TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘We can act different from what we used to’
T2 - Findings from experiences of religious leader participants in an HIV-prevention intervention in Zambia
AU - Wiginton, John Mark
AU - King, Elizabeth J.
AU - Fuller, A. Oveta
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2019/5/4
Y1 - 2019/5/4
N2 - Faith-based organisations (FBOs) have long been part of the fight against HIV and AIDS. International bodies continue to collaborate with FBOs to implement HIV-prevention programmes with mixed success. Zambia has been a target of such programmes in part due to its high HIV prevalence. The Trusted Messenger approach to provide religious leader networks with biomedical, science-focused education about HIV and AIDS was piloted in 2006, but participant experiences of the intervention have not been explored qualitatively. In 2016, in-depth interviews were conducted of 34 randomly chosen individuals who attended Trusted Messenger workshops between 2006 and 2016 in Livingstone, Lusaka, and the Copperbelt region. Findings indicate that the religious leader attendees gained scientific insights about HIV which motivated their action in personal, social, and religious contexts. Participants found the science comprehensible and empowering and identified workshop frequency and language as challenging. Utilising science-focused education within contextual settings of religious leader networks can combat the spread of HIV and the mistreatment of people living with HIV and AIDS.
AB - Faith-based organisations (FBOs) have long been part of the fight against HIV and AIDS. International bodies continue to collaborate with FBOs to implement HIV-prevention programmes with mixed success. Zambia has been a target of such programmes in part due to its high HIV prevalence. The Trusted Messenger approach to provide religious leader networks with biomedical, science-focused education about HIV and AIDS was piloted in 2006, but participant experiences of the intervention have not been explored qualitatively. In 2016, in-depth interviews were conducted of 34 randomly chosen individuals who attended Trusted Messenger workshops between 2006 and 2016 in Livingstone, Lusaka, and the Copperbelt region. Findings indicate that the religious leader attendees gained scientific insights about HIV which motivated their action in personal, social, and religious contexts. Participants found the science comprehensible and empowering and identified workshop frequency and language as challenging. Utilising science-focused education within contextual settings of religious leader networks can combat the spread of HIV and the mistreatment of people living with HIV and AIDS.
KW - faith-based organisations
KW - HIV and AIDS
KW - qualitative research
KW - religious leader networks
KW - science-based intervention
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U2 - 10.1080/17441692.2018.1524921
DO - 10.1080/17441692.2018.1524921
M3 - Article
C2 - 30238830
AN - SCOPUS:85053546028
SN - 1744-1692
VL - 14
SP - 636
EP - 648
JO - Global public health
JF - Global public health
IS - 5
ER -