Role of social work in empowering people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) for poverty alleviation in Huye district in Rwanda

Abstract

ABSTRACT The world is confronted with different social ills that have exacerbated the situation of categories of people already living in difficult circumstances, particularly those in developing countries. A typical example is that of the people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) in poverty-stricken families in Rwanda. While undertaking my PhD research, I chose to deal with the poverty phenomenon among these people. My contribution, albeit small, was to explore the impact of social work on empowering the poor PLHIV organised in the form of associations in Huye district to alleviate poverty so as to improve their living conditions. The research was conducted in direct partnership with 13 Social Welfare Workforce (SWW) including 8 Professional Social Workers (PSW) and 13 representatives of 12 targeted cooperative associations. The direct research team worked with 266 associations’ members during 3 consecutive years. Throughout this research, iterative empowerment activities – integrated in a three-stage recurrent process consisting of ‘reflection, data collection and action’– were performed. Overall, the key research findings of this study revealed that poverty combines economic, structural and psychosocial traits and manifests itself in the form of insufficient incomes for family survival and absence of basic needs. In the face of this situation, empowerment and evidence-based social work practice were found to be suitable strategies in tapping the potential and talents of PLHIV for the sustainable improvement of their incomes in the future. It was also found that the placement of the People in Need (PIN) at the helm viii of the battle against poverty is equally fundamental. Hence, PLHIV should not be considered as passive recipients of aid. Instead, they should be empowered to play a caretaker role for themselves. Social work professionals should also be cognisant of their limitations while engaging in almost all aspects associated with PIN. . Ultimately, it was found and this is recommended that a participatory inspiring model privileging the bridging role of the Intermediary Social Work Actors (ISWA) and favoring the involvement of PIN in the problem-solving process may be adopted to mitigate adequately poverty. The model referred to is named EIPPARD: Enlightening and Involving People in Participatory Action Research for Development.