| Summary: | The Republic of South Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world; the disease is classified as “hyper–epidemic” here. It is estimated that almost half of the deaths in the country are now from AIDS–related causes, and life–expectancy over the past 15 years has dropped from 64 to 49.3 years. As a millions of parents die from the disease, there is corresponding surge in the number of maternal, paternal, and double orphans, increasing by more than 2000 children per week and now believed to exceed 4 million of South Africa’s 18.7 million children. These bereaved children are battling grief, loneliness, hunger, poor diet, poor health, stigma, discrimination, molestation, abuse, the risk of disease, and the loss of education and property. The pandemic has exacerbated the already difficult situation faced by many of South Africa’s children due to poverty, fragmented families, poor service delivery, and moral decay. Collectively, these young ones have been designated as “OVC,” meaning orphans and vulnerable children. The South African government provides a basic grant for the households of about 25% of these children, and non–profit organisations, backed by private and business donors domestically and abroad, are caring for about 10%. Much has been done, informally and formally, but at a time when funding is diminishing, much more needs to be done, and the Christian community needs to be leading the way.
The aim of this study is to explore the Christian ethical basis for compassion ministry to orphans and vulnerable children, and to investigate other related ethical parameters for first–world volunteers getting involved in compassion ministry to largely third–world OVC in South Africa. The study involved both a comparative literary analysis as well as field research involving ten Christian orphan–care ministries, some over a period of four years. The study begins by documenting the most recent statistics regarding HIV/AIDS and the growing OVC population in South Africa. It then articulates the direct impact that the pandemic is having on OVC. Thereafter, compassion is defined and described from a biblical standpoint, and the ethical imperative for God’s people to show compassion to sufferers and orphans is established from the character of God, the image of God in mankind, the commands of God, and the ministry and teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostles, the early Church, and the revived Church in later centuries. Specifically, compassion is portrayed as one cord of the three–fold cord of gospel ministry that includes the gospel message, ethical teachings, and compassion ministry. Next, the ethics of adaptive ministry are explored emphasising incarnational ministry, contextualising God’s truth, understanding African worldviews, giving significance to cultural differences, and working wisely with the poor. Compassion can propel people to do right things in all the wrong ways, and it must therefore be paired with wisdom gained from the Scriptures and from Christians working in the field that helps to create ethical riverbanks so that damage is not done to the cause of Christ or to the communities in which OVC are found. Next, using an appreciative inquiry approach, ten Christian OVC–care ministries in three provinces were evaluated, five “outside the walls” and five “inside the walls,” to identify the best in each organisation’s philosophy, structure, methodology, and impact, and to highlight what is being done in the field of Christian compassion ministry to OVC.
The research concludes by reviewing an orderly process of ethical inquiry into human behaviour, establishing compassion as a prescriptive virtue in the theonomous norm of Scripture, and compassion ministry to orphans as highly meritorious and particularly favoured by God. Because the duty of compassion arises from an encounter with a sufferer, it was concluded that South African Christians have an elevated ethical duty to be more involved in this type of ministry. Research revealed that incarnational ministry is not a critical issue in the field of OVC care since very few first–world volunteers go into the African milieu for any length of time; Africans are the primary caregivers and care workers in the field. A conclusion was also reached that, although the mark of distinctively Christian OVC care organisations is spiritual discipleship, most OVC care ministries perform poorly regarding the spiritual welfare and training of children; OVC ministries that provide or arrange Christian education see discipleship as a critical need and a core value. A more detailed summary of findings is set forth in Chapter 7. === Thesis (Ph.D. (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.
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