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

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.

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