Report - Sida Studi

Friday 30 September 2005: New Trends
5 Plenary session 1: Youth & Religious Leaders
tity attached to human life in Islam;
• The challenge of squaring their position with the
assumption of human dignity;
• The challenge of squaring their position with the need to
provide information.
Mr Segujja noted the enormous potential of mosques
as venues for education and the dissemination of information
to young people and concluded with an appeal
to the meeting that each participant remember their
humanity, that they are not angels, but people characterised
by shortcomings and to remember the Islamic law
that states that necessity knows no rules and that when
all our efforts to solve a problem have failed, we must
look at some other unconventional ways solutions.
5.22 Working with Roma populations (young & older generations),
Mr Jozsef Bonifaz Solymosy, Hungary
Mr Solymosy began his presentation by providing the
meeting with some background information on Gypsy
peoples in Hungary. He emphasised their heterogeneity
as a group comprising peoples who speak a number of
languages and have citizenship in a number of countries.
He also noted that despite their legal equality within
Hungary, they are still subject to disproportionate levels
of poverty, social exclusion and racial discrimination.
In connection with this social marginalisation they are
disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. He added that
while these generalisations were true when gypsy peoples
were considered en masse, it was important to note that
particular communities within the sub-population were
differentially disadvantaged. For example, the major issue
for one sub-group might be access to housing while for
another it might be access to health care. Mr Solymosy
described religious adherence within gypsy populations
in Hungary as characterised by diversity with some
groups identifying as preponderantly Roman Catholic,
others as Muslim, and yet others with a range of other
faiths. Turning to wider social attitudes towards gypsy
populations within Hungary, Mr Solymosy observed that
there was a tendency for Hungarians to romanticise gypsy
culture and focus on dimensions like their rich folk traditions
rather than attend to their social and health needs.
Mr Solymosy explained that both public policy and
service provision tended to be aimed at addressing higher
level needs and hence effectively discriminated against
people, like gypsies, who experienced more fundamental
needs. He concluded his presentation by briefly outlining
an intervention aimed at gypsy children and young people
with education, support and childcare through the
provision of a summer activity camp. This intervention
was run with and through a Roman Catholic church.
5.3 Short presentations of other panel members
5.31 An inter-denominational response to HIV/AIDS, Mr
Ravi Chandran: Inter-denominational cleric, Denmark
Mr Ravi Chandran of the International Christian
Community introduced himself as an inter-denominational
religious leader originally from Senegal now living
in Denmark. He began his short presentation by affirming
Mr Segujja’s remarks about the difficulties faced by
all religions in engaging with HIV/AIDS because of problems
with discussing sexuality. He also acknowledged the
existence of counterproductive tensions between faiths
and described himself as working to ameliorate these.
Mr Chandran argued for unity between faith groups on
HIV/AIDS issues forged around a common agreement on
human rights.
5.32 Working with young male sex workers and religion, Mr
Isidro García Nieto, Spain
Mr Isidro García Nieto introduced himself and described
the main activities of his project – street outreach, peerto-peer
working and some limited workshop activities
with young male sex workers aged generally between
18 and 19 and mainly from Brazil, Eastern Europe and
Morocco. He emphasised the importance of acknowledging
the cultural and religious background of the client
group with which he works, particularly in relation to the
way that it shapes their conceptualisations of homosexuality
and gender. For example, some male sex workers do
not see themselves as gay and therefore believe they are
not at risk of HIV/AIDS.
5.33 Working with young Roma people, Ms Katarína
Jiresová, Slovakia
Ms Katarína Jiresová very briefly described the project in
which she is involved which works primarily with groups
of young people vulnerable to or engaged in injecting
drug use or sex work. She noted that because of their
social exclusion Roma people are over-represented in this
group. Noting the short time remaining in the session she
declined to give more detail and suggested instead people
take the opportunity to ask her questions when the plenary
was opened for discussion from the floor.
5.4 Panel discussion
The presentations were followed by a short period of
discussion directed by questions from the floor. In
response to a question about whether religious leaders
were involved in the work around PWHA by the World
Council of Churches, Mr Ravi Chandran reported that he
personally was working with colleagues towards this level
of collaboration and strongly supported similar moves
among other faith groups.
In response to a observation that differences between
faith groups seemed to be an obstacle to collaborative
work between different faith groups, Mr Chandran added
that it was indeed the case that up to now attempts at
inter-faith activity had been characterised by strive rather
than agreement. The difficulty and its resolution lie in
identifying and reaching agreement on basic principles.
Mr Segujja concurred in relation to this point about basic
principles which might be agreed by all faiths. He said
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