Lutheran HIV/Aids Counselors Workshop Opens

The Analyst (Monrovia)
May 26, 2004

Following the completion of training of 96 HIV/AIDS Counselors in and out of the country, the Lutheran Church HIV/AIDS program has begun another circle of training for some 36 HIV/AIDS Counselors in Monrovia.

At opening ceremonies at the workshop at the Corina Hotel in Sinkor, the Training Officer of Lutheran HIV/AIDS program, Mr. Roland Nyanamo addressing participants and guests gave five basic reasons why the Lutheran Church is conducting the workshop.

The reasons he gave include providing psycho-social counseling for lots of women and children in displaced camps and rural Liberia who now live with the disease; augmenting the work of medical doctors and nurses; reminding the church about its responsibility in catering to the sick and empowering the church in the fight against the pandemic.

The Coordinator of the Lutheran HIV/AIDS Program, Rev. Moses Gobah stressed the need for the training of more HIV/AIDS Counselors to work with hospitals and social institutions in the country.

He said if Liberia is going to record success in its fight against the disease, more and more actions needed to be taken by the government and donor agencies to support initiatives.

The head of the Catholic Church HIV/AIDS Program and Dean of the Mother Pattern College of Health Sciences, Sister Barbara Brillant said the problem of HIV/AIDS in the country can only be tackled by Liberians when the entire nation makes up to adhering to moral values.

She hailed abstinence and faithfulness to sexual partners as the surest way of halting the spread of the disease.

Sister Brillant noted that as long as Liberians continue to play with values the spread of AIDS will continue to degenerate.

The Rev. Peter Weedor who deputized for Lutheran Bishop Sumoward Harris said Liberia has lost all of its human resources and infrastructures in the health care sector.

He called for the Church to be a partner to the government in the rebuilding process.

The Lutheran Church HIV/AIDS Program has been running for the past 3 years.

The program has trained over 96 HIV/AIDS counselors in the country. The Lutheran Church Program recently sent its first set of counselors to Botswana for a month-long AIDS counselors training.

The trip by 18 Liberian counselors was sponsored by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America; the Pan African Christian AIDS Network and the Danish Evangelical Mission. The Danish Government through the DEM is funding the Lutheran HIV/AIDS Program.