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| 5/24 |
| 2006/1/29-31 [Health/Disease/AIDS] UID:41595 Activity:high |
1/29 One quarter of US AIDS money going to religious groups preaching
abstinence-only.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060129/ap_on_he_me/aids_prevention
\_ Liar. "President Bush's $15 billion effort to fight
AIDS has handed out nearly one-quarter of its grants to religious
groups, and officials are aggressively pursuing new church partners
that often emphasize disease prevention through abstinence and
fidelity over condom use."
1/4 to religious groups. There's no % listed of how many of them
are preaching abstinence only.
\_ Don't be pedantic.
\_ I'm usually the first to say this, but in this case that
is a pretty important difference.
\_ I challenge you to find a federal funded religious
group that is doing AIDS outreach and education that
doesn't involve abstinence only education in some form.
Also, doesn't the idea of a "federally funded religious
group" kinda bother you?
\_ Did not seem to both Thomas Jefferson or any
of a large number of subsequent number of
presidents to this day.
\_ "in some form". Any sex ed of any sort that doesn't
teach "in some form" that *not* having sex is the
best way to avoid a sexual transmitted disease is
pretty stupid. What is wrong with telling people
that condoms, etc aren't perfect and abstinence is
the most effective method of avoidance? As far as
"federally funded religious group" goes, these are
not "federally funded religious groups" in the sense
that you're implying they are State Sponsored
religions. Churches have always done charity work.
Would you prefer they just stop? Does it bother you
that they run soup kitchens too? Relax your knee.
\_ pp is referring to "abstinence-*only*" education.
\_ Ok. How does that change anything?
\_ Abstinence-only education is actually worse
than no sex education.
\_ URL or just opinion?
\_ Here's a study from Minnesota
high schools. There are many more
like this:
http://csua.org/u/etq --!pp
\_ Your link doesn't say that
abstinence-only is worse than no
sex ed at all. "That [the
abstinence-only rate] is still
lower than the average rate of
sexually active adolescents in
those counties, researchers said."
Now, the actual report may actually
say that abstinence-only is worse,
since your article includes many
provocative statements that
abstinence-only is a failure,
but the article itself does not
present logic or statistics to
support those statements. And with-
out supporting evidence, those
statements by themselves are
worthless.
\_ Oh yes - Minnesota public schools.
Where they can help your child
obtain an abortion without you
ever knowing anything about it.
\_ Also, I am thrilled that churches continue to do
charity work. I don't think federal funds should
should be used to support them.
\_ "to support them". To support them doing charity
work? You think the Feds are more efficient at
helping at the grass roots level than the people
who actually live in a community? I've seen
how Fed & State funded programs "work". You'd
be hard pressed to find an organization more
corrupt, slack, inefficient or less caring about
the 'customer' than someone who has a government
job giving away other people's money. They get
rated on how much money they give away and there's
no oversight. It was pretty sickening.
\_ I think you missed where he said "I _don't_
think..."
\_ I didn't miss it. I'm sharing my
experience as anecdotal evidence that he
should reconsider his thoughts.
\_ So... you WANT the feds to give away
money? Even though it's sickening?
\_ No, but since they're going to do
it anyway, I'd prefer it go to small
local efficient charities instead of
getting handed out like candy to the
wrong people by the wrong people who
are just pissing it away. I thought
it was clear that the sickening part
is the waste involved in government
aid "projects".
\_ How about they don't give the money
away, lower taxes, and let people
give their own money to whatever
causes they want?
\_ Not if you believe in charity.
Even in the same town, Mr Rich
Guy is unlikely to know that
Mr Poor Guy could use a new
pair of shoes for his kid on
the other side of town, but
I'll bet Poor Guy's local
religious figure and his
neighbors know. I don't believe
in large money sucking non-
charities either. Same deal.
Huge org sucking up cash and
giving out pennies on the
dollar to the wrong people.
Large professional charity
orgs in this country mostly
suck and IMO are even worse
than the Feds because they
pull on heart strings to get
your dollar and then piss it
away. At least the Feds tax
you by force with no pretence.
