InterPress News Service (IPS); Friday, 30 May 1997.
Nhial Bol

According to an official in the Ministry of General Education who declined to be named, the publication would have been a useful school science book.

Intended to heighten schoolchildren's awareness of AIDS, the book covers AIDS-related topics like the use of condoms, and focuses on high risk practices such as unsafe sex, sexual rituals, and tattooing. It also tackles the disease's socio-economic aspects.

But it has never been used in the classroom or elsewhere because of Islamic and Christian leaders objections to sex and AIDS education in schools.

Sudanese women say there is an urgent need for AIDS education and awareness in this Islamic-ruled country where many people are still in the dark about the disease.

"AIDS teaching must be included in the schools syllabus and means of protection must be imparted to the people," said Mama Alak Ayom, a participant at a recent workshop on Women and AIDS held in Hagy al Baraka, a remote village East of the capital.

Ayom's appeal is backed by the Hagy al Baraka Declaration, issued by the 37 participants at the meeting organized by the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC). It also urges displaced mothers to strike down the taboos that are choking the flow of information on AIDS.

"AIDS has become a major disease in our country due to traditional beliefs imposed on us. The women in Hagy al Baraka have committed themselves to work to stem the impacts of AIDS by producing AIDS awareness programs," the four-page document declares.

The Declaration also notes that Sudan is perhaps the last country in Africa to start fighting AIDS, although cases of it are on the increase. Sudan is reported to have more than 100,000 people infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.

Unlike most of her counterparts, Ayom, a mother of six, believes that people should start to talk openly about AIDS. However, most agreed with her point that in order to reduce the spread of AIDS, "within this campaign women should encourage their husbands to marry more than one wife."

"Nothing can tie these people (husbands), unless they are allowed to have more wives so that they don't go out and looked for women," Ayom said.

The Christian women, however, chose not to debate polygamy openly, for fear of alienating church leaders whose funding is needed. Instead, they opted to form a committee of women from various churches to study the matter.

The women noted that Christian education must include AIDS-related issues and women's role in the country, and that mothers must come up with new visions on teaching children about AIDS. The group also resolved to launch a crash campaign against AIDS.

"The new crash program backed by the churches leaders will be based on the activities for students and teachers in the schools," said Ayom.

It remains to be seen whether this new drive against AIDS will go the way of earlier efforts. Last year, the Ministry of Education trained about 500 teachers to teach about AIDS and its impact on both people and resources.

The Ministry also commissioned the Bakdrat Education Institute in Central Sudan to develop an AIDS syllabus for health education. The syllabus, viewed by IPS, is specifically designed to protect young people from unsafe sex.

But it was rejected by primary and secondary school teachers who claimed that it was not tailored to the religious values of the country, which is governed by Islamic fundamentalists.

However Mohamed Khder, a teacher in a secondary school in Khartoum, told IPS that it is the government which has restricted debate on AIDS. "The government is not promoting AIDS education," he said.

Last month, the Ministry of Education tried again, with a health program on TV, but this program did not reach the people in rural areas.

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IP970507

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