August 3, 1999
We care Leading the way As spiritual and community leaders, Buddhist monks can play a significant role in supporting people with HIV/Aids. The Sangha Metta Project encourages monks to offer practical and spiritual help to stricken individuals-and the knock-on effect is that communities as a whole become more caring Karnjariya Sukrung A group of monks from Mahamakut Buddhist University give alms and sangkhataan baskets to people with HIV and Aids, and their families. The practical support given by the respected monks is helping to overcome the prejudices against people with HIV, which are rife in some communities. A group of young monks in yellow robes are serenely walking towards a poor village in Chiang Mai. In their hands are yellow buckets, filled to the brim with basic necessities. It is the typical sangkhataan bucket one sees in temples across the country, the ready-made kind which one buys in shops selling monks' paraphernalia or supermarkets, and gives to monks as part of merit-making rites. No one in the village gave the monks the buckets. In fact, the monks are taking the sangkhataan buckets to patients with HIV and Aids. Going to the patients' homes, the monks spend time asking about their health and their other needs. Sometimes they share lunch with the patients and bless them with Buddhist prayers. Then they give the patients the sangkhataan buckets. "These home visits usually cheer up the Aids patients," said Pimjai In-thamul, co-ordinator of a community health care project for people with HIV/Aids. "It shows them they are still part of society and blessed by the holy ones. The sangkhataan buckets also give them necessities they cannot afford," said Mrs Pimjai, who is herself HIV positive. For nearly two years the Sangha Metta Project has had monks visiting the homes of people with HIV/Aids. Supported and sponsored by Unicef-UNAids, the project is aimed at involving monks in HIV/Aids prevention and care work in their communities. "Aids has reached almost every community. It is no longer an individual but a community problem. So all parties in the community should take part in tackling it," said Lawrence Maund, the project's manager and co-ordinator. "Monks can and should have a more active role in this work. As spiritual leaders of the community, they can do so much to help solve or alleviate the problem." The Sangha Metta Project was set up in 1997 among young monks and novices studying at Mahamakut Buddhist University at Lanna Campus, Wat Chedi Luang Worawiharn in Chiang Mai. As part of their training, student monks attended seminars and workshops to learn about Aids and about social skills that they might use in their work with the community. But lectures and workshops alone cannot give one an insight on the sufferings of HIV/Aids patients. Hence home visits were incorporated into the programme. From home visits, monks can witness the patients' suffering first-hand-and they can share their pain. And monks having food prepared by people with HIV has worked magic in helping to cleanse the prejudice many feel against those with the deadly virus. "At first some students felt reluctant to eat the food offered by the patients. But since monks couldn't deny alms, they had to eat it. This gave them the basic understanding that contact with people with HIV does not have to be deadly nor scary," said Mr Maund. Such close contacts, he said, is a way for young monks to cultivate compassion for the sick and poor. From lectures to regular first-hand encounters, the participating monks usually come up with their own way of helping patients at the end of the training. "We won't tell them what to do. All activities must stem from their own initiatives. Our goal is only to get to their hearts and after that they will know for themselves what they have to do to help these people," Mr Maund said. Apart from providing monks Aids education, the Sangha Metta Project centre also assists the monks by co-ordinating with other organisations to form a network of monks in Aids projects. So far, Sangha Metta has worked with 200 monks. When their training is over, they take the ideas of a sangkhataan bank, home visits, Aids orphan shelters, meditation and social awareness and compassion back to their home communities. The idea of a sangkhataan bank came about when monks saw an overwhelming number of buckets and alms gathering dust in the temple-when outside Aids patients faced poverty and joblessness and lived with little food and without basic necessities. The sangkhataan buckets generally include soap, toothpaste, water, tea, matches, milk, canned food, and other basic items. In the face of the excessive number of gifts, the monks decided to "deposit" the unused items in a so-called bank at the Sangha Metta Project Centre in Wat Chedi Luang. When a monk goes to visit an Aids patient they can withdraw some sangkhataan items to give to the patients. "A bar of soap may cost just five baht, but it is priceless for some Aids patients who don't have a baht to buy anything," said Mr Maund. Many merit makers often put common medicines, such as painkillers for headaches and medicine for the common cold, in the buckets. The Sangha Metta monks separate these medicines and put them in their medicine bank. As well as being given to the patients, sometimes these household medicines are exchanged for Aids drugs from some hospitals. Milk is a favourite merit-making item and consequently temples are often drowned in the product. And so in the same way, the Sangha Metta monks separate milk from other