Abstract This study was inspired by the need to develop awareness about what is going on in Mozambique regarding to the issue of HIV/AIDS. The research examined how and why the organizations of PLWA ( People Living with HIV/AIDS) in Mozambique are emerging and developing, compared the particularities of the existing organizations of people living with HIV/AIDS in three province of this country (Maputo, Manica and Zambezia), and finally examined how they function, and interact with governmental and non- governmental institutions. The study made use of the ethnographic method to design and generate a rapid "picture" of the social culture around this HIV community. The focus on this method provided further in-depth qualitative insights. Behavioral surveys were designed to provide rapid key data on sexual behavior, condom use and STI1s. Together, these sources of data provided a spatial, quantitative and qualitative overview of the research. The results from this study turned that the associations of PLWA and its members face many problems such as discr imination and stigma that is attached to the scourge. But notwithstanding these problems, these associations are showing an incredible dedication to addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS. In the three provinces where this research was conducted it transpired that the associations of PLWHA are a new phenomenon, where the members are looking for their own space in order to tackle the problem that is being posed by HIV/AIDS. The research reveals, furthermore, that there are no significant differences between HIV/AIDS associations in these three provinces. There are more similarities than there are differences. The associations have in common issues such as unemployment, low level of schooling, uncontrolled urbanization, prostitution, lack of resources to support their family members, etc. Other types of similarities are shaped by patterns of formation of these associations which were similar, what invites one to think that may have been formed by the same people. As combating HIV/AIDS seems an important tool in poverty eradication, Government, civil society and the media should step up its efforts of reducing discrimination and stigmatization of PLWA through information campaigns. They should also redesign the messages in the information campaigns to ensure that they achieve the targeted audience, and add messages that promote PLWA associations and the benefits of joining them. 1 Sexual transmitted infections

The aims in this Straussian grounded theory inquiry were to gain better understanding of the meaning of spirituality and of the process of spiritual development in people living with HIV/AIDS in the Thai context. In Western contexts, spirituality has been described as the essence of human existence. However, in the Thai context, where Buddhist teachings underpin the understanding of life as body and mind, rather than as body, mind and spirit, the concept of spirituality is little understood by lay people. This gap in understanding called for an inductive approach to knowledge generation. HIV/AIDS is a life-altering and deeply stigmatized disease that results in significant distress and calls into question the meaning and purpose of life for many who are diagnosed with the disease. Nevertheless, some Thai people living with the disease successfully adjust their lives to their situation and are able to live with peace and harmony. These findings raise questions firstly as to the process by which those participants achieved peace and harmony despite the nature of the disease and the limited access to ARV drugs at the time of that study; and secondly as to whether or not the peace and harmony that they described could be linked to the Western concept of spirituality. Data were gathered from 33 participants from the South of Thailand, who had lived with HIV/AIDS for 5 years or more, were aged 18 years or older, and were willing and able to participate in this study. Purposive, snowball and theoretical sampling techniques were used to select participants. Data collection using in-depth interviews and participant observation methods was undertaken over a nine-month period in 2006. The process of data analysis was guided by Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory and resulted in the development of a substantive theory. The substantive theory of Achieving Harmony of Mind comprises two categories: struggling to survive and living life. Each category has two subcategories: encountering distress (tukjai) and overcoming distress (longjai), and accomplishing harmony in oneself and discovering an ultimate meaning in life respectively. The metaphor of ‘an eclipse’ was used to describe the process of the development of mind of people living with HIV/AIDS and represents the extent to which the individual’s mind is overshadowed by the diagnosis of HIV/AIDS and its consequences. Diagnosis of this disease turns participants’ lives upside down. Yet selective disclosure of one’s HIV status, resulting in the receiving of support and connectedness with others, enables participants to find meaning and purpose in life that enables them to recover the will to live and to attempt to stabilise their lives by learning to live with HIV/AIDS. Most participants were able to adjust their mind to accept their new situation and find new self value enabling them to feel free from the shadow of HIV/AIDS and live life with HIV/AIDS as normal. Fewer participants found an ultimate meaning in life – consistent with Buddhist teachings about suffering and uncertainty, and the impermanence of life that links with an understanding of ‘nonself’ – that enabled them to obtain peace and harmony of mind (kwarmsa-ngobjai). It is this latter stage that represents spirituality in Buddhist terms. This form of spirituality differs significantly from that found in other religions because it does not involve an engagement with a divine and transcendent reality. The findings of this study enhance knowledge about spirituality in the Thai context, and provide a guide for health professionals and education curricula with the aim of achieving more holistic care for patients.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / Today the HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the many crises families may face. Many people have died of the disease while others are still living with it. At the end of 2003, an estimated 1,039,000 to 1,185,000 persons in the United States were living with HIV/AIDS, with 24-27% undiagnosed and unaware of their HIV infection. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that approximately 40,000 persons become infected with HIV each year (CDC, 2007). Stigmatization and discrimination related to HIV/AIDS is one of the many challenges that individuals and families affected by the disease face. They are unable to get employment, are denied health care, cannot access services in their communities and sometimes lose respect and power as a result of stigma. Stigma and discrimination also have been recognized as one of the main obstacles to HIV/AIDS, testing, prevention and treatment and yet little has been done to combat it. Stigma and discrimination is not only experienced by people living with HIV/AIDS but their family members, close friends, service providers and people that work with them also are stigmatized by association. This report highlights the need for family life educators to expand HIV educational programs to include issues on stigmatization and discrimination. It identifies some of the reasons why people stigmatize, the ways which stigma and discrimination are expressed and the impacts it has on individuals and their family members. Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of human development, this report identifies the need to look at HIV-related stigma and discrimination as a societal problem rather than individual problem, and presents implications for education programs for the general public.

