|PIC1|A leading African priest who became the first known African church leader to publicly declare he was HIV positive has come out to say he believes the world could be AIDS-free by 2025, reports Ecumenical News International.

“I am beginning to see a world free of AIDS,” said Canon Gideon Byamugisha, a Ugandan Anglican priest, at a meeting of religious leaders held earlier in the month to discuss ways of overcoming the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS.

The meeting in Nairobi was joint-organised by CARE International and the African Network of Religious Leaders living with or personally Affected by HIV (ANERELA+), an organisation chaired by Byamugisha.

“With good partnerships we can defeat stigma by 2009,” he said. “The epidemic can also level off by 2015. We will then be talking of a world free of AIDS by 2025."

Byamugisha listed several ‘persistent stumbling blocks’ in addition to stigma that had to first be overcome in order to successfully contain the pandemic, including shame, denial, discrimination, inaction and wrong actions.

|TOP|The delegates at the meeting were also joined by Anglican Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi who restated his well-received apology on behalf of the church for its treatment of persons infected with or affected with HIV/AIDS.

“Where the leaderships of religious groups have worked negatively, we are sorry and we want to walk the journey together with person living with AIDS, to bring healing ministry to the people. We repent for mis-action and inaction," Archbishop Nzimbi said.

He added that, despite the 1300-plus membership of ANERELA+, it was still difficult for religious leaders openly declare themselves as being HIV-positive.

“We are saying HIV/AIDS is not a group specific," said Archbishop Nzimbi. "We are urging people in leadership to come out and declare their status. This would be very encouraging and as a bishop, I am ready to walk with them."

Archbishop Nzimbi was praised for his public apology earlier in the month to HIV/AIDS victims on behalf of the church. He told Muslim and Christian clergy gathered for an AIDS workshop that the Church’s earlier approach to fighting AIDS had been “misplaced”.