Zimbabwean sect ‘to change marriage practices' to stem AIDS

Borneo Bulletin:

Members of a popular church sect in Zimbabwe have agreed radically to change their marriage practices to stem the spread of AIDS, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Apostolic Faith sect has more than three million followers in Zimbabwe, representing one quarter of the population.

Practices such as polygamy, wife inheritance and early marriages - common in some of the sect's churches - have been blamed for fuelling the spread of HIV and AIDS.

But Apostolic Faith leaders attending a workshop in the capital Harare have now decided to discourage the practices, the privately-owned Standard newspaper reported.

"We are now preaching to our members one-man one-wife, discouraging early marriages for girls and discouraging wife inheritance," Bishop Revai Chitanda, head of the Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe told the paper.

"We all know how these practices are drawing us back in the fight against HIV and AIDS," Chitanda said.

Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV rates in sub-Saharan Africa and the world, with an estimated one in four people being infected. Around 3,000 Zimbabweans die a week from HIV/AIDS and cemeteries are filling up fast.

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