The role of religion on HIV/AIDS prevention: a case study of Youth in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dar es Salaam

HIV/AIDS for more than two decades now has affected the whole world, but in Africa it has proven to be a deluge, another ‘slave trade’. There are three challenges associated with it: prevention of infections, care and support and are research on vaccination and cure. So far there has been little success in their campaigns. Youth more affected by HIV than any other groups. The preventive drive has been dominated by biomedical model. One pitfall of this model is sideling religion. Religion is the strongest force in Africa, as it provides the world view for the majority of her people in all aspects of life. Literature review has revealed the vitality of religion in Africa and the need for research to finds its effectiveness in fight against HIV / AIDS. The objective of this research is to find out the impact of religious instruction on youth. The study case is the adolescent confirmands in the catholic archdiocese of Dar es Salaam. Though so far so far there is no medical vaccination, religious teaching can act as an agency of social inoculation. Using symbolic interactionism, this study reveals the understanding of youth about this pandemic. For the religious instructions to be efficacious in behavior formation of the youth against HIV/AID there are a number of recommendations to be considered.