Responses to HIV by local churches and faith-based organisations amongst marginalised communities are transforming lives, says relief and development agency Tearfund.

As the 2008 International AIDS Conference continues in Mexico, Tearfund is calling on decision makers to reassess the potential that the church has to reach marginalised groups.

The agency says that it is the churches that are helping to overcome stigma and discrimination amongst communities by enabling access to treatment, care and support for people living with HIV.

Tearfund's new case study report, 'Working on the margins', highlights "exceptional" work by churches with women affected by sexual violence in the DRC, male groups in urban and rural Uganda, and with hijira (transgender) communities in India.

Contradicting stereotypes of the church as judgmental and reluctant to face up to the realities of HIV in their communities, Tearfund says that far from shying away, in many places church responses to HIV are reaching marginalised groups and that through this the church itself is being transformed.

The report acknowledges that the church itself has contributed to stigma and that challenges remain around issues of gender and sexuality, but it also illustrates that where the church engages with these challenges it is in a key position to overcome stigma and transform harmful attitudes.

"Collaboration, mutual respect and understanding between governments, international agencies and civil society, including people who are living with HIV, is essential if we are going to halt the spread of HIV," says Veena O'Sullivan from Tearfund's HIV team.

"Tearfund believes that where the church has overcome stigma it is playing a significant role in the response to HIV in many affected and marginalised communities because it is local, trusted, invests in relationships and is a powerful agent of change," she adds.