Displaying 1 - 10 of 33
Kinship care involves children who cannot be cared for by parents being looked after by relatives or friends of the family. In Zimbabwe, around a quarter of all children are estimated to be in kinship care. Regional and global guidance state that kinship care should always be explored as the first option when children are separated from parents. It can offer a safe and caring environment, where children speak their own languages and follow their own traditions. However, without support, kinship care families often face challenges, especially as most kinship carers are elderly grandmothers…
Abstract
Summary
Many young orphans in Zimbabwe grow up in residential care facilities, but according to governmental policies and literature in this field, these children should be transitioned to extended families to ensure optimal development. Thus, semi-structured interviews was conducted with a social worker, two residential care administrators and five extended families; whereas the participating orphans were asked to draw and narrate their lives in RCC and their extended families. This article provides empirically derived insights to the inner experiences of the…
Care leaver transitions from care have attracted a great deal of scholarly attention in the Global North. More recently, scholars from the Global South have begun documenting care leavers’ experiences, and the evidence suggests their outcomes are largely negative. In Zimbabwe, institutionalisation is still a common form of child welfare for young people without family care, yet a handful of studies exist on the institutional care experiences.
This paper presents findings from a study on care leavers’ (n = 15) experiences of transitional housing at three institutions in Zimbabwe. Using the…
The Building Positive Futures project was a pilot study that sought to test a range of quantitative and qualitative research tools for use in leaving care studies in Africa, including a peer research approach. As there have been few previous African studies on care leaving, the research team hoped to develop their understanding of how best to conduct cross-country…
Across Africa, there are many young people who do not live with their biological families and grow up in alternative care. Despite knowing that African young people who grow up in care can struggle as they move into adulthood, there is very little research on leaving care in African countries. To help increase understanding of careleaving in Africa, a group of researchers from Queen’s University Belfast in the UK, University of Johannesburg in South Africa, University of Ghana and Makerere University in Uganda came together to do this research. They tested a range of methods to find…
In collaboration with colleagues at Queen’s University Belfast in the UK, this feasibility study was undertaken by a team of academic researchers from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, University of Ghana and Makerere University in Uganda, all of whom are members of the Africa Network of Care-leaving Researchers (ANCR).
Given the paucity of research on youth transitioning from alternative care (i.e. care-leaving or leaving care) in Africa, the study sought to develop and test a methodology for a cross-country, comparative study on leaving care in Africa. This involved the…
Abstract
The desire to understand young adults’ transition into adulthood from informal kinship-based foster care has been growing. This article examines the challenges encountered by, and the opportunities available to, young adults as they transition from informal kinship-based foster care to independent living in the Bikita District of Zimbabwe. In-depth interviews were conducted with 26 young people who had left care and key informants. Data were analyzed using a thematic framework. Key findings included the young adults’ need for proper preparation in formal education, health, social…
Abstract
Globalization of knowledge and scholarship raises the challenges of dialogue between Global North and South. Northern knowledge and voice remain privileged, while writing from the South often goes unread. This is true also in emerging adulthood and care-leaving scholarship. The special issue of Emerging Adulthood titled “Care-Leaving in Africa” is the first collection of essays on care-leaving by African scholars. It presents both care-leaving and emerging adulthood scholars from the Global North a unique opportunity to consider the implications of a rising…
Introducción
La narración digital para la transformación (NDT) es un proceso audiovisual participativo y creativo que ayuda a las personas a contar una historia personal a través de un proceso colectivo. Utiliza tecnología digital para comunicar y amplificar esta historia. Una historia digital es una breve secuencia de dos o tres minutos compuesta por imágenes estáticas que se preparan y se cuentan conscientemente como narración en primera persona, desde el corazón. Las herramientas y los métodos aplicados al proceso de NDT han evolucionado en los últimos diez años, como una forma de…
This report explores what family means to children and adults in five countries using the digital storytelling technique. Digital storytelling uses storytelling methods to gain deep insights into feelings and experiences. Participants create individual stories about aspects of their own lives using still images and sound. Stories range from the impacts on children of family separation, multiple care moves, grief and not being heard; to the importance of meeting children’s needs, strengthening families, and supporting children’s resilience and tenacity. The stories highlight the…