Faith based communities, organizations and institutions play a pivotal role in the HIV and Aids response in Kenya through services offered at congregational, institutional, community and facility levels. Their influence emanates from the over 47 million Kenyans (97% of Kenya’s population) who profess various faiths going by the 2019 Kenya Census, and give audience to religious leaders at least once weekly.
With such a reach, the faith sector wields a comparative advantage in influencing positive health-seeking behavior and address behavioral, cultural and structural factors that impede individuals’ capacity to prevent HIV infection, uptake HIV treatment services and reduce HIV related stigma and discrimination.
As community gate keepers and promoters of societal values, arming religious leaders with correct information on HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), Gender Based Violence (GBV), Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Corona Virus Disease-19 (Covid-19) deter the epidemic’s adversarial course. Dissemination of correct information is formidable in undoing the gains of misconceptions and myths in advancing stigma and virus shaming.
By leveraging on its network of structures, facilities and institutions, the Faith Sector has proven to be an important tool in advocacy and communication on HIV as well as resource mobilization for continued HIV service delivery and uptake.
NACC’s Faith Sector Working Group operates nationally and in ten (10) counties (Uasin Gishu, Nakuru, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Murang’a, Embu, Isiolo, Kitui, Machakos, Narok) which has since established linkages with 14,500 religious leaders across the country, 190 of them having been trained on various interventions.
Over 57 school chaplains have been also trained to address HIV and Aids, Drug Abuse and Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), which is an emerging issue among school going children.
In collaboration with the over 200 stakeholders, NACC’s Faith sector continually develops training materials, and strengthens their capacity to mount formidable HIV and Aids interventions.