The church and disaster management: The assembly of God Church (AOG) and HIV/AIDS in Lusaka Zambia

Type Thesis or Dissertation - Masters
Title The church and disaster management: The assembly of God Church (AOG) and HIV/AIDS in Lusaka Zambia
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2012
URL http://natagri.ufs.ac.za/dl/userfiles/Documents/00002/2283_eng.pdf
Abstract
We live in an era of unprecedented disasters, both in severity and frequency. With the increasing unpredictability of disasters and their impacts on vulnerable populations, the consequences of disaster put many lives and livelihoods at stake. The emergence of HIV/AIDS pandemic has brought multi faceted challenges among the Zambian population especially in the capital city, Lusaka. Churches have attracted controversy for how they have dealt with AIDS: they have been criticized for moral stigmatism, yet lauded for their charitable works. HIV/AIDS poses a challenge to every person, community and organization to such an extent, that nearly every organization, Churches included, should have some policies and programmes to deal with the pandemic. The Church is one institution that because of its proximity to communities, as well as its ubiquity within many contexts, is able to respond compassionately and quickly to those infected and affected by the HIV/AIDS disaster. Indeed, for decades the Church has been helping communities mitigate, prepare for, and recover from disaster. In view of the fact that the Zambian government in Lusaka cannot deal with the increasing complex impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the Circle of Hope Family Clinic (CoH) a project under (AOG) Church and other organizations within Lusaka came on board, and augmented government efforts to try and alleviate the human suffering due to the pandemic. In this study, my purpose was to examine what the (AOG) through (CoH) is doing at the grassroots level in Lusaka to deal with the impact of HIV/AIDS. The study reveals that to achieve this enormous task, the Church must be transformed in the face of the HIV/AIDS crisis, in order to become a force for transformation-bringing healing, hope and accomplishment to all infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The Church is and should be an agent of God?s change by contributing to the communities in which she is located.

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