This study explores how HIV-positive teachers within a specific social context understand, interpret and act on HIV and Life Skills policy. My aim was to illuminate the experiences of teachers living with AIDS and how their experiences affect the ways in which they understand and act on government policy. As a constructivist, I worked on the premise that people’s experiences can best be understood by interacting with them and listening to them. I chose a narrative research design because it allowed me to explore and understand the perceptions and complexity of my research partners’ experiences, and to faithfully present and represent the stories told by teachers living with AIDS. I used the data collected from the teachers’ stories to write narratives that gave a first person account of the experiences of each teacher. To express my own voice in the text I created a column on the side of each page where I recorded my own experience of the process of the inquiry. I used inductive analysis in order to make sense of the field data. Rather than beginning with a theory, inductive analysis allowed me to expose the dominant and significant themes in the raw data without imposing preconceptions on the data. Three distinct themes emerged from the analysis, and formed my conceptualisation of the experiences of teachers living with AIDS: a) conflict between teacher as role model and ideal citizen, and teacher as an HIV-positive person; b) HIV illness and its impact on the body of the teacher; c) teachers as emotional actors. The main findings from the study suggest that in a context with AIDS there are limits to what education policy can achieve if it remains out of touch with a real world in which school is attended by children and teachers whose bodies are either infected or affected by the HIV virus. This is substantiated by the fact that while the HIV/AIDS policy is about bodies and about emotions, it is blind to the bodies and the emotions of those implementing it. I contend that it is this oversight that creates the wide gap between policy intentions and outcomes. Secondly the study highlights the uniqueness of HIV/AIDS education policy and its implementation which, unlike other education policies, powerfully brings to the fore the emotions of the implementers. I conclude the study by suggesting that the policy-making process be reconstructed to inscribe the real bodies and real emotions of the teachers into the policy, to shift from a purely prevention mode to one that looks at the whole prevention-to-care continuum and acknowledges that a significant majority of school pupils and teachers are infected and affected. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Children living in the Mamelodi Township of Tshwane and affected by HIV and AIDS have their own unique challenges they face everyday. These challenges include the poverty context of the township and the stigmatising effect of the community towards these children, compounded by very difficult extended family circumstances and also the struggle with their own identity crisis in the specific developmental phases in which these children find themselves. The focus of this study was to listen to the stories of children affected by HIV and AIDS in the midst of the bereavement process. The emotional responses of children affected by HIV and AIDS within child-headed households experiencing difficulties were identified and explored. A narrative research design was used to capture a chapter in the life stories of three (3) children affected by HIV and AIDS as well as a caregiver who died of AIDS before I completed this study. Data was collected by means of individual interviews, group sessions, and letters which the children wrote to God and the field notes in the form of journal entries written by the researcher, as well as individual feedback and collaboration sessions with the specific caregivers. Data was analysed by means of several phases of theme analysis after which - through a final analysis - psycho-social, emotional and economic response themes were identified. This study found that children affected by HIV/AIDS experience complex emotions in response to their plight. The strongest emotional response themes that emerged, which were reported by all the children were frustration, happiness and love. The more negative emotional responses were mentioned in relation to the feeling that they were being stigmatised in school as well as in their community. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Practical Theology / unrestricted