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HIV and Youth in the rural areas

July 10, 2011 in Church, Faith, HIV/Aids, Justice, Latin America/Carribean, Life, Poverty, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation

The Nicaraguan Lutheran Church of Faith and Hope(ILFE) held the first fair of HIV in the community of “El Bonete”, the municipality of Villanueva, in the department of Chinandega, a region that has the highest rates of HIV in Nicaragua.

The activity began with a video forum, on Friday, the first of July, which simply reflects the reality of HIV in rural areas, based on experiences and real situations. For lack of information in rural areas, HIV is something like from another universe, something that only can be concerned to homosexuals, sex workers or often they simply ignore the subject. Through the video participants could see a reality reflected in the context of their identify such as machism, migration, poverty, stigma, which are factors that make them vulnerable to disease. The video also show how some churches and its vision about the subject in the rural areas often becomes an obstacle because the disease is seen as a punishment from God, what makes very difficult for the Lutheran Church to convince the people of their comunities that’s it’s very important to inform about prevention and show a God of love.

On Saturday, the second of July, ILFE in collaboration with CISAS, the Health Center of “El Bonete”, offered to the people of the community making free HIV tests. Some youth from the church are certified to provide the counseling pre test and post test in wich they give some explanations about the basic concepts, the function and the expiration of the test before taking the blood sample. They gave clear and accurate information about HIV, while waiting on the result.

Delsis Lainez, 20, a young leader of the Lutheran Church’s community “El Bonete”, told us that during the week he was trying to promote the activity. They went from house to house to invite the people to participate in the program and the free HIV test, he hang up posters with information on HIV and went to the radio.

“This activity seems wonderful, we have never done anything like this before in the community. People don’t know yet anything about the subject, that’s why I think the contribution of the Church is great, especially for women and youth”, said Delsis.

The medical students of the Church realized a total of 55 tests, mostly young women and housewives. This latter group claimed that they were sent by their husbands to get tested because “if they went negative,” they also were. In a community like “El Bonete”, where there is a lot of stigma and fear of getting tested, the majority of the people is thinking that the disease is far away from themself. But they do not take into account that many times men are partakers of irresponsible sexual practices with multiple partners without using protection.

While the mothers got tested, the children enjoyed games, piñatas in charge of the youth ministry of the Church who also painted the faces of the children with fun designs.

During the fair they delivered materials and brochures containing information about the virus and the health center of “El Bonete” gave condoms to the participants.

There was also a performance of a soccer league in order to attract young people and inform them about the activity and encourage them to get tested.
Because in rural areas young people begin to have work responsibilities and families from an early age on, for example a lot of girls get married at the age of 15.

At the end of the two days Taira Paola Baenz, one of the community leaders, confirmed that she was very happy about the activity. He told that for the community it was a very important day because many people are unaware of the issue and this somehow awakens them. “Knowledge and information and most importantly, the test was being offered free of charge! So hopefully a lot of people today realized the importance of the sexual education”.

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“If we inform ourselves… we change… if we change, then we stop HIV”

December 14, 2010 in Church, Faith, HIV/Aids, Latin America/Carribean, Life, LWF, Youth Ministry, Youth participation

The Youth Ministry of The Nicaraguan Lutheran Church “Faith and Hope” organized the Sixth HIV Informative Fair which slogan was “If we inform ourselves… we change… if we change, then we stop HIV”

All of this in remembrance of the Protestant Reformation. Since 2004, the The Lutheran Youth Ministry in Nicaragua, organize this fair about HIV where the main focus is on how to prevent HIV. All over these years we have created a space in where all the people, especially young people that live within the church´s neighborhood can inform themselves about HIV prevention and transmission as well.

Every year we begin our activity with a devotion service in which we invite members of our communities all over the country, we also invite people from Nonprofit Organizations and Governmental Organizations that work with the HIV and aids topic and Organized HIV Support Groups for people with HIV or Aids like ASONVIHSIDA Managua, ASONVIHSIDA Masaya, ANIC+VIDA and the HIV Support Group in the Western Region. Within this Devotion Service we, The Lutheran Church, let everyone know what are our thoughts about HIV and aids and the what`s reason of our work with this issue.

Once that we have finished the Devotion Service, we make a little tour around all the different information stands from all the different organizations, who give information about HIV prevention, HIV transmission, HIV myths and taboos, teaching games and different contest of what people have learned.

We also have youth music bands and theater groups that help us through their music and other art expressions, so that they can bring joy and entertainment to all the people that comes to the fair.

