The practical strategies used by religious organisations in dealing with issues related to HIV/AIDS : based on a survey conducted in greater Pietermaritzburg.

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate the practical strategies used by religious organisations in dealing with issues related to HIV/AIDS in Greater Pietermaritzburg. The study comes from the assumption that all religious organisations tend to structure and restructure themselves as a means of responding to and intervening in the problems of society. The study therefore argues that intervention in HIV/AIDS issues is one of the conditions through which restructuring of religious organisation in Greater Pietermaritzburg is currently evident. By way of conclusion then, the study attempts to answer the question as to what extent such interventions are sustainable. The interventions are sustainable in that they are, by and large, undertaken by the grassroots people who are directly affected and infected by HIV/AIDS. However, the interventions are often very variable, ad hoc and haphazard. Thus the study concludes that questions about the sustainability of such interventions still give unclear answers.