The Annual Black Church 'Week of Prayer for Healing of AIDS', that began on Sunday 6th March, has mobilised thousands of churches in three countries - the United States, Africa and the Caribbean - to unite in prayer for the healing of AIDS in the world.

The prayer week, running from 6-12 March, is one of the largest HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns targeting African Americans. Since it was founded in 1989 by a New York-based charity The Balm in Gilead, it has become the centre of thousands of Black Churches for education, compassion and care in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

During the week of prayer, African-American churches are encouraged to hold educational sessions, discussions and prayer vigils to address the issue of HIV/AIDS.

According to the Balm in Gilead, the rate of AIDS cases among African American adults or adolescents (76.4 per 100,000) was nearly 11 times greater than that of Whites (7.0 per 100,000) and nearly three times that of Latinos (26.0 per 100,000) in 2002.

However, one of the "biggest barriers" to efforts to reduce the spread of HIV in the African-American community is the "belief that AIDS is primarily a disease affecting gay white men", reports the Seattle Times. Therefore, education is an integral part of the HIV/AIDS prevention effort.

Reverend Bill McGill, one of the convening members of the prayer week and a senior Baptist pastor, told in his sermon that HIV/AIDS have become the modern day equivalent for leprosy.

"In far too many instances, they have been abandoned, neglected or ostracised by the contemporary church as victims of a plague sent by God," he said.

"We must find common ground on this issue and share compassion with those living with and dying from HIV/AIDS. We must abandon our judgmental ways and measure human rights by one yardstick...Due to the fact that this disease called AIDS is so, to a number of us, like leprosy of old, much misunderstanding, misinformation and miscommunication has circulated, causing ignorant responses to it."

Currently, as the awareness of the prayer week in the African American faith community is growing, the Balm in Gilead has expanded its services to build the capacity of faith communities in Cote d’ Ivoire, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

Congressman Mel Watt, National Medical Association’s Dr. Winston Price, National Newspaper Publisher Association’s George Curry, Gospel Legend Bobby Jones and National Nurses Association Dr. Betty Lewis have all served as national co-chairs for observance of the prayer week this year.