4.3.1 Research Permission
The researcher contacted different leaders within the area of research. This was considered important, simply because these people are leaders of their organised communities who know about their people, their joys, problems, struggles and the history of their communities. As such, they are in a better position to give reliable information about their communities and can also bring people together for research project plans. Permission to do research was therefore sought from the following leaders:
Six traditional leaders (two chiefs, two headmen and two kraal heads) within the area of St Alois Catholic Rural Mission Station. Permission to do research was also sought from the Catholic Church authorities and these were the local Catholic Bishop of Gweru Diocese, the Catholic Priest In-Charge of St Alois Rural Mission Station, and the Parish Council of the Mission. Health and social community workers were also approached.
4.3.2 Study Population and Data Collection
The study was composed of 24 participants from the area of St Alois Catholic Rural Mission Station. The population was not limited to Catholic Christians only but open to any interested parties. Participants were divided into various groups; 2 traditional leaders, 4 community leaders, 4 Church leaders from the four outstations or parishes of St Alois Rural Mission Station, then 1 priest and 1 religious nun who both reside at St. Alois Mission Station. The last group was of women living with HIV and AIDS who are the main concern of this study.
The educational level for the group ranged from people with Honours degrees to those with very little education. Among traditional and Church leaders, one had an Honours degree, and another one a Diploma in Education. The other three held Ordinary Level certificates and the rest had only reached primary school level. The above mentioned groups were interviewed at different times and places. Traditional leaders were interviewed as individuals in their homesteads, community leaders were interviewed at their respective places of work or homes and the Church leaders were interviewed most preferably at their out-station parishes. The Priest-in-charge of St Alois and the assistant who is a religious nun were interviewed on a
155 See Appendix A., pg 132.
61 one-to-one basis, and the interviews took place at St. Alois Mission Station. All these people were necessary in data collection as their contribution was important in influencing research plans and programming.
The fifth group was composed of women in St Alois Catholic Rural Mission Station who are living with HIV and AIDS. For privacy and confidentiality, these women were informed of their meeting with the researcher by their health or social community workers. Their meeting with the researcher was held in a convenient and private place which they had suggested.
During focus group discussions, women living with HIV and AIDS were in groups of 4 and their total number was 12. All the interviews were conducted by the researcher in person.
4.3.3 Research Instruments
In obtaining data from field work, at least two methods were used as the main tools. These were unstructured interviews and focus group discussions. Data collection was based on qualitative techniques, focusing on drawing out participants’ stories and experiences.
Participants’ response techniques were divided mainly into two formats, namely interviews and focus group discussions.
4.3.3.1 Interviews
Responses obtained in structured interviews usually tend to be short and sometimes superficial. As a way of avoiding this, unstructured interviews were used which are often called in-depth interviews. According to Fisher and Foreit (2002), in-depth interviews permit greater depth of meaning, detailed and open-ended responses to questions.156
156 A. A. Fisher and J. R. Foreit. 2002. Designing HIV /AIDS Intervention Studies: An Operation Research Handbook. New York: Horizons Frontiers, pg. 78.
Unstructured interviews were conducted with 12 local leaders. Each of them was interviewed individually and all of these leaders were asked to consent either verbally or in written form before the interviews.
62 A schedule of questions was developed to guide one-on-one interviews with participants,157 with the central aim of drawing their position on the situation of women living with HIV and AIDS in their area. These interviews were informal. They varied in length from about twenty minutes to one and a half hours, depending on the circumstances. This means that the researcher had a series of questions that needed to be explored by soliciting the views, positions and opinions of the respondents. The choice of questions depended largely on the circumstances of the interview and the degree that the researcher wanted to pursue on particular issues or line of thought. This strategy entails establishing “a human-to-human relation with the respondent and the desire to understand rather than explain.”158
157 See Appendix B pg. 135.
158 Andrea Fontana and James Frey, 1999. “The interview: From Structured Questions to Negotiated Text,” in N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln, Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, pg. 654.
Much of this understanding had to be negotiated in conversation with local traditional leaders, community leaders and Church leaders in the area of St Alois Rural Mission Station. The act of negotiation involved a very active engagement with interviewees in a mutually challenging encounter from which emerged meaning based on their experience within the limits of the study guide questions.
What I finally discovered was that interviews took more time than intended, particularly because the interviewees also had their own questions to ask, including some which were not in line with the research. This was a problem which the researcher encountered and was not prepared for.
Where it was possible, all the interviews were recorded and later transcribed into field notes.
Some of the questions comprised the interviewees’ perceptions, opinions and assessments relating to the engagement of the Catholic Church of St Alois in the situation of HIV and AIDS, and the interest (if any) that the Church takes to address the problem of HIV and AIDS. In sensitive instances where the researcher could not take notes, only a mental record of the interviews was possible for later transcription into field notes. This corpus of recorded interviews forms an integral part of this research. It was also made clear to all interviewees that there were no right and wrong answers and therefore they could share their experiences freely.
63 4.3.3.2 Focus Group Discussions
Focus groups with up to twelve women living with HIV and AIDS were intended to bring respondents together in discussion groups that focused on a particular topic. The central aim was to draw testimonies and stories of respondents’ experiences. Described by Blanche a focus group is typically a group of people who share a similar type of experience.159