items in the sangkhataan and put them in a Milk Bank-to give to children whose parents have HIV/Aids. And it is not only helping with free food, medicine and morale support. When the patients die, the monks also provide the families with free bungsukul cloth-a piece of monk's robe used for merit-making during funeral rites. They also donate other items required at funeral ceremonies. "The disease has almost always emptied the patients' savings. Their families are generally so poor they can't afford even a simple funeral service. But with the monks' help, Aids patients can have the same funeral as other people in the community," said Mr Maund. For the HIV/Aids patients and their families, what is more important than material support is perhaps the moral embrace offered by those they highly respect. As the spiritual leaders of a community, monks raise the patients' spirits through dhamma and meditation teaching-as well as giving them practical counselling. Though most of the Sangha Metta monks cannot offer their temples as Aids hospices, many welcome people with HIV/Aids to use the temples as a meeting place. Some monks teach patients handicrafts so they can make some extra cash. Home visit and close contact with people with HIV have inspired the seeds of compassion in the monks' hearts -- and in wider society. Pictures courtesy of the Sangha Metta Project Engaging in handicrafts is also a group activity designed to draw the patients away from isolation. "It's important that Aids patients come out. Once they do, they can get a lot of help from government and non-governmental agencies, " said Mr Maund. And in communities where prejudice against HIV/Aids prevails, monks, as a centre of the rural community, hold the key to unlocking this social stigma, he added. Home visits by the monks set a good example. And when religious events are held at the temple, monks will recruit Aids patients to participate with the community at large. "By these activities, monks show the community that Aids sufferers are not to be feared. That we can live together. And as monks in rural areas are still much respected by villagers, I believe their involvement with people with Aids can encourage others to be more tolerant," said Mr Maund. Current figures suggest Thailand has 70,000 children who are orphans because of Aids, Mr Maund said. And in the next five years, that number is expected to increase to 250,000. Many temples are a second home for these children. Apart from free accommodation and food, the temples also give them the opportunity to study in formal and monastic educational systems-depending on their preference. Unfortunately monastic rules limit this educational and boarding assistance to boys only. "Orphaned girls are sent to live with relatives or other people who will have them. Some girls risk being sexually molested and end up with a very tragic life," Mr Maund said. In a bid to give girls an equal chance, the Sangha Metta Project recently held a workshop to encourage nuns to become involved in HIV/Aids work. Mr Maund hopes in the near future, girls whose parents have died of Aids-related illnesses will be able to find refuge with Buddhist nuns. Alongside the community care, the Sangha Metta monks have been active in prevention schemes. Many monks give lectures in schools or hold workshops at the temples to raise awareness among young people about the disease. These use morality as the key to Aids prevention. Because of the support of the Sangha Metta monks, many families and individuals stricken by Aids have continued to be embraced by their communities. Their quality of life has improved. And communities at large have learned about preventing the spread of HIV and the care of those with the virus. Hopefully, Mr Maund said, this is the way any social problems are tackled at the local level with monks as leaders. "When our Sangha Metta monks go back to their communities, they involve other monks and other villagers in their work with HIV/Aids patients. This community effort to help the underprivileged helps strengthen community ties. In the long run, the community will be stronger to tackle other social problems, not only Aids." Info for donations: Name: The Sangha Metta Project Contact person: Lawrence Maund Address: Mahamakut Buddhist University, Lanna Campus, Wat Chedi Luang Worawiharn, 103 Phra Pokklao Road, Muang District, Chiang Mai 50200 Tel: (053) 814-405 Fax: (053) 278-551 Email: laurie@cm.ksc.co.th Bank info: savings account name: Sangha Metta Project; account number 4-2-4063361-2; Bangkok Bank's Pratu Chiang Mai branch, Chiang Mai. Alternatively, you can send a cheque payable to Post Publishing Public Company Limited (For Sangha Metta) to Kusuma Mintakhin, Editorial Manager, 136 Na Ranong Road, off Sunthorn Kosa, Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110. Her telephone number is 240-3700 ext 3224-5. Please include your name and address with your cheque so we can send you a receipt. *** "We Care" is a weekly series honouring people who believe in giving. Apart from supporting these causes, you can also let us know about people who unselfishly help others so we can make more people aware of their efforts. Fax "We Care" on 240-3668 or call 240-3700 ext 3208 or 3212. Or email: sanitsuda@bangkokpost.net. For a comprehensive list of charities covered by Outlook's We Care weekly series, see the Bangkok Post Website at http://www.bangkokpost.net/outlookwecare/		Current Issues in Thailand Bangkok Post Year-end Economic Review NEW! 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