Religious Organizations and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目将以早期由联合国儿童健康与发展中心资助的一项关于撒哈拉以南非洲有组织宗教与艾滋病毒/艾滋病流行病的试点研究为基础，调查宗教组织的教义、结构和社会方面如何影响他们参与艾滋病毒/艾滋病的预防和护理。宗教组织在处理艾滋病毒/艾滋病预防、护理和宣传方面的潜力经常在文献中提到。然而，这种潜力很少受到彻底的检查。这种潜力在撒哈拉以南非洲似乎特别有希望，在那里，代表各种信仰和教派的宗教组织已经拥有相当多的追随者，而且在不断增长，而在那里，旨在处理公共卫生和其他社会政策问题的世俗机构往往效率低下，而且越来越不受信任。这种潜力对于接触人口中最脆弱的群体之一并赋予其权力也至关重要。农村和小城镇已婚妇女占宗教组织活跃成员的绝大多数。该项目的目标之一是调查不同宗教组织参与艾滋病毒/艾滋病预防活动和向艾滋病患者及其家属提供护理和支助的现有形式和程度。它的另一个目标是利用这些调查的结果，帮助宗教组织设计更包容的、融入社区的、更有效的参与艾滋病毒/艾滋病预防和护理的形式。该项目将在莫桑比克南部的一个农村地区进行，将包括对18-50岁妇女进行有代表性的家庭调查，并对这些妇女所属的宗教组织进行平行的机构调查。调查数据分析的结果将提交给学术和政策听众。调查结果还将与参与调查的宗教组织的领导和普通成员分享，征求他们的评估和反馈。根据分析结果和从宗教组织收到的反馈，将举办一个区域性跨信仰讲习班，目的是加强和扩大宗教组织对艾滋病毒/艾滋病预防和护理活动的参与，以及它们彼此之间和与有关世俗机构的合作。该项目提出的建议将予以散发，以便在莫桑比克各地加以应用。

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.