| dc.description.abstract | This project paper is entitled "The response of the Anglican church of Kenya in the
fight against HIVIAIDS: an assessment of the All Saints Diocese, Nairobi, Kenya".
Today HIV/AIDS presents the single most important health and socio-economic
challenge in post independence Kenya. Kenya has about 1.9 million people living
with HIV IAIDS; hence one of the hardest hit countries in sub Sahara Africa. For a
long time, many of the people infected have suffered psychologically, socially and
economically as reflected in the problem statement. It is upon this scenario that many
development partners inter alia the church, the government, NGOS came up with
programmes to fight the disease. However, with these efforts, the pandemic still is
rampant.
If is upon this backdrop that the study, sought to examine the various responses
especially those initiated by the Anglican Church in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Specifically this research project examined in detail the operational activities of the
Anglican Church of Kenya under the All Saints Cathedral Diocese in the fight against
the scourge. Among the programme activities run by the church include; community
orphan care; support of people living with and personally affected by HIV IAIDS,
prevention activities, pastoral care and support, and outreach programs.
To find out whether the goals of these programmes are realized the study set three
objectives, one, to identify the challenges facing the ACK intervention efforts and its
capacity to deal with these challenges. Secondly, to evaluate the effectiveness and
sustainability of HIV/AIDS Church initiated programmes and finally to establish the
members perceptions of the programmes.
The methodology employed by this study was participatory, which involved members
of selected parishes in the diocese as case studies. The researcher used both snowball
and purposeful sampling techniques to select her respondents. In getting members for
the focused group discussion the researcher used the snowball sampling method,
where the first member in the group helped identify the second and the procedure was
used to gather all members in all the sample size groups. Through purposeful
sampling the researcher managed to identify those in leadership and also involved in
the programme activities for the interviews. All the focus group interviews were done
on specific days when most members were free. In this case the researcher collected
the qual itative data using focus group discussion guide.
Some of the findings of the study include, one, there is little knowledge about the
HIV/AIDS desks at provincial and diocesan level. Two, some of the programmes
initiated in the parishes, include counseling, HIV education and prevention, outreach
services, orphan support, referral for HIV testing, spiritual counseling, bereavement
support for families and awareness creation. Three, challenges faced by the church
include, information flow to all levels, inadequate finances, the big size of the diocese,
the diversity of communities in the diocese, ownership ofthe programme, stigma, lack
of dedication, lack of qualified personnel, lack of initiative by the clergy and lack of
an inter ministerial pool. Four, consequences of the challenges outlined, which
include increased numbers of people getting infected as well as socio-economic
implications. Five, contribution of members namely MU and KAMA to the fight
against HIV IAIDS in the diocese. Six, member's perceptions towards the
interventions and seven, the effectiveness and sustainability of the diocesan
interventions strongly depends on ownership, good will by members and leaders,
continued flow of funds through the set church structures and enhancement of
volunteerism.
The study has recommended that several steps needs to be taken by the diocese in
order to effectively make an impact in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Some of the
recommendations include setting up of parish HIV IAIDS committee comprising of all
the church groups namely; Sunday school, youth, MU, clergy and KAMA, which will
in turn mainstream HIV IAIDS in their respective jields.
The study has however concluded that, the diocese has made little or no impact in the
6 parishes assessed in its fight against HIV IAIDS due to the absence of impact at the
grass roots level as well as the full participation of members in the assessment,
planning, design and implementation of the current activities. A major set back
identified by the study is the lack of HIV IAIDS policies at diocesan and parish levels
as well as an HIV/AIDS strategic plan at the provincial and diocesan level.
Therefore, the efficiency and sustainability of current and future interventions
depends on the levels of ownership, willingness, by members and leaders, availability
of funds and community rnobilisation in eradicating stigma and discrimination in
order to have more people going for HIV /AIDS tests and hence preventing further
spread of the virus that causes AIDS | en |
