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Waimar
Tun, Nathi Sohaba, and
Eka Esu-Williams.
"Do church members think that the church has a role to play in
promoting mutual monogamy and HIV prevention in their own
congregation? Insights from the Eastern Cape, South Africa."
ABSTRACT
Background
Church-based HIV prevention programs in South Africa have often
targeted community members rather than their own congregation. We
investigated whether church members would be receptive to an
intervention to promote mutual monogamy (MM) and HIV prevention within their own
church.
Methods
Church leaders, including pastors, were trained using a
faith-based curriculum on HIV and mutual monogamy entitled Making
the Promise, Keeping the Promise: A Faith-based Curriculum for
Promoting Mutual Monogamy, developed by Horizons/Population Council
and the Eastern Cape Provincial Council of Churches. To determine
the acceptability of the church's role in HIV prevention and MM,
approximately 250 randomly selected members of five pilot churches
completed a survey after a sermon about HIV and mutual monogamy
delivered by the pastor.
Results
Almost all respondents indicated they were comfortable learning
about HIV from a pastor (96%) and a high proportion agreed that HIV
(66%) and MM (70%) are appropriate topics for church sermons. Almost
one-third thought that married people in the church have
extramarital sex partners and the majority thought there should be
more sermons about faithfulness in marriage. Over two-thirds of
respondents indicated that the sermon increased their level of
knowledge about HIV/AIDS and MM, and the majority (94%) indicated
that it increased their willingness to get tested for HIV.
Conclusions
Church members are receptive to learning about HIV and MM
through their churches, therefore church leaders can play an
instrumental role in promoting HIV prevention strategies, including
MM, among church members.
Learning objective
- Discuss the level of acceptance of the church’s role in
promoting mutual monogamy as an HIV prevention strategy.
Roundtable Session 4115.0—Collaboration and Partnerships with
the Faith Community to Work on Global Health Rights
Tuesday, 6 November 2007,
12:30–2:00
pm
APHA 2007 Conference Web site
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