HIV / AIDS, violence and children : A ground-up Practical Theology from Atteridgeville and Katlehong, South Africa

This article works with the assumption that Practical Theology requires involvement at grassroots level. The narrative approach to pastoral care offers certain possibilities, by means of Participatory Action Research, for setting foot on grassroots level together with research participants. In this case, the research participants are children infected or affected by HIV / AIDS. Initial expectations were that children infected or affected by HIV / AIDS would be particularly defenceless against violence. The research in two comparative, traditional black suburbs confirms that it is not HIV / AIDS, in the first place, but poverty, which leaves children defenceless against various forms of violence. Proposals are made about taking a stance and about the role of the church as an alternative community