Congregational Breakdown and HIV/AIDS Among Rural Zambia’s Salvation Army

by Thebisa Chaava

In 1994 a young girl in my church in Zambia went to a church counsellor for help about a relationship with a young man in the same church. The boy was treating her like his wife, she said. The counsellor casually asked the boy to stop this behaviour, but a few months later the tearful girl returned and told the counsellor that she was pregnant. 

The counsellor was well-placed to be consulted about issues of personal choice, and as in many other cases the opportunity was not utilized. The problem centres around assumptions and discomfort of discussing sexual matters with young people. 

In September 1999 at a church leaders’ consultation in Gaborone, facilitated by Cafod, Norwegian Church Aid and the Salvation Army, African church leaders admitted there was much more the church could do to contribute to preventing HIV/AIDS and caring for those living with the virus. 

Many church leaders at the consultation acknowledged that they had been reserved in their response and had treated HIV/AIDS primarily as a health issue. They only became involved during funerals, at which point HIV/AIDS was not even mentioned. They agreed that the way church meetings were being conducted did not reflect the impact of the epidemic. Neither did youth meetings and women’s meetings. Most church responses to HIV/AIDS have come from church hospitals and other social institutions, with little or no response from local congregations made up of ordinary men and women. 

Congregations themselves have only rarely responded to the epidemic. Women in congregations have continued to organize bridal showers that prepare women for marriage without reference to HIV/AIDS. When someone is sick and misses church services, the church leader and church members are expected to visit but without making any reference to HIV/AIDS. When death occurs, church members are often required to prepare the bodies of fellow church members for burial, as funeral parlours are uncommon in the rural areas. Church members carry the coffin on their shoulders to the burial site and keep night vigils to comfort bereaved families, often without acknowledging the epidemic that lies behind the increasing sickness and death in communities. 

In rural Zambia the church represents a strong community structure for decision making and problem solving. Nearly everyone is associated with a church or has been to a church at least once in their lifetime for a wedding, Christmas or Easter celebration, or the funeral of a loved one. In many rural communities there are only two communal buildings: a school and a church. Church leaders themselves are often also community leaders, and all churches have weekly meetings on Saturdays or Sundays, with membership ranging from 50 to 500 people. It is in these congregations that the impact of the epidemic is felt the most.

Deep reflections on the meaning of the epidemic for congregations are now taking place at all levels of church organization. The Salvation Army, a church with both social institutions and congregations, was one of the first to respond to the epidemic in Zambia by setting up home-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS and community counselling, initially from its hospital in rural Zambia. These strategies have since spread to many other communities around the world. 

In Africa, the Salvation Army has set up regional and national teams in 12 countries to mobilize an effective response both from its institutions and congregations. In Uganda every Salvation Army congregation has an income-generating activity to support widows and orphans. These activities include selling charcoal and dried fish. The profits are used to provide sick church members with hospital transport; they also go toward school fees for orphans. This lead has been followed by Salvation Army congregations in other African countries. Today, home visiting teams for counselling and other types of support to HIV/AIDS-affected families are becoming part of church life.

Salvation Army congregations have not been spared the impact of HIV/AIDS. The number of sick people who need visiting has increased, as have funerals. In rural Zambia funerals have become weekly events, disrupting the rhythm of rural congregation life. The number of orphaned children is on the rise, and the challenge for congregations is enormous. In the western part of Kenya, a Salvation Army officer in the community of Agi Sondo told of the ordeal of burying 60 church members within a single year out of a congregation of about 500. Each one required a church service before burial. For now, access to treatment for those living with HIV/AIDS in communities like Agi Sondo remains beyond reach. 

In addition to shrinking congregations, the church faces the challenge of keeping hope alive within the church and the wider community. In both, sickness and death are on the increase while a cure or even access to antiretroviral treatment remains impossible. There are signs of hope, however, as church leadership and congregations awaken to the problem and begin to take ownership of it.

Throughout Africa’s Christian churches, a response to HIV/AIDS is emerging. In Kenya, Zambia, South Africa and as far as the Sudan, congregation-based responses are spreading. In Zambia the Pentecostal Assemblies of God church has gone into partnership with donor agencies and the national government to implement a programme of care of orphans and street children. They have also trained church members in HIV/AIDS voluntary counselling and testing.

Not long ago, church congregations were in complete denial of HIV/AIDS. Today, more and more people are accepting that it exists, and fighting HIV/AIDS is becoming the subject of creative engagement by church congregations. As one church leader said at the Gaborone meeting, “The latent potential of the church is yet to be wakened....The resources of the church through its congregations are yet to be harnessed and utilized in the control of this epidemic.”

Congregations are only now learning to apply their culture of compassionate care and voluntarism to dealing with this epidemic. They need training in home-based care as well as in counselling for affected and infected individuals. National resources should be made available to community caregivers who volunteer their time to provide support to the thousands being nursed in homes away from the relative comforts of institutional care. This awakening of congregational potential is worth the investment; the congregations are not only bearing the brunt of this epidemic but are also strategically placed to provide care, support and prevention services in our communities, especially rural ones.

Voices from Africa no. 10