\_ Cf. Salvation Army. |
| 5/24 |
|
| news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060129/ap_on_he_me/aids_prevention AIDS has handed out nearly one-quarter of its grants to religious groups, and officials are aggressively pursuing new church partners that often emphasize disease prevention through abstinence and fidelity over condom use. Award recipients include a Christian relief organization famous for its televised appeals to feed hungry children, a well-known Catholic charity and a group run by the son of evangelist Billy Graham, according to the State Department. The debate has activated groups on both ends of the political spectrum and created a vast competition for money. Conservative Christian allies of the president are pressing the US foreign aid agency to give fewer dollars to groups that distribute condoms or work with prostitutes. The Bush administration provided more than 560 million condoms abroad last year, compared with some 350 million in 2001. Secular organizations in Africa are raising concerns that new money to groups without AIDS experience may dilute the impact of Bush's historic three-year-old program. "We clearly recognize that it is very important to work with faith-based organizations," said Dan Mullins, deputy regional director for southern and western Africa for CARE, one of the best-known humanitarian organizations. "But at the same time we don't want to fall into the trap of assuming faith-based groups are good at everything," Mullins said. The administration is beginning a broad effort to attract newcomers and distribute money for AIDS prevention and care beyond the large nonprofit groups that traditionally have led the fight. The New Partners Initiative reserves $200 million through the 2008 budget year for community and church groups with little or no background in government grants. Some may have health operations in Africa but no experience in HIV work. Others may be homegrown groups in Africa that have not previously sought US support. "The notion that because people have always received aid money that they'll get money needs to end," Deputy US global AIDS coordinator Mark Dybul said in an interview with The Associated Press. "The only way to have sustainable programs is to have programs that are wholly owned in terms of management personnel at the local level." Large nonprofit groups involved in health and development projects typically enlist local religious groups because of their deep community ties. The goal now is to penetrate hard-to-reach corners of the target countries -- 13 in Africa, and Haiti and Vietnam -- and bring aboard community and faith groups that previously lacked expertise to win grants, Dybul said. Religious organizations last year accounted for more than 23 percent of all groups that got HIV/AIDS grants, according to the State Department. Some 80 percent of all secular and religious grant recipients were based in the countries where the aid is targeted. Among those winning grants were: _Samaritan's Purse, which is run by Graham's son, Franklin. It says its mission is "meeting critical needs of victims of war, poverty, famine, disease and natural disaster while sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ." The 56-year-old Christian organization is known for its TV appeals -- some with celebrities such as game show host Alex Trebek -- that asked people to support a Third World child. The group offers "complete and correct information about condoms" but will not promote, purchase or distribute them, said Carl Stecker, senior program director for HIV/AIDS. The global relief organization founded by the International Churches of Christ recently brought comedian Chris Rock to South Africa for an AIDS prevention event. Most of the money in Bush's initiative goes to treatment programs, earning the administration praise for delivering lifesaving drugs and care to millions of HIV-infected patients. For prevention, Bush embraces the "ABC" strategy: abstinence before marriage, being faithful to one partner, and condoms targeted for high-risk activity. The Republican-led Congress mandated that one-third of prevention money be reserved for abstinence and fidelity. Condom promotion to anyone must include abstinence and fidelity messages, US guidelines say, but those preaching abstinence do not have to provide condom education. The abstinence emphasis, say some longtime AIDS volunteers, has led to a confusing message and added to the stigma of condom use in parts of Africa. Village volunteers in Swaziland maintain a supply of free condoms but say they have few takers. "This drive for abstinence is putting a lot of pressure on girls to get married earlier," said Dr. Abeja Apunyo, the Uganda representative for Pathfinder International, a reproductive health nonprofit group based in Massachusetts. "For years now we have been trying to tell our daughters that they should finish their education and train in a profession before they get married. Otherwise they have few options if they find themselves separated from their husbands for some reason," Apunyo said. An AIDS-program pastor in Uganda explained his abstinence teaching to unmarried young people. Sam Lawrence Ruteikara of the Anglican Church of Uganda, a US grant recipient. "This person doesn't have a sexual partner, so why should I report too much, saying that in case you get a sexual partner, please use a condom. I am saying, please don't get a sexual partner -- don't get involved