Faith-based HIV response in post-Soviet Eastern Europe: the case of Channels of Hope in Russia, Romania, and Armenia

ABSTRACT

Most of the data available on faith-based HIV response focus on Africa, which is the heart of the pandemic. This article investigates faith-based community-level HIV responses within Eastern Europe, by studying the implementation of World Vision International’s “Channels of Hope” faith-based HIV intervention. The intervention approach was developed in a high HIV-prevalence setting (South Africa) and then implemented across sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere – including three low HIV-prevalence Eastern European settings (Armenia, Romania, and Russia). Drawing from implementation and evaluation research, this article explores the nature, challenges, and potential of faith-based HIV response within low-prevalence, post-Soviet contexts.

La plupart des données disponibles sur la riposte du secteur confessionnel au VIH concernent l'Afrique, où se situe le cœur de l'épidémie. Cet article explore les ripostes au VIH du secteur confessionnel au sein de communautés en Europe de l'Est, en se concentrant sur la mise en œuvre des « Canaux de l'espoir », une intervention d'inspiration confessionnelle de World Vision International. Cette approche interventionnelle a été élaborée dans un environnement à forte prévalence du VIH (Afrique du Sud) puis mise en œuvre à travers l'Afrique subsaharienne et ailleurs – y compris dans trois environnements à faible prévalence du VIH en Europe de l'Est (Arménie, Roumanie et Russie). En se basant sur la recherche sur la mise en œuvre et l'évaluation, cet article explore la nature, les difficultés et le potentiel de la riposte confessionnelle au VIH dans des environnements post-soviétiques à faible prévalence.

La mayor parte de la información disponible sobre la respuesta que el sector religioso ha dado a la infección por vih proviene de África, el centro de la pandemia. El presente artículo investiga las respuestas comunitarias ofrecidas por este sector en Europa oriental. Con este propósito examina la implementación del programa “Channels of Hope” [Canales de esperanza], una intervención orientada a enfrentar el vih llevada a cabo por Visión Mundial Internacional. El enfoque de la intervención fue diseñado en un ámbito de alta incidencia del vih (Sudáfrica), siendo impulsado luego en el África subsahariana y en otras latitudes —incluyendo tres países de Europa oriental que registran baja incidencia de la enfermedad (Armenia, Rumania y Rusia). A partir de investigaciones sobre implementación y evaluación, el presente artículo aborda aspectos relativos a la naturaleza, los retos y las posibles respuestas que el sector religioso puede dar al vih en contextos postsoviéticos de baja prevalencia de la enfermedad.

KEYWORDS:

• Social sector – HIV/AIDS and sexual health
• Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the participation of World Vision staff, partners and beneficiaries. Furthermore, Viktoria Sargsyan, Adugna Kebede, and Daleen Raubenheimer-Foot provided helpful comments and input on earlier drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Elisabet le Roux is Research Director at the Unit for Religion and Development Research at Stellenbosch University. She is a faith and development expert, with a particular focus on gender-based violence. She is also interested in faith communities in conflict-affected settings, patriarchy within faith communities, and interfaith peace and conflict.

Notes

1. World Vision International is a global Christian relief, development, and advocacy organisation (World Vision International 2016). Channels of Hope was originally the “I have HOPE” community programme in South Africa, developed by Christo Greyling in 1992 as a country-wide HIV awareness campaign for a large South African insurance company (Greyling 2016). As it was increasingly used with faith groups, Greyling joined the Christian AIDS Bureau for Southern Africa (CABSA) in 2011, to further develop it. When Greyling joined World Vision in 2002, as their HIV coordinator for South Africa and Lesotho, he continued using the methodology, to the extent that a licensing agreement was signed between CABSA and WVI. This gave WVI the right to implement CoH, but also to develop it further (Greyling 2016; World Vision n.d.).

2. Alias used to protect the identity of the interviewee. In all cases where personal communication is referenced, aliases have been used.

3. The study also included secondary research of CoH within four other World Vision offices, namely World Vision Bosnia and Herzegovina, World Vision Lebanon, World Vision Georgia, and World Vision Afghanistan. This did not entail empirical fieldwork by the research team, and the focus in this article is therefore on the three case study settings.

4. This document is entitled “The Concepts of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Participation in Overcoming the Spread of HIV/AIDS and Work with People Living with HIV/AIDS.”

Additional information

Funding

The “MEER Channels of Hope Project Evaluation – Russian Federation, Romania and Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, Georgia and Afghanistan”’ research was commissioned and funded by World Vision’s Middle East and Eastern Europe Office. The data are used here with World Vision International’s permission and with recognition that they funded the 2011 research project. The views presented in this article, though, are solely those of the author.