Religious Organizations and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care (2006-2011) 

Building upon an earlier pilot study on organized religion and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa funded by the National Insititute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the project examines how doctrinal, structural, and social aspects of religious organizations and the community religious milieu influence individuals’ involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention and care. The potential of religious organizations for 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 membership and where secular institutions designed to deal with public health and other social policy issues are often inefficient and 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. Recognizing the importance of religious organizations in HIV/AIDS impact mitigation and the paucity of research on the subject this project will analyze the existing forms and extent of different religious organizations’ involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention activities and in the provision of care and support to AIDS patients and their families. The results of these investigations will then be used to help religious organizations to design more inclusive, effective, and sustainable forms of their involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention and care. The project is carried out in a rural district of southern Mozambique and includes 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 shared with the leaders and ordinary members of the religious organizations involved in the study 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.

The project is funded by a grant from the the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD050175) and is conducted in collaboration with the Centre for African Studies of Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique.

"Dialogue & Action" Seminar, May 2009, Chibuto, Mozambique, Final Report, in Portuguese

"Dialogue & Action" Seminar, May 2009, Chibuto, Mozambique, Final Report, in Changana

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