Describes the involvement of churches and other faith-based organizations (FBOs) in addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. The authors describe the range of FBO activities and discuss the advantages and challenges to such involvement and possible ways that FBOs can enhance their efforts, both independently and in collaboration with other organizations, such as government ministries of health.

Religious institutions shaped the ways individuals, communities and societies responded to HIV and AIDS since the 1980s. This book draws on research studies ranging in context from sites in sub-Saharan Africa to New York City in the USA to examine the complexity of responding to the epidemic both globally and locally. Religious systems of meaning, practices and institutions have been central to the articulation of projects for social change and inversely sometime strongly resistant to change in diverse institutional responses to HIV and AIDS. Sometimes, religious movements provided powerful forces for community mobilisation in response to the social vulnerability, economic exclusion and health problems associated with HIV. In other contexts, religious cultures have reproduced values and practices that have seriously impeded more effective approaches to mitigate the epidemic. By highlighting these complex and sometimes contradictory social processes, this book provides new insights about the potential for religious institutions to address the HIV epidemic more effectively. More broadly, it shows how research can be done on religion in the area of global public health, showing how civil society organizations shape opportunities for health promotion: a crucial and new area of global public health research. This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Public Health.

The main aim of modern public health is to improve the quality of life and promote health for all. Public health deals with a wide range of individuals and collaborates with various organizations, departments, and agencies to improve health, forestall disease and promote well-being. The field of public health is constantly evolving in response to the needs of communities and populations that are facing demographic, epidemiological and technological challenges. To overcome these challenges, health professionals need to conduct research to generate evidence-based policies to improve the health of the community. Throughout the course of this book, a number of emerging and re-emerging public health issues from different countries are discussed and attempts are made to illustrate a balanced and evidence-based approach towards tackling major public health problems.

There is a great need for healing in Africa. This need is in itself no different elsewhere in the world, but it is greatly determined by the involvement of religious communities and traditions. Faith communities and religious institutions play a major role in assisting African believers to find health, healing and completeness in everyday life.

The first comprehensive empirical account of how religion affects the interpretation, prevention, and mitigation of AIDS in Africa, the world's most religious continent.

This book is a collection of chapters by seasoned scholars of religion covering the role played by various religions at home in Botswana in the struggle against HIV and AIDS. The book is a direct result of field research projects conducted by the authors on the role of religion in a country that once ranked as the worst affected by HIV and AIDS in the world. It comprises of twelve chapters that are divided into four parts. The first part, comprising of three chapters, provides a background of the faith sector in Botswana. Part II of the book focuses on the Christian religion and comprises of four chapters. Part III comprises of three chapters discussing other religious groups apart from Christianity. Part IV addresses the role of culture and religion in HIV and AIDS response in Botswana. With several attempts to mainstream HIV and AIDS in education both in schools and in tertiary institutions, the book serves both the academic and research community at national and international levels. It does not serve only those studying religion, but all who address issues of HIV and AIDS from whatever field of study.

This collection adds to a burgeoning literature concerned with the roles played by religions in development. The authors do not assume that religion and religious organisations can be ‘used’ to achieve development objectives, or that religiously inspired development work is more holistic, transformative and authentic. Instead, they subject such assumptions to critical and (as far as possible) objective scrutiny, focusing on how adherents of several religious traditions and a variety of organisations affiliated with different religions perceive the idea of development and attempt to contribute to its objectives. Geographically, chapters in the volume encompass Africa, South Asia and the Asia-Pacific. Four of the papers have an international focus: providing a preliminary framework for analysing the role of religion in development, considering the roles played by faith-inspired organisations in two regions (the Asia Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa) and analysing transnational Muslim NGOs. The individual case studies focus on nine countries (India, Kenya, Pakistan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sudan, Malawi, Sri Lanka, South Africa), consider four religions (Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism), and can be grouped under four themes: they consider religion, wellbeing and inequality; the roles of religious NGOs in development; whether and how religious organisations influence, respond to or resist social change; and whether religious service providers reach the poor. Finally, practice notes show how three religious development organisations try to put their principles into practice. This book was published as a special double issue of Development in Practice.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are ubiquitous in the Global South. Often international in origin, many attempt to assist local efforts to improve the lives of people often living in or near poverty. Yet their external origins often cloud their ability to impact health or quality of life, regardless of whether volunteers are local or foreign. By focusing on one particular type of NGO—those organized to help prevent the spread and transmission of HIV in Kenya—Megan Hershey interrogates the ways these organizations achieve (or fail to achieve) their planned outcomes. Along the way, she examines the slippery slope that is often used to define “success” based on meeting donor-set goals versus locally identified needs. She also explores the complex network of bureaucratic requirements at both the national and local levels that affect the delicate relationships NGOs have with the state. Drawing on extensive, original quantitative and qualitative research, Whose Agency serves as a much-needed case study for understanding the strengths and shortcomings of participatory development and community engagement.