Religious Organizations and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Building upon an earlier NICHD-funded pilot study on organized religion and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub- Saharan Africa, the project will investigate how doctrinal, structural, and social aspects of religious organizations influence their involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention and care. The potential of religious organizations to deal with HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and advocacy is often mentioned in the literature. Yet seldom is this potential subjected to thorough examination. This potential seems particularly promising in sub-Saharan Africa, where religious organizations representing various creeds and denominations enjoy an already considerable and constantly growing following and where secular institutions designed to deal with public health and other social policy issues are, in contrast, often inefficient and increasingly distrusted. This potential is also critical in reaching out to and empowering one of the most vulnerable segments of the population? Rural and small-town married women who constitute the overwhelming majority of religious organizations' active members. One of the project's goals is to investigate the existing forms and extent of different religious organizations' involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention activities and in provision of care and support to AIDS patients and their families. Its other goal is to use the results of these investigations to help religious organizations design more inclusive, community-embedded, and effective forms of involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention and care. The project will be carried out in a rural district of southern Mozambique and will include a representative household-based survey of women aged 18-50 and a parallel institutional survey of religious organizations to which these women belong. The results of the survey data analyses will be presented to the academic and policy audiences. They will also be shared with the leaders and ordinary members of the religious organizations involved in the survey to solicit their assessment and feedback. Based on the analysis results and the feedback received from the religious organizations, a district-wide inter-faith workshop will be conducted with the purpose of enhancing and expanding the involvement of religious organizations in HIV/AIDS prevention and care activities and their collaboration with one another and with relevant secular agencies. The recommendations resulting from the project will be disseminated for possible applications in various parts of Mozambique.