Dealing with poverty, health and maternal child survival: The Organisation of African Independent Churches perspective

Abstract

The Organisation of African Independent Churches (OAICs), as a representative of the African Independent Churches (AICs) across the African continent and in the Diaspora, disclosed that poverty has its own culture, and this was also confirmed by their undertaking of the Millennium Development Goals. AICs are commonly classified under the disadvantaged groups in the communities they inhabit. As a consequence, it cuts across their spectra as well. Members of these churches are domestic workers, cheap labour, factory workers, and unemployed. Often they come together with men of cheap labour and coupled as husbands and wives, forgetting their families in the rural regions where they came from. Many children are kept in these dark situations and poverty affects them badly, because for most of them they hold tempos without any guarantees for long lasting usage. This article will investigate how the AICs are affected and survive in these sites and the use of the OAIC in salvaging it. A participatory methodology will be used.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article has implications on the disciplines of development studies, gender studies, political science and government�s policymakers on the efforts the AICs are making in alleviating poverty among children and youth in a holistic manner.