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This webinar introduced new global inter-agency guidance on kinship care. This guidance was developed in collaboration with a range of agencies including both UNICEF and Changing the Way We Care. During the webinar, panelists shared key lessons learnt on how to support kinship care, drawing particularly on examples of promising practices from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Liberia, and Brazil.
Government representatives from both Zimbabwe and Liberia were in attendance to share their work on kinship care.
In this short video hosted by the Regional Learning Platform on Care Reform for Eastern and Southern Africa, practitioners from across the region discuss why supporting kinship care is so important, the support needs of kinship care families, and lessons learnt in supporting kinship care.
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Kinship care (care by extended family or friends of the family) is the most common form of alternative care in the region, yet also the least well-supported. This webinar explains why it is vital to invest in kinship care and provide examples of promising practices.
Background:
Studies have shown that caregivers’ economic constraints and emotional burdens have a negative implication both on their well-being and that of their children. For children raised by grandparents, age is also an additional dynamic that not only affects the grandparents but also affects the children they raise and other family members. However, poverty, HIV infection and AIDS have forced many children in Eswatini (formerly, Swaziland) to be in the care of their grandparents, hence raising concerns about their educational focus and achievement.
Aims and objectives:
The…
Abstract
The study sought the socio-economic supports available for the high school adolescent girl learners from child-headed families (CHFs). The study used the phenomenological research design using a total of 40 learners from five (5) rural schools which were randomly selected for the study. Data were collected using focus group discussions and individual interviews. Data collected were thematically analyzed by scrutinizing them for commonalities. The findings of the study revealed that the adolescent girls in CHFs receive the majority of their socio-economic supports from the…
ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of child headed households (CHH) is a ubiquitous pathological challenge in South Africa that requires strengthened responses. The study was grounded in the qualitative approach and a case study was employed as the research design. The target population for this study were children in child headed households identified in Zola 1, 2, 3 and Zola North, Soweto. The study also included social service professionals and other community structures that were supporting child headed households in the Zola area. In addition, the study included as its population, non-formal…
Abstract: The aim of this study was to explore how older orphans in youth-headed households (YHHs) experience and respond to maternal death and to examine the strategies they employ to care for their younger siblings. We interviewed 18 older orphans who were purposively selected from YHHs located in informal settlements in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. After the death of their mothers, the orphans lost the family home, lost support from their relatives, lost friendships, lost educational opportunities, and lost childhood. The orphans experienced prolonged pain, sadness, anxieties, fear,…
Abstract:
The increasing number of AIDS orphans has led to an increase in child and youth headed households. Adjusting to the parenting role with no support from their extended family is a source of distress for orphans heading households. This study explored the parenting experiences of orphaned youth heading households in resource constraints environments.
Methods: The participants were purposely selected from Youth-Headed Households (YHHs) located in informal settlements in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. The data analysis was inductive and followed the thematic approach.…
Abstract
Kinship care is one of the most prevalent forms of placement that is used for children affected and/or infected by HIV and AIDS in Namibia. However, the literature lacks a systematic theory-informed understanding with respect to what is currently known about caregivers generally and specifically, elderly caregivers of orphans, and vulnerable children (OVC) in sub-Saharan Africa. This foundational chapter from Biopsychosocial Perspectives and Practices for Addressing Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases attempts to provide readers with content to assist in their…
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…