Research in Focus with Mandy Marshall (June 2007)
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In June 2007, the GSDRC examined the 2006 paper ''Tackling HIV and AIDS with Faith Based Communities: Learning from Attitudes on Gender Relations and Sexual Rights within Local Evangelical Churches in Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and South Africa'' by Mandy Marshall who works at Tearfund. The interview examines pilot initiatives in South Africa, Burkino Faso and Zimbabwe and lessons learnt. |
 Mandy Marshall |
GSDRC:
The paper explores the position of local churches in Africa with respect to gender relations and the subsequent implications for HIV and AIDS. Based on desk based and field research, its findings indicate that churches were largely silent on the issue of gender and sex, or were reinforcing traditional values which contribute to HIV infection. In a number of countries, the church seems to have failed to provide leadership to young people, especially young women, facing huge pressure to be sexually active.
Please could you tell us a bit more about the paper and the thinking behind conducting the research? In connection, I was wondering whether Tearfund’s status as a Christian NGO might have encouraged churches and the participants to be a bit more open about their circumstances.
Mandy:
At the UN AIDS conference in 2004 Kofi Annan noted that in some heavily affected countries married women have higher rate of HIV infection than their unmarried, sexually active peers. Tearfund wanted to know whether churches were tackling the issues of sexual activity, and, if so, was this being done in an informed and positive manner? On that basis, Tearfund funded a small research project to assess the current situation with regards to gender, HIV and AIDS, and the role of the church in the three African countries of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso. Tearfund’s aim was to discover if the churches were doing any work in this area, and, if so, how successful was it proving to be? What lessons could be learnt? We went into areas where they already had established partners, apart from South Africa, where we visited other organisations including the KwaZulu Natal University, and used these as an entry points. Tearfund acknowledges that the church plays a significant or could potentially play a significant role for change within it’s community and I think it certainly did help that, as a Christian organisation, Tearfund, could go in and ask difficult questions.
GSDRC:
Having read your desk based and fieldwork research, something that particularly struck me was the that idea that in South Africa ‘post-apartheid’ freedom has resulted in the misinterpretation of the idea of a democracy as ‘anything goes’ which in turn then led to the general rejection of boundaries and any frameworks that appear to limit freedom. Could you maybe talk us through a little bit more about your research in South Africa and why you believe this occurred?
Mandy:
Yes, we visited ten organisations in South Africa across a spectrum, from community-based organisations up to university-level to get an idea of the thinking on gender, HIV and AIDS and the church in South Africa. We also visited a church in Sweetwaters which is located just outside Pietersmaritzburg. It’s quite significant what the people were saying about post Apartheid, and we began to think how many men were operating in an almost vacuum.
That is to say that South Africans had this struggle, a fight and a cause which has now been essentially won although there are still other areas that need challenging. In this vacuum men were almost trying to find masculinity. From this dialogue Tearfund saw the need to form positive alternative constructs for masculinity rather than the negative ones that were coming out. In the absence of employment and the high unemployment rates some men were seen to be floundering without a sense of purpose.
Tearfund thinks that’s where the church could make a difference and provide people with new hope and promote positive alternatives of masculinity, including examining masculine roles within the family.
GSDRC:
Part of the paper outlines a small pilot initiative where Tearfund is funding new ways of working with the church to change behaviours, and to balance biblical theology with work to address the gender inequality in the relationships between men and women. Perhaps you tell me a little bit about this pilot programme, provide an update and what kind of activities it’s undertaken so far.
Mandy:
Tearfund works through local partnerships including Vigilance based in Ouagadougou in Bukina Faso, and also with Christian Aids Taskforce (CAT) based in Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. In Bukina Faso, a French-speaking West African country, it’s quite hard, a much harder environment, than in Zimbabwe, although, obviously, Zimbabwe has it’s own challenges at the moment. Vigilance is working primarily through the church, and looking at challenging gender and HIV through a relationship and marriage programme, so specifically targetting sectors within the church and looking at marriage and how people can build up their relationship. It’s very basic in some ways because we found, as you will see in the research, that men and women really didn’t have a positive relationship. One woman in Bukina Faso told us that their men come in, have sex, and leave and that they treat them like beasts and animals.
Vigilance is going in and looking at what makes a good relationship, what makes a good marriage, and encouraging people to act on those. Now obviously there are difficulties associated with that, as in we need to target both the personal level and the justice issue, and we’re only one year into the funding programme, so it’s very early days over there.
Christian Aids Taskforce in Bulawayo has been developing very quickly. They have produced a training manual, are incorporating gender activities into marriage courses and are targeting urban and rural churches. They are about to go to target men in the workplace, which is one of the areas in the report that we highlighted; the church needs to target men and meet them at work or anywhere which is suitable to talk about gender and HIV.
One of the areas where more research really needs to be done is about men and masculinity. The whole concept of gender in the past has been focused primarily around women, and there’s a real need now to focus more on men and masculinity while not forgetting the very important work of empowerment for women. I’m not saying we should do one without the other - absolutely not - we need both, but I do think more research needs to be done in that area, and there needs to be encouragement of other organisations to get involved in this research.
I’ve just come back from Congo, and spent some time there talking to some of our partners about our research. Some are already doing some amazing work particularly as HIV carries a lot of stigma in the Congo. I spoke to one Pastor, who previously said that he was very intolerant of people living with HIV. He completely revised his views after one of our partners, Choisir La Vie (Choose Life), talked to him about HIV and how it is contracted. Now, he’s one of the core advocates for their HIV Awareness programme, and he himself said, he had those views because he was ignorant. Now he’s going into churches and talking to other Pastors about HIV.
We also work through a partner called ACET, which is an AIDS, Care, Education and Training NGO based in Uganda. They’ve being doing HIV work for a number of years, though in the last two years they have been working with a high risk group of motorcycle taxi riders in Kampala. They set up a programme to talk to the men about HIV but the men were reluctant to come and listen. So they set up a trade, they would teach the riders English if the riders would attend talks on HIV. Again a percetable shift has been noted where the riders are not just thinking about the next conquest, but thinking long term about their future.
GSDRC:
That’s really a interesting example - you have talked about the extension of activities. Am I right to suggest that they seem very tailor made to each specific situation and communiity rather than some sort of blueprint?
Mandy:
Tearfund gives complete freedom to the partners to do the work they want to do. We would advise them on principles of good practice and we also facilitate learning and sharing across our partner organisations. We would encourage them, obviously, to do all of the classic project management but equally we believe they should also try out new things.
For ACET working with these men is something that obviously they highlighted as a particular need. And that’s what we would encourage other partners to do; to identify a need in their area and Tearfund can share the theory and the principles of good practice. However it does need to be tailor made into the particular culture in which they’re operating in. There are some general principles but, yes, if it is tailor made for the culture, then you are more likely to make the impact that you want to see.
