Pastoral approach to caring for HIV orphans

Abstract

The researcher is dealing intensively with the concept of care to the orphaned so that they may stop using their bodies to earn extra money in order to care for their siblings. The researcher has to put a special emphasis on two Methodist Church mission pillars, namely justice and education, to investigate the critical application of care for the orphans. The researcher furthermore sets out to establish the important role and contribution of the pastoral approach in the total or holistic wellbeing of orphaned children as it has been observed that the number of orphans in the Vukuzakhe community is escalating in an alarming way. The researcher has attempted to develop a discourse in dealing with the pain or grief the orphans and their families have concerning the Pastoral support offered to the ill, while hospitalized, and the subsequent after care services following death. The other intention of the research is to give a clinically based theological model of doing pastoral counseling and therapy within the orphaned environment. That is to deal with this study on a theological and psychological basis to give clinical pastoral care to the vulnerable orphans. It is felt the qualitative approach used will allow participants to relate to their processes and, together with the researcher, re-construct their realities. The methodology, therefore, provide participants with the space in which to explore the socially constructed meanings applied to the encountered experiences of being orphaned. The researcher?s aim is to empower the church to care for the orphans, and to arrive at a holistic understanding of all the steps and procedures involved in dealing with the orphaned. The researcher has also further engages Pollard?s work which opens a new way of positive deconstruction. This method allows me to reconstruct the lives of orphans as care givers so that the researcher creates a new way of caring for orphans.