Harare, (ENI) — The United States government has honored Maxwell Kapachawo, the first Zimbabwean religious leader to publicly disclose his HIV-positive status through the use of radio and television, by conferring him with the “award for Breakers of Silence.”
“Kapachawo’s actions and interventions have significantly contributed to breaking the silence around HIV and AIDS in the Church,” the US ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, said while presenting the award to the 34-year-old pastor and others engaged in the fight against the pandemic.
The cleric, a pastor in the Christ Grace Ministries Church, was one of 13 Zimbabwean organizations and leaders in Harare, who received US-sponsored awards November 29 for their outstanding contributions in mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS pandemic.
Kapachawo tested positive for the HIV virus in 2004, and was initially dismissed as a pastor by his bishop. He was later re-admitted after he attended an AIDS workshop and later convinced his church’s leadership that the pandemic needed to be de-stigmatized through open discussion.
He has since gone on to campaign through national radio and television, urging other religious leaders to disclose their HIV status and also to use churches as a medium for speaking openly about HIV and AIDS.
Kapachawo is national coordinator of the Zimbabwe network of religious leaders living with, or personally affected by, HIV and AIDS (ZINERELA).
Sister Pia Chikava, a 75-year-old Roman Catholic nun, gained an award in the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children and Youth category for going “beyond the normal call of duty for the past 40 years to provide humanitarian assistance especially around HIV and AIDS services to orphans and vulnerable children.”
In 2007, the United States committed US$30 million to supporting various HIV and AIDS activities in Zimbabwe, through the US Agency for International Development, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of State and the Defense Department.
Over the past few years, there have been about 2,000 AIDS-related deaths among Zimbabweans each week, out of a population estimated at around 13 million, but Health Minister David Parirenyatwa recently announced that HIV prevalence had lately fallen from 18.1 percent to around 15 percent, because of government intervention. However, some analysts say this may be due to deaths among those with HIV, or people leaving the country in the millions to escape severe hardship.
