2004 FPG Summer Project #00119

Last Modified: Mar 24, 2004

Name	College	Department or Division
David Turkon	Glendale Community College	Social Sciences
Employee ID	E-mail Address	Work Phone
xxxxxxxx	david.turkon@gcmail.maricopa.edu	(623) 845-3254
Project
Title		Location
Surviving HIV/AIDS in Rural Lesotho, Southern Africa		Lesotho, southern Africa and the United Stated
Group Application
This is not a group project

Project Dates and Amounts
	Summer I view timeline details	Summer II view timeline details
Timeline Dates	May 25 - Jun 23, 2004	(none)
Hours	134.5	0
Wages	$2,989.94	$0.00
Registration Fees	0.00	0.00
Subtotals	$2,989.94	$0.00
Total Proposal Amount		$2,989.94

Details
Abstract Write a concise overview with descriptive information about your project (location, time span, etc.) not to exceed 120 words. To take advantage of spelling and word count tools, you can compose this in a blank Word document, copy the text, and paste it in below (all formatting will be reset to normal text).
This Summer Project will build on research that I did for my Ph.D. dissertation in Lesotho, southern Africa in 1991 and 1992, when there were only three reported cases of AIDS in that country. Having studied economic arrangements in thirteen villages, I have a baseline of data that I will use to examine how family, social and economic life has changed as a result of an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate that now exceeds thirty-percent and is considered to be the highest in the world. Time will be spent in the United States reviewing research on AIDS. In Lesotho I will interview colleagues and health professionals who have first hand knowledge of AIDS. In rural villages I will interview care-givers and family members of afflicted individuals. Upon return I will analyze data and compose recommendations for care-giving strategies for publication and meeting presentations, and for incorporation into classes that I teach at Glendale Community College.
Purpose Explain your purpose in depth and include relevancy and components of the project. Include a statement of goals and objectives. This is what you want to do and why.
Background: HIV/AIDS has had profound impacts on every aspect of life throughout most of Africa. The majority of research on HIV/AIDS has, however, been from an epidemiological perspective and little is known about potential long-range social impacts, especially regarding food and economic insecurity and the structuring of poverty in rural areas. This project will help to close this gap in the research by examining the effects of HIV/AIDS at the village level in Motsitseng, Lesotho, where I did research in 1991 and 1992 when there were only three reported cases of AIDS in all of Lesotho. Lesotho is landlocked by South Africa and most working age males migrate to jobs there in the mining industry. Spending as much as eleven months per year there, many engage in risky sexual behavior. Consequently, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Lesotho is now over thirty-percent and among the highest in Africa. My earlier research provides a valuable and rare baseline from which to compare both the immediate and long-rage social and economic affects that providing care has on families. Goals and Objectives: A primary goal for this research is to build on my professional training in ethnographic methods, anthropological theory, and applying these to solving real world problems. The specific goals are: 1) To survey the anthropological literature in order to achieve an understanding of causative factors in transmission (e.g. dislocation from family due to job migration, economic and social marginality of women, seasonal nutritional insecurity, etc.) and the kinds of strategies people use to compensate for the social and economic insecurities that result from these situations and statuses (e.g. extra-marital relations, concubine ["sugar daddy"] relations, prostitution); 2) Within the literature review, identify both successful and unsuccessful coping strategies that have been observed in order to familiarize myself with what sorts of local institutional arrangements to look for that might identify nuclei of community members who are caring for AIDS victims; 3) Visit the Institute for Southern African Studies at the University of Lesotho in Roma, where I will review locally generated research and discuss my own research with native colleagues, including Dr. D.M. Mohapi who has organized a conferences on food security and HIV/AIDS in Lesotho; 4) Spend approximately one-and-one-half weeks in Motsitseng, Lesotho, in the mountainous, rural and isolated Mokhotlong District, in order to survey the impact that HIV/AIDS is having on members of this community of about 300; 5) Review and code my research notes from Lesotho, summarize my findings, search the literature for examples that are similar in order to compare my findings and make meaningful recommendations at the meetings of the Society for Applied Anthropology and in relevant journals; 6) Use my findings to demonstrate the relevancy of applied anthropology in my Introduction to Anthropology classes and to demonstrate how traditional religious beliefs affect people's perceptions of and responses to epidemics; 7) Make on campus and community (visiting professor series at Glendale Public Library) presentations so that interested faculty and staff at Glendale Community College as well as community members can learn more about this subject. Relevancy: The spread of HIV/AIDS has taken on epidemic proportions throughout most of Africa, and is currently hitting southern Africa very hard. There exists much controversy about how people respond to the pandemic, and what appropriate responses from donor and health care agencies ought to be. In order to theorize about how people are responding to AIDS, most social scientists utilize concepts formulated based on the ways that people respond to natural disasters such as drought and famine. These theoretical conceptualizations, which focus primarily on "coping strategies," envision families as drawing down their social and economic resources during the time that they are caring for an AIDS patient, and then recovering socially and economically