CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND AN LYSIS OF THE STUDY
4.4. Church initiating projects
The ultimate goal ofECAP in training churches in HIV awareness, prevention and home- based and orphan care is that the volu teers go back to their churches and start HIV and AIDS related projects. These proje ts range from income generating activities and
297 PastorC.Thenjwayo, interview conducted y Charles Manda on 23 October 2006 in Pietermaritzburg.
298 Pastor P.S. Phoswa, interview conducted b Charles Manda on 23 October 2006 in Pietermaritzburg.
299 Ibid
300PastorC.Thenjwayo, interview conducte by Charles Manda on 23 October 2006 in Pietermaritzburg.
301 Nicolson R. 1996.God in AIDS: Theologic IEnquiry.London: SCM Press LTD. p. 202-203.
vegetable gardens to home-based care for people living with AIDS in their communities.
So far ECAP has helped churches i the Pietermaritzburg area to establish thirty-five projects but not all of them are ru ing efficiently for lack of human or financial resources. Maranatha and Sobantu FM churches, are among many churches whose volunteers were trained in home-base care but were unable to carry out their work with the few personal resources they ha . ECAP had promised to help with funds and materials like toiletries for helping t e people living with AIDS but it was not able to honour its promises.
Question ten in the questionnaire was follow-up to question 9 which asked respondents to list the HIV and AIDS related acti ities in which they were involved after receiving training from ECAP. Nine of the fou een respondents indicated that they were involved in HIV and AIDS related projects
Table 4.6: Activities involvingESS graduates
Activity Frequency (N=14)
Voluntary counselling 3
Teaching and awareness 3
Youth ministry 3
Fundraising
Home-based and orphan care 2
Feeding scheme 2
The frequency does not correspond ith the total number (9) of the respondents who indicated that they were involved in some activities because some respondents were doing one or more activities at the sa e time.
4.4.1. Training of volunteers
One of ECAP's goals was to train vol nteers in home- based care and orphan care so that they can in turn train their fellow m mbers in the church. The expectation is that they
will launch projects in home-based In their communities. Two of the fourteen graduates were involved in training ho e care volunteers and ministering to orphans.
I am involved in training of carers, i how to take good care of HIV positive people as well as orphans.302
From the interviews conducted, vol nteers were trained in all the ten churches but volunteers in only a few churches est blished the projects. When asked why they have not implemented home-based care, di ferent answers were given. Some volunteers had no funds to start the projects. Others left their churches to look for employment. Two ministers said that ECAP had prom sed to help them with funds to establish these projects but that this did not materializ .
ECAP promised volunteers to help wit skills training and promised some funds to help volunteers start projects like sewing to raise funds to help in home-based care but that did not happened which is very bad.303
Some churches get so little income rom the offerings that they are not even able to support their ministers let alone start a AIDS- related project.
4.4.2. Early childhood education
One of the ten ministers runs a childre 's drop-in centre which was started on 19 January 2005 and carters for about forty childr n. Most of these children come from homes whose parents or parent are suffering from IDS related illnesses. This centre also works as a creche where children receive early c ildhood education. Bethany House gives them two hundred food parcels per month.
Most of the children have no parents s we give them love, and education to prepare them for the future like any other children have a pri ilege to.304
When asked whether the children payees for their daycare she responded,
We have more than forty children, but lve of them pay so that I can get transport because going to Grange or to town on foot is far.305
302Respondent to questionnaire
303Pastor S. Yuma, interview conducted by C arles Manda on 22 October 2006 in Pietermaritzburg.
304Rev Mrs D. Msomi, Interview conducted y Charles Manda on 19/1 0/06 in Pietermaritzburg.
305 Ibid
During my interview with her, I le rnt that she leads a group of volunteers in her community to minister to around fI rty 'clients' (HIV positive people), and a good fraction of the children attending the c eche belong to these clients. Other volunteers help her with caring and teaching the childr n in the creche.
Wehave orphans, children affected an infected with HIV. We give them food, breakfast, lunch. If nobody comes to fetch them they sleep here until social workers come to take them especially those who have lost their parents. We feed t em when they are going home they go full stomach; we also take sick children to the Grange c1inic.36
4.4.3. Youth ministry
ECAP puts much emphasis on empow ring young people with life skills that should help them to make right choices for their ives and futures. As a result of its facilitating an AIDS course, some graduates were otivated to work with young people in bringing them awareness and life skills. Three espondents listed the activities they were involved in: "education to young people"; "se sions of discussions open to any topic including HIVIAIDS during youth meetings"; a d "training the young people in the whole issue of HIV.,,307
4.4.4. Fundraising
Another objective of ECAP is to help ommunity projects that it helps to establish in the communities, to raise their own funds to sustain themselves. As a result ECAP includes this fundraising element in its trainin package. One respondent mentioned how he has used his training in Church and AI S to work as a consultant in fundraising and evaluation of projects in his country.
In 2005 I was using the training I go from ESSA in World Relief Rwanda to build capacity of churches in Rwanda to mitigate the im act of AIDS.308
He has been "raising awareness" and 'helping associations to write up the proposals and measure their impact".
306Ibid
307Respondents to questionnaire.
308Respondent to questionnaire.
4.4.5. Feeding scheme
Although the feeding scheme goes ha d-in hand with home based care, it also looks into the needs of poor people in the corn unities who may be HIV positive or not. In this study, two respondents made mention ftheir involvement in feeding scheme where food parcels or soup are taken to the poor eople, especially those suffering from HIV related sicknesses, since most of them cannot end for themselves because of their conditions.
Entabeni Community Church recruited ersons from other churches and formed AIDS project called TEARS (The Entabeni AIDS Relief anctuary). They operate a weekly feeding scheme for the community. It collects clothes and di tributes to the poor, toys for children and distributes food parcels.309
This church also gives out its premise free for funerals and assists families in the time of bereavement. This is a major contribu ion to the community, especially with the influx of deaths of people due to AIDS. This aves the community some money for paying for halls for funerals. Letting out the chu ch to the community to use for funerals is a good gesture of a church in a community and this demonstrates the role of Africa's faith communities in HIV and AIDS interv ntion.
4.5. Conclusion
This chapter has presented the results of the survey which was conducted among ESSA graduates. The survey has revealed th t the Church and Aids course facilitated by ECAP at ESSA made some impression on E SA graduates as seen from their responses and also the activities in which they were en aged in after the completion of their training. It should be noted here that all success annot be exclusively attributed to ECAP because the ESSA graduates undergo three ye r training at ESSA where many different courses are covered. The Church and AIDS curse is just one of them. The interviews with the ministers show tremendous change, considering how churches were struggling with myths and strange theologies a few ears ago. Today they are involved in HIV and AIDS- related projects in their church s and communities.
309 Rev Albert Chetty, interview conducted by Charles Manda on 15 September 2006 in Pietermaritzburg.