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Faith-Based Leaders Toolkit

The vast majority of South Africans self-identify as belonging to a faith, with only 15% having no religious affiliation. Spirituality-based communities gave people ways to cope during the pandemic. Communities faced movement restrictions, loss of livelihoods, loss of family members, depression, grief, and sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) – turning to their faith leaders for support and guidance. Safer means of support during COVID-19 meant switching to digital communication, where spiritual leaders would pray, share theological reflections, and share messages of hope. 

 

It became apparent to the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) Civil Society Forum’s Faith sector leadership that if faith leaders had a toolkit to recognise signs of stress, fear, mental illness and suicidal thoughts and learn how to respond, they can serve as an expanded safety net. However, there is a ‘significant gap’ in available guidance on identifying beneficial psychosocial support practices, and how those practices could complement one another in an effective multi-sectoral toolkit. 

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In 2021, the SANAC received funding from the Global Fund COVID-19 Response Mechanism grant on behalf of the Faith Sector of the SANAC Civil Society Forum. The funded project was to develop a toolkit to train faith leaders on psychosocial support provision and elevate their role as ambassadors for COVID-19 vaccine uptake and continued promotion of non-pharmaceutical interventions in their own practice and that of their followers.

About the toolkit

Developing the toolkit was a participatory process, using different approaches to seek meaningful engagement of faith leaders from different religions, co-created with an interfaith Steering Committee and the SANAC Faith Sector leads and support staff. It involved phased desktop research to identify existing resources and gaps via an initial rapid review, and then a deeper desktop review to fill content gaps. A series of in-person and online consultations with the Steering Committee and other faith leaders was undertaken to test the content, with a final validation process to test the methodology, approach and scope of the Toolkit through two in-person pilot training processes was facilitated with participants from the Faith and PLHIV Sectors. The lessons and feedback from this process have been incorporated into this final version. 

 

This toolkit has been developed for facilitators to train faith leaders from all religious and spiritual backgrounds on providing meaningful psychosocial support to members of their communities. It can be used in various settings and has been deliberately designed so that any faith or secular community can use it. 

 

Download the toolkit here.