INTRODUCING THE STUDY
1.6. Literature Survey
1.6.3. The History of HIV and AIDS in Manicaland
In 1989, the Heads of Christian Denominations, an informal forum constituted by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC), the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe issued a publication entitled AIDS: The Christian response.132 This resource was quite popular to the extent that a second revised edition appeared in 1995. At that time, AIDS was still fairly new in
130 S. Nussbaum, (ed), ―The contribution of Christian congregations to the battle with HIV/AIDS at the community level,‖ A seven-country report prepared for the Summer Mission Briefing at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, 7-9 June 2005 (Colorado Springs: Global Mapping International, 2005), pdf. See also S. Nussbaum, ―Evangelicals and AIDS,‖ in R. Gill (ed), Reflecting theologically on AIDS: A global challenge, (London: SCM Press, 2007), 121-138.
131 Nussbaum, ―Evangelicals and AIDS,‖ 134.
132 HOCD, AIDS: The Christian response, (Harare: ZCC, 1989). An electronic manuscript copy of this booklet was sent to the researcher by Edward T. Rogers in April 2011.
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Zimbabwe and therefore national church leaders took the opportunity to inform their constituencies about an impeding pandemic. The contents of the publication included a brief historical overview, a definition of AIDS, the mode of HIV transmission, data on national prevalence, the effects of HIV on the economy and a call for upholding Christian morality as a key HIV prevention tool. The church leaders articulated that HIV was not a punishment from God and condoms were not the answer. Instead, the solution was ―chastity before marriage and fidelity to one‘s partner after marriage.‖133 This publication was written in the early years of the epidemic in Zimbabwe and reflected the views of senior church clerics at a national level. The relevant insights on responses to HIV and AIDS by churches constitute an integral part of the input by the grassroots structures of each denomination analysed for twenty-two years.
In 1993, the Heads of Christian Denominations published a statement on the HIV epidemic, which became known as the Kadoma Declaration because it was produced after a meeting of national senior clerics in the town of Kadoma, west of the capital, Harare. The statement, only three pages in length, was the first interdenominational HIV and AIDS policy that was to emerge from church leaders in Zimbabwe.134 In brief, the policy expressed the stance taken by church leaders on HIV prevention and covered areas including human sexuality, AIDS and Christian morality, traditional values, a message to youth, a message to parents, and attitudes towards PLHIV.135 It is important to note that while the State did not have a national HIV and AIDS policy until 1999, what the churches offered was a moral position on HIV prevention.
In 2005, the Heads of Christian Denominations also published a second HIV and AIDS policy document. The new and expanded policy contained aspects such as HIV prevention, AIDS-related care and support, the treatment of AIDS-related diseases, stigma and discrimination, the property rights of widows and orphans, and traditional and cultural practices in the context of HIV.136 In 2006, some of the churches in Manicaland collectively advocated for increased responses to HIV and AIDS by
133 HOCD, AIDS: The Christian response, 7.
134 HOCD, ―Conference statement on AIDS: An appeal by church leaders for behavioural change to combat AIDS,‖ Interdenominational AIDS Conference, Kadoma Ranch Motel, (20-23 April 1993).
S. A. Farag (ed), Interdenominational AIDS Conference: A compilation of selected presentations made at the conference, (July 1994), 2.
