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The second group consisted of older people. Three of them were females and one was male. They were appointed by their parishes because of their involvement with people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. The age range of the older people among the category of congregants was 50 to 66 years old. One of the women was the chairperson of the Women‟s Department in her parish and a health worker in a government institution. The two other women were counsellors of PLWHA in their parishes. They were also health practitioners in government hospitals but one of them had recently retired and was running her own dispensary close to her homestead. The male older person was a parish fieldworker responsible for matters pertaining to orphans within the parish.
The third group of the sample of congregants consisted of young people. Despite the fact that all efforts were made to have equal gender representation among the youth, one female and three males took part. The youth held various positions in the youth departments in their local parishes. Two were youth secretaries, of whom one was a female; whilst one was a treasurer, and the fourth was a chairperson. The female and one male had secondary education, while the other two males had primary education.
The last group in this category was orphans, consisting of two males and two females.
The age group of the orphans and youth were between 15 and 29, which shows that they were old enough to give relevant information about the pandemic, since it was present in the midst of their families and communities. All of the four orphans who took part in the study were at different levels of secondary education from form one to four.
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leave the participants completely free to express their answers as they wish, as detailed and complex, as long or as short as they feel is appropriate. No restrictions, guide-lines, or suggestions for solutions are given.160
The individual in-depth interview method was used for all forty-nine participants who took part in the study from January to March 2007 and January to February 2008 respectively. Catherine Marshall and Gretchen Rossman describe an in-depth interview as “a conversation with a purpose.”161 This is in line with Denis who contends that: “an interview is a conversation which aims at the exchanging of information, and it is also a relationship.”162 The interview method is thus a dialogue between a researcher(s) and an interviewee(s) for the purpose of gathering or exchanging information. The dialogue between the respondents and myself was a learning process for both parties and it generated valuable information for the current study. I agree with Denis that the interview is also a relationship because without that relationship, conversation cannot occur. Prior to the interviews, I had to initiate a relationship with the respondents to open the door for the actual interviews.
Guiding open ended questions were prepared for each category of people (see appendices 1- 4). The reason I designed my own questions is because there is little existing research of this kind in Kilimanjaro. The broad categories of the interview included the following.
First, the biographical information such as the gender, age, education, position held/not held in the church and the name of circuit/institution to which the participants belonged was established. This section was common to all participants since it was crucial for the study to specify the category of people who took part in the research due to the fact that HIV and AIDS affects the whole human race with no respect of age, sex, education, ethnic group or nationality.
160 Claire Bless and Craig H. Smith, Fundamentals of Social Research Methods: An African Perspective, 2nd edition, Kenwyn: Juta & Co. Ltd, 1995, p. 120.
161 Catherine Marshall and Gretchen Rossman, Designing Qualitative Research, 3rd edition, London: SAGE Publications, 1999, p. 108.
162 Philippe Denis, “Introduction,” in Philippe Denis (ed), Orality, Memory & the Past: Listening to the Voices of Black Clergy under Colonialism and Apartheid, Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2000, p.
3.
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Second, questions about participants‟ understanding of issues around the HIV and AIDS pandemic were posed to the entire sample. Their knowledge with regard to the pandemic, such as the factors that reinforce the spread of HIV within communities, was valuable for this study.
Third, questions about the diocese‟s HIV and AIDS policy and the theology of HIV and AIDS were posed to policy makers who are the key people with regard to the well-being of the church members. At the time of the interviews however, the HIV and AIDS policy had not yet been released for implementation, and therefore questions falling under this section were not answered.
Fourth, questions concerning the diocese‟s HIV and AIDS programmes, gender sensitivity and stigma related to HIV and AIDS were directed to primary health education coordinators, zonal educators and congregants. However, under the section on HIV and AIDS programmes there were some questions which were aimed at the coordinators and zonal educators only, while others were aimed at congregants only, since the first two categories are implementers of the programmes, whereas the latter are the recipients of their services. This oral interview method gave me the opportunity to interact with people more closely and hence helped me to understand their feelings, concerns and how they think and react to the pandemic, particularly with regard to gender.
Permission was sought from the diocese authorities to conduct interviews within the diocese, and this was granted (see appendices 5, 6 and 7). As outlined above, I interviewed three categories of people. These were the policy makers, implementers of the ELCT Northern Diocese HIV and AIDS programmes and congregants.
In the category of policy makers I met with the deans (heads of circuits) at the diocese headquarters on different days and discussed with them the nature of my research since they had already received the letter concerning the study from the diocese. They were all willing to be interviewed, and also provided the names of other individuals whom it
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would be important to interview to increase the validity of my study. At the same time, I requested from each dean a female representative from the decision-making level of the Executive Council to ensure gender balance, since each circuit was to be represented by two members. All the circuits supplied the name of a woman except one, which had only males on the diocese Executive Council as mentioned above. The deans gave me their own contact details as well as those of their representatives. Hence, it can be seen from this interaction and from the ways in which I came into contact with all the participants in my research, how important the snowballing technique was to my study. This is a most appropriate method for purposeful sampling in the context of African societies which are communal. As a minister in this diocese, it was not difficult for me to gain access to the community for this study.
This first encounter was successful because all consented to be interviewed. I met with the participants in this category at venues and times which were convenient to them.
Between January and February/March 2007, I interviewed all the policy makers, diocese/circuit coordinators and zonal educators and congregants from two circuits. I also consulted various diocese and circuit minutes and documents that were relevant to my work. The second lot of the interviews took place in January and February 2008 when I dealt with the other two circuits included in this study.
In the category of the implementers, the diocese public health education coordinator (PHEP) was the most important person to connect me to the circuit coordinators. After explaining to her about the aims of and requirements for my study, she informed me about a business meeting for all PHEP coordinators, which was to take place on 9 January 2007. She gave me the opportunity to explain to the circuit coordinators at this meeting the nature of the study, and to inform them of the sample of people to be included in the research. They indicated their willingness to be interviewed, and so I gave them their consent forms. Again the snowballing technique was helpful because these circuit coordinators in turn put me in contact with the rest of the respondents – the zonal educators163 and parishes to be studied. All the meetings with this category of
163 Each circuit coordinator was requested to select four active zonal educators – females and males.
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participants took place at the central office of the circuit PHEP unit (circuit office) or at the location the circuit coordinator is stationed (Machame and Marangu Hospitals).
In the category of the congregants, it was the parish pastors who put me in contact with the congregants who became participants in the study. We met at the parish centres prior to the interviews in order to establish trust and for me to inform them of the purpose of the research. Fortunately all were looking forward to participating in the study. All the interviews of the congregants took place at the parish premises.
All the interviews were conducted in Swahili, which is the national and common language spoken by the majority of Tanzanians including the studied population. An assurance of confidentiality and anonymity was given, explaining to the respondents that their names would not be transcribed in the written document. This was clearly stated in their consent form, which each participant signed and returned to me (see Appendix 8).
The interviews were recorded using a tape recorder and at the same time I took notes.
The data was then transcribed and translated into English by myself.
It is also important to note that I made use of an informal triangulation research method in that besides the official 49 participants, I also had face-to-face discussions with other individuals who had relevant information for the study.
Furthermore, in addition to the oral interviews, the minutes of the diocese and other reports were consulted: specifically the diocese HIV and AIDS draft policy, diocese/circuits‟ PHEP letters and annual reports. In addition, the reports of orphan ministry carried out by HUYAMWI, Moshi Pasua and Fuka Parishes were also studied.
Participant observation as well as case studies were also sources of information. Apart from the primary sources, documentation from the library and other sources were used.
These included books, journals, theses, magazines, newspaper articles and internet materials.
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