Last Wednesday's Times told us about the Egumeni program of the Anglican Church. Egumeni will approach the HIV scourge by focusing on girls.
It's great to help the victims of the HIV plague, but I've been wondering: in addition to addressing the heavily-impacted girls and women, how about convincing men to become allies in this fight? Imagine if we taught our sons to save sex until they are married. Imagine if we taught young men to steer clear of situations where they would be tempted to have non-marital sex. Imagine 20- and 30-something unmarried men encouraging their sisters and female friends to stay virgins until marriage. Think about married men working hard to provide for their wives and children, and training those children to be daughters and sons of integrity. Imagine dads protecting their daughters' virtue. Swazi society would be positively transformed as HIV rates plummeted and girls and women felt loved, respected and protected.
It seems the overwhelming majority of NGO programs focus on girls and women, and again-they deserve our attention. Still, it seems that men are mostly left out of the picture; the most they get is a soccer league. If Swazi men would make virtue their modus operandi and passed that upright lifestyle onto other men, the young girls targeted by Egumeni would be safe almost automatically.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