135 HOCD, ―Conference statement on AIDS.‖
136 HOCD, HIV and AIDS policy, (Harare: HOCD, 2005).
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churches and the general public. In a publication entitled, The truth will make you free: A compendium of Christian social teaching, the authors urged the churches and communities in general to support those living with HIV, to practice Christian morality, and offer support to AIDS-related orphans and vulnerable children.137 The statements on HIV and AIDS expressed by the churches in Manicaland including the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches were meant to highlight their theological position. The publication indicates what the churches believed Christians ought to be doing in responding to the needs of those living with HIV as well as AIDS-related orphans and vulnerable children. Interestingly, the concluding statements of the book located the HIV epidemic in the wider context of the deplorable living conditions of the poor, caused by escalating unemployment levels and the high cost of living in Manicaland in particular and Zimbabwe in general:
HIV/AIDS is not a health issue that stands alone. It is related to the social and economic environment in which we live. …These conditions add fuel to the fire of HIV/AIDS; the greater the social disintegration, the greater the prevalence of the virus.138
While the present study acknowledges this work, its focus was on the history of actual responses to the HIV pandemic by the three churches. In 2007, the national church leaders‘ forum acting in collaboration with the ZACH published a training manual for use by clergy and pastors in pastoral care and counselling of PLHIV.139 Briefly, the association was formed in 1974 as a medical arm of the Christian churches in Zimbabwe and reports to the Heads of Christian Denominations. By 2007 a total of 126 church hospitals and clinics were registered members of the association. The following map of Zimbabwe shows some of ZACH‘s HIV and AIDS interventions activity sites as of 2008.
137 Churches in Manicaland, The truth will make you free: A compendium of Christian social teaching, (Mutare: Churches in Manicaland, 2006), 44-47.
138 Churches in Manicaland, The truth will make you free, 47.
139 S. Mpofu (ed), A Guide to HIV and AIDS pastoral care and counselling, (Harare, HOCD and ZACH, 2007).
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Figure 2. Map of some of ZACH’s HIV Interventions Sites: 2008.140
140 Courtesy of ZACH archives, Harare, 2008.
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This ecumenical medical body established HIV and AIDS programmes that ―…aimed at supporting member institutions to develop strategies for mitigating HIV and AIDS especially in the rural areas using community initiatives.‖141 These documents reveal ecumenical collaboration at the national level and fall short of indicating responses to HIV and AIDS by the individual churches in Manicaland. Prior to 1999, ZACH provided financial aid towards HIV and AIDS interventions at church healthcare centres.142
The publication by Ted Roger entitled, Jesuit, social pioneer and AIDS activist: A memoir provides important insights into the beginnings of church responses to HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe in the mid-1980s, especially the Roman Catholic Church of which the Rogers was a member.143 In his chapter entitled, ―Hijacked by AIDS,‖ Rogers chronicled his involvement in HIV and AIDS interventions with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Harare in 1986 and a year later set up the ZCBC‘s HIV and AIDS Committee. AIDS-awareness seminars organised by Rogers involved all the church‘s dioceses in Zimbabwe. Ambrose Vinyu, a Roman Catholic priest from Mutare and other delegates from Manicaland used to attend.144 Rogers‘ memoirs were of importance in highlighting his input to an ecumenical response to HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe especially through the Heads of Christian Denominations. This said, Rogers‘ work focuses on interactions at the highest level of church structures and did not reflect the responses to HIV and AIDS by Christian communities on the ground.
Since the book comprised of memoirs, its focus was limited to Rogers‘ personal experiences rather than being devoted to the wider scope of the churches and the HIV pandemic in Zimbabwe or Manicaland. This study made use of Rogers‘ work in tracing the humble beginnings of Christian responses to HIV in Zimbabwe.
Jill Ruchala, in Zimbabwe: A guide to humanitarian and development efforts of inter action member agencies in Zimbabwe, highlights the contribution of the CRS towards meeting the material needs of people in infected and affected by HIV starting from
141 ZACH information brochure, 2008.
142 V. Chitimbire, interview conducted by M. Mbona, ZACH office, Harare, 5 October 2010.
143 T. Rogers, Jesuit, social pioneer and AIDS activist: A memoir, (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2011), Forthcoming.
144 Rogers, Jesuit, social pioneer and AIDS activist.
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1989 and onwards.145 Although relatively brief, the overview is relevant to the present study because it mentions the work of the CRS, a funding organisation of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America (US). Since the early 1990s, the same organisation funded HIV and AIDS interventions in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mutare. In a study by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) conducted in 1999, the reviewers identified a Christian community at Regina Coeli mission, Nyanga in Manicaland, as having mobilised a support group for PLHIV in 1994. Such support groups established income generating projects as well as providing emotional support to those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.146 While it only provided a brief overview of the projects then in hand, the report hinted on HIV interventions established by grassroots communities associated with a Roman Catholic institution in Manicaland. The report connects well with HIV interventions established under the diocesan AIDS-related care project in 1992 and the present study made important use of this work.
