AEGiS-14IAC: Miracle healing churches: Coping mechanisms in a high HIV risk area in Uganda.

14th International AIDS Conference


Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

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Miracle healing churches: Coping mechanisms in a high HIV risk area in Uganda.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. E11427)

Nyanzi S, Nyanzi B
Medical Research Council/ Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, Uganda

BACKGROUND: We examined the role of miracle healing churches in coping with HIV/AIDS in rural Uganda.

METHODS: Fieldwork was conducted in Masaka district in 1999 and 2000. Methods included ethnographic participant observation, focus group discussions, individual indepth interviews, life histories and content analysis of Pentecostal popular culture (sermons, prophecies, visions, music, prayers, testimonies, slogans). Data were analysed using Atlas.ti.

RESULTS: Unlike biomedicine or traditional healing which generally do not offer a cure for HIV/AIDS and thus marginalise sufferers, miracle healing churches are popular because they offer appropraite free techniques for dealing with the psychosocial tensions of the disease. At the individual level, participants reported about their transformation from emotional distress, fear of death or stigmatisation, frustration and despair to problem-focused coping, minimisation, positive reinterpretation and/ or escapism. Blame for catching the illness is shifted from the sufferer to the devil and his agents. The whole social institution believes in healing of illnesses, thus denial (implied or overt) was an evident coping technique among many participants. At community level, social outcasts stigmatised for poor health are brought into the church, offered hope of miraculously recovering, empowered to confront their weaknesses and become 'living testimonies' - heroes. The church family offers a social support network for widows and orphans which replaces broken natural-family ties. They often give material support like food, shelter, emploment, schoolfees for children. These churches provide an apparent new lease on life because participants 'healed' of HIV/AIDS remarry and even have children.

CONCLUSION: Miracle healing churches in south western Uganda offer support networks and psychosocial coping strategies in response to HIV/AIDS at the individual, household, community and organisational levels.

Keywords: AEGIS, Adaptation, Psychological, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Social Support, HIV Infections, Emotions, HIV Seropositivity, Family, Bereavement, Widowhood, Focus Groups, Uganda, ChildKWDaegis,adaptation,psychological,acquiredimmunodeficiencysyndrome,socialsupport,hivinfections,emotions,hivseropositivity,family,bereavement,widowhood,focusgroups,uganda,child

020707
E11427

Copyright © 2002 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.