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Buddhist monks, nuns, and novices offer practical and spiritual assistance to people with HIV and to their communities in an attempt to bring communities together and to fight the ignorance and stigma around HIV/AIDS. The Sangha Metta project trains monks, nuns, and novices in all areas of intervention for people living with or affected by AIDS. As a result, these traditionally significant individuals have become a new wave of AIDS educators. Their role is to improve the level of awareness in the community, to demystify the myths of HIV/AIDS with accurate information, and to provide emotional support and care to people with HIV and to their communities.

HIV/AIDS in Asia today has become a widespread epidemic. According to AusAID, “in the Asia Pacific region, 7.2 million people are now living with HIV/AIDS” (Online). Prevention and care programs are not widely practiced in Asia due to public fear, ignorance, and stigma in the communities. As a result, sufferers of HIV/AIDS are ostracized and live in secrecy, and the general public suffers economically and socially.

Given the negative impact that fear and ignorance have on communities, monks have seen their roles as traditional leaders as the answer to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and to bring communities together. Temples in many Asian countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, play the traditional role of being the spiritual heart of villages. The communities view monks as teachers and confidants and are most respected. Local people are accustomed to telling monks their problems, worries, and insights.

Monks, nuns, and novices today understand their traditional roles in the communities and how they can use it to tackle deep-rooted discrimination and ignorance regarding HIV/AIDS. The main focus of their actions has been to provide emotional support and care to individuals with HIV/AIDS and the communities.

The Sangha Metta project was started in 1997 by monks themselves in Thailand. It has been a source of inspiration, training, and technical assistance for Buddhist leadership initiative. Sangha Metta supports monks and nuns in HIV/AIDS prevention and care. Prevention involves the areas of new infections, viral transmission, and socio-economic impact. Care includes caring for people with HIV/AIDS, their families, and communities. Sangha Metta trains monks, nuns, and novices through seminars, workshops, visits to HIV/AIDS hospices, and presentations on HIV/AIDS. In addition, Sangha Metta uses awareness-raising, prevention education, social management skills, and tools to encourage tolerance and compassion. In these 3-5 day trainings, monks learn the social skills that they can use in their work with the community and experience first-hand the magic in helping to cleanse prejudice against people with HIV/AIDS. They assess together the problems in their communities, the causes, and what steps can be taken to solve the problems. In addition, monks initiate their own work based on what they have learned. In their work, these individuals implement the moral/religious teachings of Buddhism, which include the Four Noble Truths (suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path leading to the cessation of suffering), the Four Sublime States (compassion, loving kindness, equanimity, and sympathetic joy) and the Noble Eight-Fold Path (understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration).

Back in their communities, monks initiate activities depending on their communities’ needs. Examples of their work include:

• home-visits to people with HIV/AIDS
• eating food offerings prepared by people with HIV/AIDS (this has made powerful impressions on the villages and has helped in overcoming fear and discrimination)
• donation of alms
• teaching villagers about where to find and how to use herbal medicines for treating AIDS-related illnesses
• educating villagers about HIV/AIDS (how it is transmitted and demystifying the myths)
• reaching out to the youths with HIV/AIDS education
• providing meditation to people with HIV/AIDS so that they can become emotionally healthy and stronger
• role-playing situations regarding the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS
• income-generating activities such as handcraft; helping with free food and funeral ceremonies to people with HIV; caring for children orphaned by AIDS, and spiritual counseling.

The impact of the work of monks, nuns, and novices has been reflected in community bonding, the increase in awareness of HIV/AIDS, the community involvement with activities of previously secluded people with HIV/AIDS, the training of more than 2,000 monks, nuns, and novices by the Sangha Metta project, the reduction of social fear and discrimination, the involvement of youths, and internal healing of people with HIV/AIDS. The monks’ work has given back the emotional support to people with HIV/AIDS and their communities that was not present before.

Today, monks are being trained in Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, Burma, Vietnam, and China, with the help of UNICEF. In an attempt to enhance the effectiveness of training these monks, Sangha Metta is working towards creating a network called Buddhist Regional Aids Intervention Network (BRAIN), where monks themselves become trainers in their country.

In implementing this tactic, it is important to keep in mind:

1. the long-standing traditional role, respect, and influence that monks have already had in the communities,
2. the necessity of implementing ethical/religious teachings to impact the communities to see the importance of integration and communal living,
3. the direct involvement and even interaction of villagers and people with HIV/AIDS,
4. the direct initiatives from monks, nuns, and novices to bring back their communities together, and
5. the involvement of youths in understanding about HIV/AIDS. In addition, possible challenges include resistance from villagers and funding.

It is important to also remember that information is a powerful tool to overcome ignorance and fear; therefore, it is necessary to be updated and accurate about the dissemination of information to villagers and communities. This tactic becomes an example for tackling other social/community issues including sex, drugs, poverty, trafficking, child labor, and abuse, and has potential for further development and application in countries such as Cambodia, China, Laos, and Vietnam, where HIV/AIDS support and care programs as well as community development still lack.

Completed June 25, 2003.