BY JOSEPH MTEBE

After relocating to Kilimanjaro after his contract termination Reverend Sendewa turned to wheat farming. 

But he felt he needed to turn his experience with HIV as a clergy in to a blessing. 

“I knew one couldn’t do it without proper and accurate information,” he says. 

 

And his quest for more information began in 2004. That’s how he learnt of ANERELA, which stands for Africa network of Religious Leaders Living with or personally affected by HIV/Aids. 

 

“When I met them I got inspired and decided to go public and open a local chapter,” the pastor says. The same year, he begun mobilising HIV positive religious leaders and Tenerela opened its doors. Tanerela stands for Tanzania network of religious leaders living with or personally affected by HIV/ Aids. By January 2005 the network had 30 members, and today it has 270. 

 

Full disclosure is not a prerequisite to joining the organisation. 

“10 have totally disclosed, the rest are on shared confidentiality, and partial disclosure. We don’t demand full disclosure because we know stigma is very high, but we empower them to do so eventually,” he says. 

Another category is that of leaders who are not HIV positive, but are personally affected, by having a spouse, child or sibling who is. 

Even Muslims are welcome

To join the organization, Tanerela demands that one should be a religious leader. “We have sheikhs, and leaders of both mainstream and non mainstream churches,” he says. 

 “We target religious leaders, because as pastors, people come to us when they have problems, but we don’t have refuge, where we want to vent out,” the reverend attests.

He adds: “Plus, the stigma I faced as a pastor is the same for the clergy.”

He believes religious leaders have the potential of changing society attitude towards HIV. “They have influence, they are everywhere even in the grassroots and they can speak to people to speak up,” the pastor says.  

Currently, Tanerela has undertaken a disclosure campaign for religious leaders, with funds from Rapid Funding Envelope, and Stigma Reduction Project in various areas of Muheza, Kilimanjaro and Kigoma, with the help of the Christian Aid and Foundation for Civil Society.

They organise retreat sessions during which, role models give their testimonies, “We share coping mechanisms and spiritual uplifting. And most importantly, reminding each of us our roles, because, although we fight to change attitudes towards us, we also have roles to play, such as not to infect others, and to help reduce infections rate,” Pastor Sendewa says. 

And there are encouraging results. In a recent retreat session held in Mwanga, Kilimanjaro, Pastor Pauline Mdeme of the Pentecostal church, confessed to having being biased to HIV positive people.

“I ask god to forgive me because I have been hurting a number of people through stigma. Now I understand I might have been a cause behind some of their deaths,” she gave a testimony. 

There also have posttest clubs, where religious leaders are told to inspire people to test, instead of pushing them to do so prior to marriages.

Currently the network is setting up village community banks dubbed VICOBA. “In Tanzania, religious leaders earn very little, these banks are meant to uplift religious leaders economically so that their lives do not become a living hell because of HIV,” pastor Sendewa confirms.