as they rebuild their resorurce base shortly after the death of the AIDS victim. Very limited data from researchers who have studied AIDS care-giving suggests, however, that families providing care deplete economic and social capital (goodwill of neighbors and extended family members) to the point of exhaustion. Combined with loss of a productive member of the household, this leaves them vulnerable to under-nutrition (this is especially deleterious for infants, young children and pregnant women as it can affect childhood development) and to becoming structured into poverty in ways that may affect the security and well-being of future generations. If this is indeed the case, then intervention strategies need to be reformulated to go beyond medical treatment and to address economic survival while coping, social and economic recovery after death of a patient, and education addressing prevention and strategies for recovering after death of the patient. Ultimately, this research will add to our understandings of the ways that families "cope" with AIDS over long durations of time and, through publications and presentations at professional meetings, disseminate this information to policy makers who can make a difference in the lives of the families of the afflicted. Site and Time Justifications: I chose Motsitseng as the primary research site within Lesotho because I am quite familiar with this village, have contacts there that I established on previous trips, and have a very detailed record of what life was like there during the second half of 1991 and the first half of 1992. I will spend full days in Motsitseng interviewing residents, especially those who have coped or are coping with an AIDS sufferer. My primary focus will be on the strategies that they use to compensate for the tremendous amount of time and resources that are needed to fulfill this task. Indeed, in the terminal stages of AIDS caring for the patient becomes full time work. I will also find out what has happened to the economic and social status of families that have coped with an AIDS sufferer during the twelve years since my last research in Motsitseng. I will also visit the regional hospital in the district center of Mokhotlong, Lesotho in order gain the insights of doctors and other health care providers on ways that local people are dealing with AIDS. My interviewing in Motsitseng will encompass the entire day in order to maximize the amount of data I can collect in a short period of time (approximately one-and-one-half weeks). I have not scheduled breaks for lunch because by Sotho (the culture of the people of Lesotho) custom people offer you food when visiting them in their homes. Thus, there will be no need to take breaks in order to eat.
Professional Growth Your own professional growth is a large part of your project. Your professional growth is important to you, your students, and possibly other colleagues. How will this project affect you professionally? What skills will you learn? What environment will you be working in, and how will it influence your teaching or other responsibilities?
I know of no better way to grow professionally as an anthropologist than to engage in field research in another culture, which is the main focus of my summer project. As a direct result of this project I will build on my skills as an ethnographer (one who studies other cultures from first hand experience) and as an applied anthropologist (one who applies anthropological theories and methods toward addressing real world problems). Equally important, I will gain valuable insights into cultural factors surrounding the transmission of HIV/AIDS, into culturally specific coping strategies, and into culturally specific belief systems about causative factors for the transmission of the disease. All of these areas will address major issues that I deal with in classes that I teach at Glendale Community College (see Benefits, below). By publishing my research results and presenting them at professional meetings I will organize my findings into coherent bodies of work that facilitate classroom presentation. This is important to me because, I firmly believe, by pursuing active research experiences, scholarly publications and presentations at professional meetings, I enhance my professional credentials as a teacher and researcher, and gain valuable material and experiences to share with students through lectures and discussions. Equally important, through the peer review process in publishing and the discussant process at meetings, my professional growth continues long after the initial research is completed
Benefits
Select the primary area of benefit:	Benefits for students
What benefit is this project to the group checked above? What new information, ideas, attitudes, skills, appreciation, etc. will you bring back?
All of the areas of professional growth discussed in the above section will have direct benefits when I teach my Introduction to Anthropology course. This research will be especially relevant when teaching components on cultural practices (transmission of HIV/AIDS), social arrangements (coping strategies centered on extended families or cooperative associations or both) and belief systems (causes attributed to, and curing methods used to confront HIV/AIDS). This last factor will also be very useful in my course, "Magic Witchcraft and Healing: An Introduction to Comparative Religion," since research suggests that many people explain the onset of HIV/AIDS (diagnosis of HIV as well as manifestation of symptoms of AIDS) with reference to supernatural causation (especially fatalism and witchcraft/sorcery), and consequently may seek treatment from "traditional healers" (ngaka in the native language of Lesotho, Sesotho). Healing, as the title of this class indicates, is an important component of the course that this research addresses directly. I also enjoy sharing my experiences and findings with interested Glendale Community College faculty and staff through the Lunch and Learn series of lectures. I also plan to share this research with the Glendale community by participating in the Visiting Professor series of lectures at the Glendale Public Library. Thank you for your consideration.