Religion, Women’s Health, and Sustainable Development in Zambia: A Case of the Churches Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ)
摘要
Even though studies on women’s health and sustainable development acknowledge that women in sub–Saharan Africa face multiple intersecting health, social, gender, and economic challenges, the role of female-led faith-based organisations (FBOs) in attaining health-related sustainable development goals (SDGs) (3 and 5) has escaped the attention of religion and development scholars. Drawing on tertiary sources on the work of the Churches Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ), this chapter explores the contributions of CHAZ to the attainment of SDGs related to women’s health. The chapter shows that CHAZ has promoted women’s and girls’ health through programs that ranged from maternal health, malaria, AIDS care and prevention, and tuberculosis, to adolescent girls’ health and education, among others. CHAZ employs multiple interventions, including community engagement, advocacy, resource mobilization, and training of religious communities on women’s health. The chapter further shows that CHAZ, with its majority of health institutions in rural areas, is driven by the quest to serve all the people, especially the poor and underserved, through holistic, quality, and accessible health services. The chapter concludes that the approach to health care employed by CHAZ reflects the alignment of its mandate to SDG goals related to women’s health in Zambia through the utilization of religious health assets.