AIDS ministry. He and his wife, Sekai, have three daughters. Get InvolvedVisit http://hopeforaids.org to learn more, or give now to the HfA main project. Thank you for partnering with us to fight the AIDS pandemic. God is doing great works! *Note: This article was originally published in Serving In Mission Together, issue 127. 
 
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