A group of lecturers from the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI) along with persons from other theological institutions recently participated in a course for trainers of counsellors for persons with HIV/AIDS.

Held at the Anglican Deaconess House, Caledonia Road in Kingston, from February 7 - 11, 2005. The course facilitators were Deaconess Dr Rachele Vernon (UTCWI lecturer), Georgia Simmonds (Ministry of Health Voluntary Counselling and Testing [VCT] Programme) and Joy Spence-Crawford (Hope Worldwide Jamaica), who were all trained by the Ministry of Health's VCT Training Programme.

"It is important for churches to become involved in the response to the HIV/AIDS crisis," said Dr Vernon. "We need to increase the awareness of HIV/AIDS in churches, to decrease stigma and discrimination and increase the capacity of the churches to offer HIV/AIDS education and counselling."

In conjunction with the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands HIV/AIDS Committee and the Webster Memorial United Church Counselling Centre, UTCWI will be offering VCT training to ministers and lay persons in the churches, thus providing a pool of qualified volunteer counsellors to assist in government clinics and hospitals across the Caribbean. It is anticipated that training will also better equip churches to support persons infected with and effected by HIV/AIDS.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has reported that the Caribbean region has the highest prevalence of HIV outside of sub-Saharan Africa and that HIV is the leading cause of death among 15 - 44 years old in several countries in the region. Throughout the Caribbean the rate of HIV infection is rapidly increasing.

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