Fighting down the scourge, building up the church: Organisational constraints in religious involvement with HIV/AIDS in Mozambique

Abstract

Religious organisations (ROs) are often said to play an important role in mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS. Yet, limitations of that role have also been acknowledged. While most of the literature has focused on ideological and individual-level implications of religion for HIV/AIDS, in this study we shift the focus to the organisational factors that shape and constrain ROs’ involvement in both HIV prevention and HIV/AIDS care and support. Using primarily qualitative data collected in a predominantly Christian area in southern Mozambique, we show that the organisational vitality of a RO as determined by its membership size and its relationships with other churches and with governmental and non-governmental agencies is a pervasive priority of RO leaders. Therefore, all church activities, including those related to HIV/AIDS, are instrumentalised by the religious leadership to achieve the church's organisational aims – maintaining and growing its membership, safeguarding the often precarious coexistence with other churches, and enhancing its standing vis-à-vis the government and powerful non-governmental organisations. As a result, the effectiveness of ROs’ involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention and assistance is often compromised.

Keywords:

• religion
• HIV prevention
• AIDS care
• Africa
• Mozambique

Acknowledgements

The support of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ( NICHD ) grant #R01HD050175 is gratefully acknowledged. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Conference on Religious Responses to HIV and AIDS, Columbia University, New York, 12–14 July 2010, and at the 18th International AIDS Conference, Vienna, Austria, 18–23 July 2010.

Notes

1. Although Pentecostal leaders are typically more insistent on compliance with church behavioural and moral guidelines than are leaders of other churches, we did not come across any sanctions applied against offenders comparable to those reported elsewhere (Garner 2000a, Parsitau 2009).

2. Women's groups typically include married or widowed/divorced women with marital and reproductive experience. In some churches, younger married women with few children (designated in the church lexicon with the Portuguese word activistas, or ‘activists’) hold separate meetings from those of older women. Younger, unmarried women usually attend youth groups’ meeting.