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FAITH-BASED
INITIATIVES
Religious
leaders | Spiritual support
Behaviour change communication
if
the world is a cold place, make it your
business to build a fire"
(Anonymous)
Overview
The Faith-based Initiatives
programme at Humanitarian Care Uganda covers
such activities as request the input or
involvement of religious leaders in their
capacity as opinion leaders. This includes
the Christian sects as well as the Muslim
sects in an attempt to reach out to their
congregations since they have the power
to influence their people. According to
McGill, Religious affiliations
breakdown are Roman Catholic 33%, Protestant
33%, Islam 16%, indigenous beliefs 18%.
Bear in mind that Africans
in general and Uganda in particular are
a very religious people, this accounts for
the traditional practitioners who also have
their own faithfuls. The religious leaders
are important because most of the private
hospitals and local health centres are owned
and funded by religious organisations e.g.,
St. Francis Hospital Nsambya and Rubaga
Hospital (Catholic), Kibuli Hospital (Islamic).
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Problem
Statement
As the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS &
opportunistic infections makes its mark
on the ever increasing number of orphans;
it leaves behind a trail of souls disillusioned.
This hopelessness is driving to places of
works as they seek strength from a power
higher than themselves. However, the ill-equipped,
untrained spiritual leaders are posed with
a problem as they seek to reach out to the
affected families & comfort the infected
ones. Building on their evangelistic infrastructure
faith-based missions to prisons, army, schools
are becoming increasingly important as avenues
for disseminating health-care messages.
Since faith plays a very
important role in the social life of Ugandans,
many locals are prone to belief in some
sort of supernatural being from whom they
receive divine guidance and inspiration.
The problem here arises from the weakness
of these spiritual leaders who are, more
often than not, unskilled and unlearned
thus paving the way for uncensored, uneducated
misinformation.
Faith-based initiatives have
proved to be a good source of psycho-social
support for the infected and the affected
since Africans in general --Ugandans in
particular-- are a deeply spiritual people.
The faith-based leaders thus come forth
as opinion leaders in their context. Conversely,
they have also been proven to have the potential
to dissuade their congregations away into
detesting scientific methods of prevention
e.g., as regards blood transfusions, condom-usage.
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Goal &
Development Objective
The purpose of this programme
is to harness the influence of faith-based
leaders as opinion-leaders in their respective
denominations in creating and projecting
the specially tailored anti-HIV/AIDS messages
to their congregations. This is part of
our behavioural change management strategy
jeered at influencing constructive, positive
reinforcement.
Some of the objectives
of this core intervention area are:
• to avail local leaders at their
different levels of influence with the basic
HIV/AIDS information so that they are better
placed to positively influence their respective
congregations.
• to encourage local health care-givers
and their respective health care centres
to acquire more information about HIV/AIDS
issues so as to be updated about the latest
course being taken in the global fight against
the pandemic.
• to sensitise and partner with faith-based
care-givers and faith-based medical missions
about their role in combating the spread
of HIV/AIDS pandemic.
• to avail the traditional herbalists
and practitioners with as much updated scientific
information as is necessary in the bid to
improve their service delivery in terms
of hygiene.
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Expected
Outcomes
• Increased involvement of religious
leaders in destigmatisation campaigns
• Greater involvement of churches
in community health programmes
• Increased ease information dissemination
by use of the religious assemblies
• Increased knowledge of the average
congregator about HIV/AIDS and opportunistic
infections
• Increased involvement of traditional
herbalists in anti-HIV/AIDS campaigns.
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References
McGill, http://www.mcgill.ca/mchg/projects/edible/kampala/kampalainfo/
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