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Leaving a familiar environment can be daunting. Although previous studies investigated the experiences of youths who left care centres, few considered those who left during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this exploratory qualitative research study, the authors purposively recruited 12 African youths aged between 18 and 23, with at least two years’ experience of life in the care centres of Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality to investigate their experiences when they left such centres during the pandemic.
The data were collected through individual semistructured interviews, analysed according to…
Abstract
This paper reports the findings from a small qualitative study into child fosterage undertaken in Namibia in 2019. The research project is a collaboration between academics at the University of Namibia, Africa, and the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Workshops were undertaken in Windhoek the capital city of Namibia with five groups including stakeholders and policymakers, children’s practitioners, social workers, parents and carers, and children. The workshops ascertained the thoughts, understandings and individual experiences about child fosterage practice from…
Abstract
African child-rearing has been documented as primarily social in nature and driven by community, responsibility, and respect for elders (Nsamenang B (1992) Human development in cultural context: a third world perspective. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE; Weisner et al. African families and the crisis of social change, Bergin and Garvey, Westport, CT, 1997). Socially distributed care is common and reflects strong kinship ties that serve as a social welfare system in times of need as well as the glue of teaching tradition. The practice of child migration (fosterage) in and out of kin…
This chapter’s authors argue that social policy on leaving care is a critical resilience process for promoting care leavers’ successful transition toward emerging adulthood. Care leaving literature has given limited attention to the wider policy contexts in which care leavers make this transition. This chapter, from the book Leaving Care and the Transition to…
This chapter from the South African Child Gauge 2018 focuses on childcare and children’s caregivers in South Africa and aims to address the following questions:
- Who provides care for children?
- How does the state support or undermine care choices?
- Why and how should the state support caregivers?
Introduction
In late 2016, ACREMET conducted a qualitative study of the family strengthening approach that underlies the Isibindi model. The study explored how the approach contributes to the improvements in children’s well-being that Isibindi achieves. The researchers studied relevant documents, conducted individual interviews and focus group discussions, and visited 18 beneficiary households to observe the situation in which Isibindi’s child and youth care workers (CYCWs) work. The study was done in three Isibindi sites – Alice in Eastern Cape, Bela-Bela in Limpopo, and…
Introduction
This desk review is part of a wider study commissioned to SOS Children’s Villages International by the European Commission. The overall study aims to map the issue of alternative care and deinstitutionalization in countries in Asia, South and Central America, and Africa. It also seeks to increase the evidence on child protection, alternative care and deinstitutionalization and on how this can be addressed, in order to potentially inform future initiatives in these continents, at country or regional level.
The study comprises three continental desk reviews…
ABSTRACT
With the orphan population escalating, communities continue to rely on relatives to provide care to orphans. Therefore, there is a need to explore the role of caregivers with regard to the well‐being of orphans, the challenges they face, as well as how they could be empowered to be more responsive to children's needs. The paper acknowledges that informal caregivers play an important role in the lives of orphans. The paper also concedes that, in the process, caregivers are faced with challenges which make it difficult for them to fulfil their responsibilities and roles. As a result…
Synergos Institute, in partnership with Kim Samuel, and in collaboration with Oxford University’s Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) and the Foundation for Community Development (FDC) in Mozambique, Synergos has embarked on a major initiative regarding isolation and social connectedness for children and youth, particularly within the context of South and southern Africa.
This report describes the Social Connectedness Programme and the three strands of research that inform it. The report defines social…
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of the ‘Imbeleko and social connectedness’ project was to conduct a cross-sectional study in order to explore and describe indigenous ways of care and support to inform policy and intervention. Theoretically the study is grounded in frameworks of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), social connectedness, child and human development, as well as psychosocial well-being and support. Methodologically, a concurrent mixed method design was used. Participants were conveniently sampled (n=430; elders=240; youth=190; men=150 and women=280) in collaboration with Nelson…