because it is risky." Secular activists say it is not realistic to expect all teenagers to abstain from sex and that teenagers also should be taught how to protect themselves. US-backed programs have spread abstinence and faithfulness education to more than 13 million people in Uganda, according to the State Department. Officials promote the nation as an "ABC" model, with its HIV infection rate down by more than half in a decade. Chris Smith, R-NJ, said that on a tour of Uganda in January he saw pro-abstinence rallies and skits praising Bush, and US-supported groups conducting house-to-house testing, care and counseling. "The good news about the faith-based groups is not only the passion they bring to the work but it is the moral authority and the extended numbers of volunteers they can mobilize to get the word out," Smith said. But Smith believes the administration is wrongly supporting some nonprofit groups. He and several other congressional conservatives wrote to Bush and the US Agency for International Development, contending that several large grant recipients were pro-prostitution, pro-abortion or not committed enough to Bush's abstinence priorities. The letters followed a briefing last year by Focus on the Family, run by Christian commentator and Bush ally James Dobson. The group's sexual health analyst, Linda Klepacki, said even some religious groups emphasize condoms over abstinence. "We have to be careful that the president's original intent is being followed where A and B are the emphasized areas of the ABC methodology," she said. Condoleezza Rice , accused the conservatives of a distortion campaign that undermines a balanced approach to fighting AIDS. "Their attack is based on a narrow, ideological viewpoint that condemns condoms and frames any attempt to reach out to high-risk populations as an endorsement of behaviors that these critics oppose," said Rep. USAID has declined to renew funding for two major AIDS-fighting consortiums, CORE and IMPACT, headed by organizations the conservatives targeted. Those two groups fund hundreds of community and religious-based organizations. CORE, whose lead partner is CARE, is losing its central source of money, meaning its work survives only if it can win grants from individual USAID missions in target countries. Family Health International, the lead organization of IMPACT, brought hundreds of local and religious groups into its $441 million project, but was told the administration wants new partners, said Sheila Mitchell, senior vice president of FHI's Institute for HIV/AIDS. Dybul said the changes are in keeping with the shift to local groups. Any suggestion of political motivation is "inaccurate and offensive to people doing this work," he said. Millions of grant dollars still go to the groups that were criticized. The group's b... |
| csua.org/u/etq -> www.mnaidsproject.org/policy/Abstinencereport.htm Site MAP State's abstinence-only sex education doesn't work any better, report says Josephine Marcotty Star Tribune Published 01/04/2004 The state's $5 million abstinence-only sex education program isn't working, according to an independent study commissioned by the Minnesota Department of Health. The study found that sexual activity among junior high kids at three schools where the program was taught doubled between 2001 and 2002 -- a pattern similar to that exhibited by kids statewide -- and that the number who said they would probably have sex during high school nearly doubled, as well. The state's five-year-old abstinence-only initiative has been taught to 45,000 Minnesota kids and is funded by state and federal dollars. ENABL (Education Now and Babies Later) teaches the view embraced by social conservatives -- that abstinence is the only sure way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and that teaching kids about birth control or safer sex practices simply encourages them to have sex. In fact, federal rules tied to the funding forbid any mention of the effectiveness of contraception or safer sexual practices that reduce the risk of disease. The 91-page report, posted last week with little fanfare on the Health Department's Web site, recommends broadening the program to include more information about contraception. Critics of the ENABL program questioned why the agency waited until six months after the report was completed to release what they said might be a politically controversial finding. State health officials said the release was not delayed. The Minnesota researchers surveyed 413 kids who were taught the abstinence-only curriculum at one school in each of three counties. That is still lower than the average rate of sexually active adolescents in those counties, researchers said. But the abstinence-only message would have been viewed as a success if the rates of sexual activity and sexual intentions among the ENABL group had remained about the same in each year, researchers said. "Given how much money is being spent, it seems like a really weak intervention," said Connie Schmitz, the outside consultant with Professional Evaluation Services of Minneapolis. Schmitz, who headed the study, said it raises serious questions about whether sexually active kids are getting the information they need to avoid pregnancy and infectious diseases. Few surprised Carol Woolverton, assistant commissioner of health, said Health Department officials were not surprised by the results. "And we recognize that there might be more efficient ways to approach this." But it's too early to say whether the Health Department will try to find a way to reach sexually active kids with information about contraceptives, she said. The state risks losing the federal funding that pays for most of the program if it changes from abstinence-only. However, advocates of contraceptive education said the findings clearly show it's time for state health officials to advocate a change in direction. "They have to take these results seriously, be accountable to the citizens of the state and make an appropriate change so we get better results," said Nancy Nelson, executive director of the Minnesota Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Prevention and Parenting. Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council, which supports abstinence-only education, said he wasn't surprised by the findings, either. However, he said ENABL isn't working because it doesn't go far enough in its abstinence message. Kids should be told not just to abstain until they are adults, but rather to wait until they are married to have sex. He also said the program is not long enough or clear enough in its message that kids should also abstain from any physical or sexual contact. "We were legitimately wondering if this report would see the light of day in a very public way," said Bob Tracy, director of education for the Minnesota AIDS Project. Woolverton said that it took time for health officials to review the data and that they did not intentionally delay its debut on the Web site. The Minnesota report adds to a very small body of research on the effectiveness of abstinence-only education. Prichard said the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, lists a number of effective abstinence-only programs on its Web site. Some experts, however, say that none has been effective in reducing pregnancy and sexual activity. "So far all of the programs that have been demonstrated to have a positive impact . have been comprehensive sex education that emphasize abstinence and talk about condoms and contraception and encourage their use for young people who are sexually active," said Douglas Kirby, a researcher on sex education for the National Campaign to End Teen Pregnancy. He added, "the jury is still out" on abstinence-only education. The federal government has funded a major nationwide review of such programs and will be completed in 2005. In Minnesota, most parents want both kinds of information provided to their kids, according to the ENABL study. It surveyed 2,500 Minnesota parents and found that only one-fifth wanted abstinence-only education and that 77 percent wanted their kids to know about contraception, too, the researchers said. ENABL is a community-based program coordinated by schools, local organizations and parents. It relies on public-service advertising and community events to advocate abstinence. But the primary piece consists of a five-hour educational curriculum taught in schools or at community centers and includes statistics, reasons why kids should wait until they are either adults or married to have sex and suggestions on how to avoid sex and risky situations where sex might occur. It also encourages them to talk to their parents about sex. Researchers said that one of the bright notes of the study is that between 1998 and 2001 kids who were surveyed showed a greater willingness to talk to their parents about sex. The program also includes information on the failure rates of contraceptives but nothing on their effectiveness in preventing pregnancy and disease. That can lead to awkward situations in the classroom when kids raise their hands and ask pointed questions about contraceptives, said Nicole Johnson, the ENABL coordinator for the Phillips community in Minneapolis. Lutheran Social Service administers the program in that neighborhood. "We just go around the question, and say we are here to talk about abstinence," she said. "But I think abstinence-only may not be the best option." The debate on the best ways to provide sex education is taking place against a backdrop of declining teen pregnancy rates both nationally and in Minnesota. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released 2002 data last month showing that the rate of births among girls age 15 to 19 was 43 per 1,000, a 30 percent decline since 1991. But that number masks what state health officials have acknowledged is a significant problem in Minnesota -- it has some of the highest teen birth rates in the nation among some minority groups, blacks in particular. In 2000, the birth rate among blacks in Minnesota was 162 per 1,000, compared with 30 for whites. However, birth rates among minority groups have been declining, as well. Schmitz, the study's lead author, said ENABL is not really geared toward minority kids. In recent years the Health Department has increased ENABL funding to schools and organizations in minority communities. The abstinence message does nothing to address the real forces driving pregnancy and unhealthy sexual activity among the teenagers most at risk -- poverty, substance abuse and hopelessness, she said. org Content Notice: This site contains HIV prevention messages that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Since HIV infection is spread primarily though sexual practices or by sharing needles, prevention messages and programs may address these topics. If you are not seeking such information or materials, please exit this Web site. |