Edwin Kaseke and Jotham Dhemba co-authored the ―Zimbabwe country report‖ as part of a five-country study on service and volunteering in southern Africa, commissioned by the ―Voluntary and Service Enquiry of southern Africa‖ in July 2006. The purpose of the study was ―to document and analyse civic service and volunteering in Zimbabwe.‖147 The findings reported on two faith-based organisations from Manicaland, the Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT) and the Diocese of Mutare Community Care Project (DOMCCP). This is of interest to the present study because FACT is the earliest FBO to pioneer HIV interventions in Manicaland since 1987.
The latter previously known as Mutare Community Health Care (MCHC) is a faith- based AIDS service organisation established by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mutare in 1992. The study focuses on orphan care within families following traditional community principles.148 The underlying principle is that of encouraging community ownership of care of AIDS-related OVC that was aided by financial
145 J. Ruchala, ―Zimbabwe: A guide to humanitarian and development efforts of inter action member agencies in Zimbabwe,‖ (February 2008), 18-20.
146 G. Mutangadura, D. Mukurazita and H. Jackson, A review of household and community responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, (Geneva: UNAIDS, June 1999), 61.
147 E. Kaseke and J. Dhemba, ―Zimbabwe country report,‖ in Five-country study on service and volunteering in southern Africa, under the Volunteer and service enquiry southern Africa, (July 2006), 6. 148 Kaseke and Dhemba, ―Zimbabwe country report,‖ 26.
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support from diocese through its FBO‘s programme. While the study highlights the importance of community volunteerism for AIDS-related orphan care, its scope did not explore in full detail other HIV and AIDS interventions carried out by the Roman Catholic Church in Manicaland. The present research study will therefore benefit from the work of Kaseke and Dhemba.
Martha Chinouya, Livingstone Musoro and Eileen O‘Keefe‘s publication entitled, The Anglican Diocese of Manicaland: Capacity building and policy response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Zimbabwe,149 focuses on the challenges faced by the Anglican Church‘s healthcare centres. While the effects of the migration of medical personnel to others countries on HIV and AIDS intervention were discussed by Chinouya et al., there is no attempt to trace the history of the church‘s response to the pandemic.
Instead, the scope of the publication was to facilitate future responses to HIV and AIDS by the Anglican Church in Manicaland. Martha Chinouya in, TAURAI!
(Communicate!): A dialogue of hope between church leaders and HIV-positive Christians in the Anglican Diocese of Manicaland, Zimbabwe,150 focuses on the importance of dialogue in reducing stigma. The findings of this report published in 2007 reflect on support groups as spaces for HIV disclosure within the Anglican Church in Manicaland. The word taurai, which in the Shona language translates as
―let us talk‖ or simply ―let us hold a conversation,‖ was meant to encourage dialogue between people infected and affected by the HIV pandemic and church leaders. The intention of the study is the provision of hands-on training in reducing denial and stigma of HIV among the Anglican Church clergy in Manicaland. Chinouya‘s work makes a positive step in HIV prevention and AIDS mitigation but falls short of accounting for the Anglican Church‘s responses to the epidemic within given specific time periods.
In another publication, Martha Chinouya discusses the role of the Mothers‘ Union guild in the provision of care to those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS in
149 M. Chinouya et al., The Anglican Diocese of Manicaland: Capacity building and policy response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Zimbabwe, (London: Human Rights and Social Justice Institute, 2003).
150 M. Chinouya, TAURAI! (Communicate!), A dialogue of hope between church leaders and HIV- positive Christians in the Anglican Diocese of Manicaland, Zimbabwe, A report compiled on behalf of the Taurai project (London: London Metropolitan University, 2007).
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―Ubuntu and the helping hands for AIDS.‖151 Chinouya observes that the members of this guild are a leading group among those playing a role in responding to the challenges posed by HIV and AIDS within the church and in the wider community.
