Getu, Melese (PhD)Berhanu, Zena(Ato)Bezabih, Ermias2018-06-192023-11-042018-06-192023-11-042007-08http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/1668There are anecdotal evidences suggesting that the rollout of ART in Ethiopia facing challenges from social and religious directions. These social and religious challenges have attracted the interest of the writer of this thesis. And the project has been conceived with the objective of identifying the social and religious challenges of ART program at the selected two PLWHA associations. For the study, cross-sectional qualitative research method was applied. In-depth interview with selected twenty individuals and focus group discussion with two groups (each had six participants) were conducted. More over, four key informant interviews were also carried out. The study suggested that there are different knowledge and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and ART that affect the uptake of ART. We can categorize the participants’ attitude towards using ART in to three. The first group strongly disagrees with the idea of using ART considering it as a weapon of Satan. This group of participants believes that HIV/AIDS is a punishment sent from God or it is caused by evil spirit. For them, it can be cured and has to be treated only by holy water. The second group regards ART as a supporter of the holy water. So, they believe in taking ARV with the holy water concomitantly. The other attitude supported with few informants was using only ART to treat HIV/AIDS. Respondents with this stand expressed their fear saying that the spiritual practices like fasting and going to the holy water sites in cold weather may hamper the therapy of ARV drugs. In addition to religion related factors, social factors are also noted to play significant role in affecting the ARV uptake. Most of the respondents ART are taking the drugs secretly in fear of the stigma and discrimination they may encounter. Especially, members of Mekdim Ethipia National Association were subjected to this situation because they are living in the inner part of the city. Inspite of some problems in using the drug and holy water simultaneously at the holy water site, the social relation at Entoto locality is encouraging for the users. Most of the respondents who were living at Entoto have no interest to leave the place because they are socially free there. In conclusion, the issue is waiting for large scale study in order to measure the magnitude of the problem and for implementation of possible measures at a wide range to abate the problemsenSocial WorkThesis