Faculty of Theology
Department of Science of Religion and Missiology
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is causing a tremendous increase in the number of vulnerable people in the Southern African society. It is important to find models that will make it possible for vulnerable children in low-income Southern African households to enjoy a proper quality of life. The Functional Household Projects attempts to make a contribution in this regard through the development of a Church / Household Interface Care and Support model (CHICS-model) for utilising local church facilities to support urban and township low-income households that are taking care of vulnerable children. A social work student was appointed full time in 2007 with financial assistance of the Northern Synod of the DRC to assist the research team in their endeavour to develop the CHICS model. The CHICS-model is currently implemented on a small scale for evaluation, refinement and validation at a local church facility in the Mamelodi area.
Contact person: Dr HM Murray.
The Functional Household Programme (FHP) is an interdisciplinary practice research programme that won the THRIP Excellence Award from the Minister of Trade and Industry in the category Social Development in 2005. The FHP is situated at the Faculty of Theology. It studies the interfaces between churches, low-income households and industries to find solutions for low-income households to improve the quality of life of household members. The programme received a THRIP grant for the second year consecutively to facilitate the designing of a Managed Health Care Communication System with Industry Partner Enablemed. Within this programme two research reports were drafted in 2007:
The Health Status of Communities around Lonmin Platinum Limpopo: A Baseline Survey and
Towards user specifications for a MHC communication system: An analysis of the Enablemed communication network as perceived by staff as well as a small number of doctors and patients
The aim of the first study was to provide insight into the health status of 24 communities surrounding Lonmin Platinum Limpopo as well as to make recommendations for interventions aimed at improving the health status of people living in these communities. The sample size was 560 households and 2666 household members. Findings indicate that, on average, each household across the 24 communities consisted of between four and six household members. The gender distribution is fairly even with 44.06% male household members and 55.94% female household members in the total sample. The overall education level in the communities is as follows: 23.77% of the household members in all the communities have no education at all. 70.14% of all household members have some school education (a Grade 12 or lower education) and 5.95% of all household members have some form of tertiary education. The majority of caregivers who fall within the economically active population group have an education level of Grade Three to Grade Nine. One of the most important findings of the study is the dismal state of the employment rate as reported by primary caregivers of households. Only two communities reported an unemployment rate of less than 80%, namely Lebowakgoma at 78.17% and Matome at 77.19%. The unemployment rate reported in the current study is higher than the average (strict definition) claimed by the Stats SA indicators of 46.5% for the greater Lepelle-Nkumpi district. Some 80.09% of the caregivers in the 24 communities covered by the survey indicated that their last visit to a health facility had been less than a year ago. They were also asked to indicate which health care services members of their household made use of in the last 12 months. 86.62% of the respondents visited a government or municipal clinic, 81.27% visited a public hospital, 58.50% visited a church and 9.37% went to see a traditional healer. The statistics regarding knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, practices and needs indicate that, despite the on-going prevention, awareness and treatment messages, too many people are still ill informed with regard to the prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS. An indication that there is some progress in terms of the way in which community members protect themselves against HIV infection is the statistically significant relationship between caregivers indicating that their partners are faithful and the use of condoms (p-value<0.0001). 63.29% of the caregivers who indicate that their partners are not faithful indicated that they always use a condom during sex. Most households have radios (79.43%), cell phones (73.17%) and television sets (60.29%) available as communication mediums. It is remarkable that only 1.43% of households have a telephone while 73.17% of households own a cell phone! Only 0.89% of respondents have a personal computer and just 0.18% of respondents have internet access. None of the respondents reported that they have access to cell phone banking. Improvement of food security, youth programmes, crime prevention and infrastructure (water, road and storm water) were identified as strategic priorities for future interventions. The second report was aimed towards design specifications for a managed health care communication system tailor made for Enablemed. The presupposition is that an analysis of the Enablemed communication network as perceived by staff members could help to draw the contours for these specifications. A number of propositions were formulated to determine the design of the small scale implementation of a selection of communication improvements for evaluation, refinement and validation by the research team. Software experts have commenced with the programming of the new communication system employing the propositions in the above report as a guideline.
Contact person: Dr HM Murray.
Thousands of South African households burn coal for domestic energy. Pollution resulting from domestic coal use contributes to high levels of ambient and indoor air pollution as well as decreased visibility in townships in Gauteng, the Mpumalanga highveld and the Free State. A cheap and effective ignition method, dubbed Basa Magogo (BM), has been discovered as a result of research by IMER and the Nova Institute in participation of community members in eMbalenhle, Mpumalanga. The most successful technology transfer project has to date reached less than 60% of target populations.This project aims to develop a comprehensive technology transfer strategy to increase the uptake of Basa Magogo technology to levels above 80% This will be achieved in two ways:
• Evaluate alternative social 'routes' for transfer of the technology
• Develop an information system and appropriate software to manage the technology transfer process on suburb, street and house level
A survey of Basa Magogo users in the township of Zamdela (Adjacent to Sasolburg in the Metsimaholo municipality.) was conducted in which it was found that 51.9% of households in Zamdela use coal in their homes. Of these 49% use the Basa Magogo method of igniting coal. The retention of the Basa Magogo method is high, but the number of BM users decline over time due to demographic factors as well as changes in coal use patterns. Changes in housing (new RDP houses were built) may also play a role. It was further recommended that demonstrations of the top-down method should be considered during the winter of 2008 to improve the uptake of Basa Magogo.
Contact person: Dr CJ Pauw.
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