Professor Patterson speaks at Network on Religion and HIV/AIDS
From April 14-17, 2009, Professor Amy Patterson attended the conference of the Network on Religion and HIV/AIDS in Africa. The network, composed of roughly 35 scholars and practitioners from Africa, Europe, and U.S., held its conference at Justo Mwale Theological College in Lusaka, Zambia.
Prof. Patterson was asked to deliver a keynote address based on her research in Zambia (2007) and Ghana (2008). The presentation, "Church Advocacy on HIV/AIDS: A Comparison of Zambia and Ghana," 
examined the role of Protestant churches in shaping AIDS awareness campaigns, accessing funding for particular programs, and influencing national and donor policies on prevention, care, support, and treatment. The presentation is part of a larger book project she is completing. The Network, in existence for three years, is planning an intensive working seminar for July 2010. She will participate as part of the planning committee to develop the theme for the 2010 event.
Professor Patterson said that approximately 50 people attended and 35 papers were presented. Most 
participants were from the network but there were “15-20 people from the community who participated at different points in the conference. Some of the community members worked for the National AIDS Council, FBOs in Zambia, major donor groups (such as the Germans, UK, and Dutch), and other civil society groups. The relatively small size of the conference allowed for a lot of questions and discussions, both formally and informally.”
She was pleased with the positive reaction to her presentation and the good questions asked and discussed after her presentation. I was one of only a handful of political scientists there, so I appreciated the different viewpoints that the historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and religious studies scholars provided. Additionally, there were individuals there who had conducted research in Ghana and Zambia (or were Ghanaian and Zambian) and had a lot of good questions about my specific study.
Besides the positive response to her talk she her time spent there was very worthwhile because of the three interviews she was able to have before the conference. She interviewed a Jesuit priest, an epidemiologist and the head doctor at a church-run AIDS clinic in Lusaka.
The Jesuit priest “has done a lot of writing and speaking about AIDS awareness in the Catholic church. His focus has been on getting churches to own up to the fact that AIDS affects their congregations and to address issues like gender inequality and poverty that make women more vulnerable to AIDS.”
The epidemiologist “is working on a variety of projects on AIDS. One is examining the advantages and disadvantages of HIV testing for couples, instead of just individuals. (That is, instead of a husband or wife being tested and counseled individually, this would happen for married couples together.) Churches in Zambia have been involved in trying to urge married couples to do couples testing, a new way to try to urge more HIV testing and disclosure of results.”
The head doctor at a church-run AIDS clinic in Lusaka “discussed the role of increased funding from the Global Fund on AIDS, TB, and Malaria and how that had transformed what her clinic had been able to do. She also discussed the continued obstacles to ARV treatment, such as people who do not access services until it is too late or people who do not have access to food, though they have access to medicines.”
Professor Patterson's Paper Abstract
Church Advocacy on HIV/AIDS: A Comparison of Ghana and Zambia
HIV prevalence levels differ greatly between Zambia (~16%) and Ghana (~2%). Yet, in both countries churches have been involved on AIDS. Churches have developed programs, sought to raise public awareness, and shaped policies on treatment and prevention efforts. Focusing on the activities of mainline (“mission”) churches, this paper first outlines the different and similar ways that churches have approached AIDS in each country. It then investigates why these differences and similarities may exist. How do church strategies such as coalition building differ between the two countries? What is the role of stigma in shaping church AIDS efforts in each context? How has the tension between biomedical explanations for AIDS and spiritual worldviews shaped church activities on AIDS? What does each country’s political history mean for church influence on AIDS resource allocation and policy priorities? The paper is based primarily on interviews conducted among Zambian and Ghanaian Christian organizations during 2007 and 2008.
