By Linda Bloom*
March 6, 2009 | NEW YORK (UMNS)

The impact of a woman’s multiple identities – race, class, caste, age, sexual orientation and national origin – on her status as a caregiver in the age of HIV/AIDS was the topic of a March 4 discussion at the Church Center for the United Nations.

Sponsored by United Methodist Women and five other organizations, the event was part of the program organized by Ecumenical Women during the March 2-13 meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations.

“This is fact-finding for me,” said Shirley Pettiford of Brooks Memorial United Methodist Church in Jamaica, Queens. She planned to take the information about HIV/AIDS and caregiving back home. “I haven’t had hands-on experience yet.”

Deborah Jenkins, a volunteer facilitator for the session, said she took a day off from work to educate herself because a large number of women of color who are HIV-positive reside in central Brooklyn, where she lives and attends Union United Methodist Church.

Jenkins and Pettiford, president and past president, respectively, of the New York Conference UMW, joined staff of the Women’s Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, and other UMW representatives at the event.

Women’s Division staff members who work on advocacy and justice issues organized and facilitated the discussion. Elmira Nazombe laid out the game plan: “We will share with each other our experiences about caregiving and the meaning of our multiple identities that affect our caregiving,” she told the participants. The goal, she added, was to come up with creative alternatives “that will make a difference in the lives of caregivers and people with AIDS.”

Pettiford listened in her small group as Speciose Mukagahima, an Anglican from Rwanda, talked about how women and girls in her country remain traumatized because they contracted HIV/AIDS after being raped during the genocide there. While there are provisions for medications and assistance to orphans, “the first thing the church is doing for caregiving is to listen,” Mukagahima said.

Intersection of identities

The intersection of identities, such as class, race and gender, does impact both the caregiver and the person living with HIV/AIDS, according to Nazombe. An example are the Garifuna, or people of African descent in Latin America. “They’re hidden,” she explained. “They’re more likely to be poor.”

Adding the stigma of the disease to the lack of resources compounds the problem. Trying to obtain basic services for HIV/AIDS when a government’s blanket policies don’t recognize the differences of the Garifuna and other marginalized people “is incredibly difficult,” she said.

Two women from Honduras, representing Garifuna caregivers, spoke briefly about the need to bring those depressed by the stigma of their disease “back to the community” and the urgency of advancing the issue of home care for HIV/AIDS patients.

Possible next steps

Suggestions from the small groups included organizing cooperatives for caregivers, providing better access to medication, doing away with stigma through education and solidarity, promoting a living wage for caregivers, offering training to caregivers and encouraging community-based medical advocacy organizations.

“We will share with each other our experiences about caregiving and the meaning of our multiple identities that affect our caregiving.”
–Elmira Nazombe

The sharing of those suggestions sparked an enthusiastic give-and-take among the participants. Fulata Moyo, program executive for Women in Church and Society at the World Council of Churches, pointed out that the use of the phrase “culturally sensitive” is not always good for women. She comes from a context, she explained, where the culture expects women, not men, to be caregivers.

Linda Barton, a representative of the Greater New Jersey UMW, appreciated the ideas raised and said she looked forward to the church “making a difference globally.”

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

AUDIO: Fulata Moyo

“I have programs that are culturally sensitive …”

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Resources

Ecumenical Women

Commission on the Status of Women

Beijing Platform for Action