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1. W o r l d :
AIDS EDUCATION FOR MISSIONARIES CARING FOR "THE OUTCASTS"MISSIONARIES WORKING AMONG modern-day "outcasts" will have special training to help them better care for people with AIDS, while understanding the risks. AIDS awareness sessions to ensure safety and eliminate fear are to be offered to all Youth With A Mission workers, following the introduction of an AIDS policy for the organization's 10,000 full-time staff, volunteers and students.
More detailed advice and help will be given to missionaries serving in ministries to high risk groups such as prostitutes, drug addicts and street children, all of whom figure highly among the estimated 20 million HIV carriers worldwide.
The new guidelines were recently approved by YWAM's international leadership team, after five years' research and discussion.
"We need to educate the mission at large about AIDS," said Steve Goode, YWAM's international director of mercy ministries, based in Bangkok. "We developed this policy because the AIDS problem is mushrooming in Africa - although the growth in Asia will even surpass Africa.
"The ministry of public health here in Thailand projects that by the year 2000 there will be 7,000 children born in the country each year who are infected by the HIV virus."
YWAM's policymakers drew on reports from governments and charitable organizations, as well as the experiences of teams in the mission working with people carrying the HIV virus or suffering from full-blown AIDS.
They included a team running a hostel for AIDS-infected street children and their babies in Brazil; workers befriending HIV drug users in London and Paris; hospice visitors among Los Angeles' gay community; and staff caring for child prostitutes in Bangkok.
The policy report warns that YWAM ministry centers and training courses - which attract several thousand applications each year - are "likely to be receiving staff or students who are HIV-positive - either due to exposure prior to joining the mission, or through working in high-risk areas of ministry".
The policy document covers personnel issues such as disclosure of information, and procedures for pastoral support and care when staff become sick.
"We are committed to non-discrimination against those who are HIV-positive," said Goode. "Decisions regarding medical conditions affecting job performance and acceptance in schools will be considered with appropriate leadership, to the benefit of both parties."
While stressing the importance of confidentiality, the policy advises that in some parts of the world AIDS testing is required by the government before overseas visitors are allowed in.
Although most staff and student are not in situations where there is a risk of transmission of HIV - which can be passed through contaminated blood - those who do contract the virus "will be encouraged to work as long as they are able to maintain acceptable performance". Sick leave is available for those who become ill, who will also be helped to receive pastoral care.
"AIDS creates a lot of fear, and we want to dispel some of that through information and awareness," said Goode. "We also want to be proactive rather than reactive. Jesus responded with compassion to the needs of the outcasts of his day, and we want to do the same.
"This AIDS situation has not yet surpassed the numbers of children who die each year from the preventable six main childhood diseases, but God is wanting us as a mission to reach out practically to the needs of ourgeneration."
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