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An Analysis of the Message of Pre-marital Sexual Abstinence as a Strategy for HIV Prevention and its Implications for Development: A case study of the Christian Action FellowshipSeohatse, Lerato 23 February 2007 (has links)
Student Number: 9408497V
Faculty of Humanities, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree for Masters of Arts. / In this research report an analysis of the message of pre-marital sexual abstinence as a
strategy for HIV prevention and its implications for development was carried out. The
Christian Action Fellowship, a student Christian organization at the University of the
Witwatersrand provided a case for the research study. The alternative development
paradigm informed my discussion of the message of pre-marital sexual abstinence in
relation to development. In particular, it is its emphasis on participatory development
and on the fact that development focus should be given to particular localities that I drew
from the paradigm. However, the paradigm falls short of capturing the religious
dynamics pertaining to local realities. Thus the results of the research study I carried out
are meant to contribute to the development of the paradigm by factoring in the religious
dimension of local reality in discourse of development. In this study, the religious
dimension of local reality was captured in my focus on the message of pre-marital sexual
abstinence as advanced within the evangelical faith based movement in South Africa.
Furthermore, this research study is meant to contribute to discourse of development by
stimulating intellectual reflection on the message of pre-marital sexual abstinence as a
strategy of prevention and its implications for development in South Africa.
The study demonstrated involvement by the evangelical movement in the fight against
the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The study further demonstrated the existence of particular
methods employed to advance the message of pre-marital sexual abstinence as a
prevention strategy against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. One such method is the strategy of
identification. This method is employed to appeal to the targeted audience when
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presenting a case. Other methods employed are debate and argumentation as well as
rhetoric. The deployment of these methods point to a religious construction of an identity
that upholds pre-marital sexual abstinence as a lifestyle and a better HIV preventive
option to other strategies of prevention. This research study is recommending further
work in the areas where HIV prevention interventions and development interventions
intersect within the local context (in all its dimensions) of identity construction.
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