This year the youth group putted together a space under a plastic tent, where all the people that came into it could interact, debate, relax, play and express through the art. This tent had different rooms we called: “The Doubt Clinic”, lead by some medical students. “The Trust Little Corner”, lead by graduate psychology students. “The Massage Therapy”, Lead by physiotherapy students and the “Paint Positive on the White Creative Blanket”, lead by young artist. All of them young, future professionals and artist that through their knowledge created a new learning technique about topics like: Dating, sexuality, HIV transmission and prevention, human rights, the importance of doing the HIV test on a voluntary manner, stigma, discrimination, etcetera.

We are proud to be the only church that works the subject so openly here in Nicaragua, and that we can serve as inspiration for other. Together we can end with the stigma, discrimination and ignorance, because it kills more than the disease itself.

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Youth exchange between Nicaragua and Germany

August 24, 2010 in Faith, Latin America/Carribean, Life, LWF, Youth Ministry, Youth participation

A group of seven Youth members from the Lutheran Church in Nicaragua “Faith and y Hope” (ILFE spanish acronym) began a journey on August 12th, along with one of the church pastors, Reverend Ilo Utech, towards the city of Göttingen, Germany in order to gather again with brothers and sisters from the Lutheran Church in Bovenden.

This partnership began 19 years ago, every year since then; a group of Youth members of the Lutheran Church in Bovenden go to Nicaragua and the year after that a group of youth members from the Lutheran Church in Nicaragua come to Germany as well. All of this is in order to exchange experiences, get to know each other´s countries, their cultures, and to share and live their faith out as young Lutheran Christians.

This year the main subject of this gathering is “Sustainability” related to Climate Change. Also known as the economical development on taking care and using efficiently and with responsibility, the natural resources, social justice and the commitment with future generations.

The host group has prepared a schedule in which both of the groups are able to learn more about the subject of Sustainability. The group is sharing information about projects that Germany is doing and actions they are taking to achieve a sustainable development.

During these last 5 days we have been able to interact in a fraternal way with the group from Germany who has made us feel like we are at home. Germany is a very different world compared to the world we live in in Nicaragua: the food, weather, streets, public transportation, people, are all very different, but even with all the differences between our countries and cultures, we have been able to feel the warmth given to us from our brothers and sisters. They have opened up their houses to us. We have enjoyed a lot of different home-cooked German dishes, which before we had only heard about through previous delegations. Through visits, singing, laughter, barbecues, walks and games, we have been able to learn about German People´s history. We even had the opportunity to visit the Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible during his time as a refugee

We believe that this experience is very valuable for our church and our lives. When we return to Nicaragua, every one of us has a commitment, and through our gift given by God, we have to share with our communities what we have learned here in Germany.

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Youth from Latin American and Caribbean are strengthening alliances and assuming leadership

April 19, 2010 in Life

Inspired by a gospel that does not discriminate, we believe that young people are not isolated and that are part of a communion: “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body” (1 Corinthians 12. 17-20). Our reflection about the topic: Give us today our daily bread” from the eleventh assembly of the LWF in Stuttgart, prompted a contextualization of this from our experience as a youth. Every time we pray for bread, we stand before God asking for what we lack. Jesus teaches us to pray with the intention to remember us the past, but raising awareness of the present…and our present is:

• We believe it is necessary to work specifically from our churches in the construction of a Lutheran identity fortified and conscious of what is happening around us, and from there take a critical stance. We were created by God with a cultural diversity that enriches us. The lack of acceptance of the richness of this identity makes us continue patterns that the media programs sells us, influenced by other cultures other than ours.

• In Latin America and the Caribbean, young people are deprived of an education based on values and formal education (from know how to write and read and to have access to the superior education). We affirm that the lack of information, tools and follow-up to the maturation processes make us vulnerable to diseases such as HIV and aids. We demand of our churches and the LWF, to give us a follow up in our training in sex education with Christian values open to diversity. On the other hand, we ask to expand scholarship programs for the young people in order to access higher education.

• Our patriarchal culture has inherited a system in which physical and psychology violence prevailing about tolerance and acceptance of difference between men and women. Also there is inequality of opportunity in relation to employment and education. It is for this reason that we need to have seminars and trainings for work on gender, to empower ourselves of our rights and convey the message of a liberating God.

• We propose the creation of a young people network of Latin American and Caribbean that makes it possible to strengthen partnerships, share information, experiences, meetings and regional trainings.

We thank our leaders for placing your trust in us, the leaders of the LWF that open the spaces that allow us for training and participation of young people to get closer to the reality of the processes work of our churches.
We are called to transform the Latin American realities, so as young people, we want to continue promoting something different through sharing our daily bread!

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