Churches urged to embrace condoms

Religious Leaders were on Thursday asked to play a more meaningful role in AIDS prevention activities by accepting and encouraging the use of condoms by their congregations.

Selorm Azumah, a Resource Person at the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana, who made the call, said preaching of abstinence from pre-marital sex and faithfulness in relationships by religious bodies appeared to make very little difference in the lifestyles of their members.

"HIV/AIDS cases are on the rise, even though churches are springing up every day in all parts of the country, preaching messages of abstinence and faithfulness."

Azumah told a seminar on "HIV/AIDS: The Way Forward," organised by the Academy of Business Administration as part of its Students Representative Council Week celebration in Accra, that Africa alone carries some 25 million AIDS cases out of the global total of 36 million.

He urged the youth to take a central place in the AIDS prevention campaigns, being the most vulnerable group in the spread of the disease, adding that they need to organise themselves into groups to lead the way in educating the communities.