CFC-FFL
does its share in fighting AIDS in Cambodia.
ASIA/CAMBODIA
- AIDS peaks, because of birth control
policies
Phnom Penh (Agenzia Fides) – The
main cause for the surge in the spread
of AIDS in Cambodia is the birth control
policy and the promotion of artificial
contraception, explains Human Life International
(HLI) to Fides. HLI is the pro-life
movement which has recently completed
a mission in the south-east Asian country.
Cambodia is one of the countries with
the most offices of international agencies
which promote family planning and population
control : “Engender Health”,
USAID (United States Agency for International
Development) and its RACHA program (Reproductive
and Child Health Alliance). In the last
20 years, thanks to substantial funding
from these organisations, the State
has spent more than 600 million dollars
on population control and contraception
programs.
Analysis of these actions has seen a
drop in the fertility of Cambodian women
(from 6 to 3 children on average), but
also a rapid spread of AIDS. From when
the first case of infection was detected
in 1991, in the 15 years following,
94,000 people died from AIDS and those
infected have increased beyond all proportion,
to 160,000 cases in a population of
13 million, which makes Cambodia one
of the worst affected by the epidemic
in South-east Asia.
“These programs, according to
the promoters, would have had to stop
AIDS,” notes Human Life International
to Fides. The paradox is, rather, that
this massive campaign to spread contraceptives
and condoms, intended as a 'panacea'
against AIDS, “has instead encouraged
its spread, fuelling a culture of sexuality
as a commodity.”
The Church and many Christian-based
NGOs have been active in countering
this approach: Christian movements such
as “Couples for Christ”
promote training seminars for young
couples, while religious orders like
the Sisters of Mary Help of Christians
work in educating new generations to
spread the culture of respect for life,
the person, for corporeality and sexuality.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 22/2/2011)
"For
to me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain." (Phil 1:21)