Generally, the same observations were valid for members of the married churchwomen‘s guilds including those from the Roman Catholic and United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. Chinouya‘s argument that there was a general lack of proper resources and funding in harnessing such religious assets for AIDS-related caring work is a relevant key point. As she noted:
Small groups of ordinary community members, caring for orphaned and vulnerable children and in urgent need of financial support, do not receive international funding, as many obstacles exist that prevent the resources from reaching grassroots communities.152
Apart from making use of Chinouya‘s findings, this study documents not only AIDS- related caring work carried out by Christian women but indicates the way HIV affected them.
Gladys Mutangadura‘s article entitled: ―How communities help families cope with HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe,‖ mentions church responses to AIDS-related orphan care needs in Manicaland.153 Mutangadura‘s study focuses on 215 households selected from Marange district (rural) and Mutare (urban), in Manicaland. An important observation form the study is that at community level, people infected and affected by HIV including orphans identified clubs, burial societies, and churches as providers of essential financial and other material support. Mutangadura noted:
Of the three types, church-based support offered the most help by providing food, funeral expenses, clothing, and school fees to orphans.
However, support from the churches is limited to church members, and
151 M. Chinouya, ―Ubuntu and the helping hands for AIDS,‖ in O. Wambu (ed), Under the tree of talking: Leadership for change in Africa, (London: Counterpoint, 2007), 101-111. The Mothers‘ Union is a guild of church married women in the Anglican Church founded by Mary Sumner in England in 1876. The guild seeks to uphold Christian teachings on marriage and family life.
152 Chinouya, ―Ubuntu and the helping hands for AIDS,‖ 105.
153 G. Mutangadura, ―How communities help families cope with HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe,‖ in A.
Singhal and S. Howard (eds), The Children of Africa confront AIDS: From vulnerability to possibility, (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003), 159-168.
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those who benefit from it indicate that the assistance from it is inadequate and not consistent.154
The study is crucial in that it acknowledged a positive contribution to AIDS-related orphan care by church communities in Manicaland and also highlighted shortcomings like favouritism. Although not referring to specific church denominations, the findings provide important insights on the strengths and weaknesses of church led AIDS-care interventions in Manicaland province.
Nancy Carter highlights the work of the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe in an article entitled, ―United Methodists help save girls and women‘s lives through school and literacy programmes.‖155 The major focus of this report is to indicate the church‘s initiatives at fund-raising towards meeting the material needs of women infected and affected by HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe. Carter notes that since 1995 the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe has assisted thousands of AIDS-related cases, assisted by the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), particularly through the health and welfare ministries and the United Methodist Committee on Relief.156 Brenda Wilkinson also pays tribute to efforts by the church in reaching out to the youth by reporting on a Zimbabwe Youth AIDS Conference held at the Chinhoyi Technical College in 2000. This became a national event which sought to provide an opportunity for youth to dialogue with the church‘s leadership, government officials, and health professionals about HIV infections and AIDS for the first time in a peer setting.157 While these submissions are acknowledged, the articles only highlight a few things done by the United Methodist Church in responding to HIV. Nevertheless, the reported events and programmes were helpful to this study.
154 Mutangadura, ―How communities help families cope,‖ 163-164. See also G. B. Mutangadura,
―Women and AIDS in southern Africa: The case of Zimbabwe and its policy implications,‖ Jenda: A journal of culture and African women studies 1, 2 (2001), 1-11.
155 N. Carter, ―United Methodist help save girls and women‘s lives through school and literacy programmes,‖ (2004), <http://new.gbgm-umc.org/work/health/aids/archives/literacyprograms/>
[Accessed 8 July 2009].
156 Carter, ―United Methodist help save girls and women‘s lives.‖
157 B. Wilkinson, ―HIV/AIDS conference for the United Methodist youth in Zimbabwe,‖ 2 October 2000, <http://gbgm-umc.org/mission/news2000-2/gbgm100300bwbm.html/> [Accessed 8 July 2009].
See also B. Wilkinson, ―General Secretary of the GBGM praises Zimbabwe youth initiatives on HIV/AIDS,‖ <http://gbgm-umc.org/mission/news2000-2gbgm092800bwbm.html/> [Accessed 8 July 2009].
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