The dissertation seeks to investigate, examine, and critically analyse the reasons why
Pietermaritzburg churches lack gender sensitivity in combating HIV/AIDS. The dissertation's
focus is on Springs of Hope Support Group Project (SOH) - a support group that seeks to meet
the felt needs amongst the HTV positive people around Pietermaritzburg. Amongst other
motivations, the dissertation was undertaken as a contribution to the church in its fight against the
spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The methodology that was used involved field and library
research as well as observations of other HIV/AIDS support groups. The primary source of this
dissertation consists of interviews that were conducted among SOH members, NGOs workers,
and Church ministers. Chapter one is an introduction to the whole dissertation and includes an
introduction to chapter one, experiences of African women, the story of Ann Ntombela, the
background of the study, statements of the problems and motivations, objectives of the study,
research hypothesis/promises, significance of the study, the theoretical frameworks, critical
reviews of existing literature, research methodology, research ethics, expected results, limitation
of the study and a summary and conclusion. Chapter two deals with the negative effects of
colonialism and failure of development on African women. Its objective is to unearth the factors
behind the deplorable social, political, and economic position of African women before HIV was
reported. It seeks to find out why the plight of African women has worsened since the coming of
colonialism and the start of development efforts.
Chapter three deals with gender. It relates the effects of development failure to the plight of
African women. Matters of marginalization, exploitation and oppression of African women are
dealt with at length. Chapter four focuses on HIV/AIDS infection, transmission, prevention, cure
and treatment. It also tackles the matter of the vulnerability of African women to HIV/AIDS at
length by relating chapter two to the realities that facilitates the infection of the virus especially
on women. Chapter five deals with the field research and formulation of a gender sensitive
approach to combating HIV/AIDS. It also seeks to formulate 'a church based gender sensitive
approach' as the way forward in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst African women in
Pietermaritzburg. This chapter elaborates on how the church should reposition itself in order to be
relevant and effective to women who are HIV positive. Chapter six is the conclusion of this
dissertation. It includes a summary, a theological reflection and conclusion of the whole
dissertation. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, PIetermaritzburg, 2004.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/1908 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Mbogo, Johnson Gatuma. |
| Contributors | Phiri, Isabel Apawo. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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