The HIV and AIDS pandemic continues to have an adverse impact at every level of society in Malawi despite the many efforts to fight against it. The Baptist church focuses on HIV and AIDS education as a reliable tool in the fight against HIV and AIDS. The Baptist churches contribution has not been investigated yet despite its recognition as an important stake holder
in the fight against HIV and AIDS. The aim of the study was to assess the type of information that is given by the religious leaders to the Baptist church members on HIV and AIDS education sessions.
The objectives of the study were to explore the content and material that the religious leaders taught on HIV and AIDS, explore the availability of education materials that the religious leaders were using or could use during the HIV and education sessions and to describe the availability of HIV and AIDS policies within the Baptist churches. The design of the study
was qualitative and exploratory in nature and a Key Informant Interview guide was used as a tool to collect the required data. The key informants included the clergy, women’s and youth
leaders in 4 selected Baptist churches in Mchinji district Analysis was done manually where data was transcribed and organized and categorized into different themes.
The findings revealed that information provided in the churches was mostly on Faithfullness and abstinence. This information was given by inadequately trained religious leaders, with
very few materials and unavailability of church based HIV and AIDS policies.
Recommendations include on going training for local community religious leaders and wide sensitisation of policies and campaigns using simple materials that religious leaders will
understand.