Supporting child-headed households in south africa: Whose best interests?

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 915-927

  van Dijk, Diana ^a   van Driel, Francien ^a  

^a RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CHILD WELFARE; HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURE; WELFARE PROVISION;

SOUTH AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 75749151672     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070903313251     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Child-headed households have been documented and studied in, for example, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Zambia: L. Brown et al., Strengthening the Psychosocial Well-being of Youth-headed Households in Rwanda: Baseline Findings from an Intervention Trial (Washington, DC, Population Council, Horizons, 2005).
2. M. Francis-Chizororo, The Formation, Constitution and Social Dynamics of Orphaned Child Headed Households in Rural Zimbabwe in the Era of HIV/AIDS Pandemic (Ph.D. thesis, University of St Andrews, 2008).
3. S.E. Germann, An Exploratory Study of Quality of Life and Coping Strategies of Orphans Living in Child-headed Households in the High HIV/AIDS Prevalent City of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (D.Litt. et Phil thesis, University of South Africa, 2005).
4. R.E.D. Payne, 'Child-headed Households and their Experiences of Support in Zambia: A Continuing Role for the Family' (unpublished paper, Edinburgh, 2007).
5. International Social Service and UNICEF, Improving Protection for Children without Parental Care: A Call for International Standards (New York and Geneva, UNICEF and ISS, 2004), p. 12.
6. Act No. 41 of 2007, section 137.
7. G. Foster, 'Safety Nets for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa', in R. Pharoah (ed.), A Generation at Risk? HIV/AIDS, Vulnerable Children and Security in Southern Africa (Pretoria, Institute for Security Studies, 2004), p. 69.
8. M. Wevelsiep, Helping AIDS Orphans in Child-headed Households in Uganda: From Relief Interventions to Supporting Child-centred Community Coping Strategies (Helsinki, Plan Finland, 2005), p. 1.
9. G. Foster et al, 'Factors Leading to the Establishment of Child-headed Households: The Case of Zimbabwe', Health Transition Review, Supplement 2 to Volume 7 (1997), pp. 155-68.
10. H. Loening-Voysey and T. Wilson, Approaches to Caring for Children Orphaned by AIDS and Other Vulnerable Children: Essential Elements for a Quality Service (Bergvlei, Institute for Urban Primary Health Care, 2001), p. 26. The definition of an orphan varies. Some studies distinguish clearly between single and double orphans (those who have lost one or both parents). Because parental death does not necessarily correlate with the vulnerability of children, organisations often use the term 'Orphans and Vulnerable Children' (OVC).
11. S. Giese et al., Health and Social Services to Address the Needs of Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in the Context of HIV/AIDS: Research Report and Recommendations (Cape Town, Children's Institute, 2003), p. 73, note 58.
12. P. Reynolds et al., 'Refractions of Children's Rights in Development Practice: A View from Anthropology -Introduction', Childhood, 13, 3 (August 2006), p. 292.
13. Children's Amendment Act, No. 41 of 2007, Section 137(6).
14. D. van Dijk, 'Beyond Their Age: Coping of Children and Young People in Child-headed Households in South Africa' (Ph.D. thesis, Leiden University, 2008).
15. M. Crewe, 'Others Will Not Save Us', in AIDS Orphans: Building an Urban Response: Edited Proceedings of a Forum Held in Johannesburg in July 2000 (Johannesburg, Centre for Policy Studies, 2001), p. 12.
16. O. Shisana and L. Simbayi, Nelson Mandela/ HSRC Study of HIV/AIDS: South African National HIV Prevalence, Behavioural Risks and Mass Media: Household Survey 2002 (Cape Town, Human Sciences Research Council, 2002), pp. 35-6.
17. Crewe, 'Others Will Not Save Us'. As a result of apartheid and work-related migration, extended family members do not necessarily reside close to each other or have regular contact, particularly in urban areas.
18. A. Butler, Contemporary South Africa (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, note 2004), p. 42. The areas of the Transkei and Ciskei, the Xhosa 'homelands' during the apartheid era, are part of the province.
19. H. Meintjes et al, 'Demography of South Africa's Children', in P. Proudlock et al. (eds), South African Child Gauge 2007/2008 (Cape Town, Children's Institute, 2008), pp. 64-70. Limpopo has the highest percentage of children living in income poverty (82%).
20. December 2003 to March 2004, July 2004 to May 2005, and March to May 2006.
21. D. van Dijk, 'Hulle kan nie hulle hormone intoom hou nie': A Study on Gender, Adolescents and Sexual Behaviour in Relation to HIV in South Africa (Nijmegen, CIDIN, 2002).
22. The number of households participating in this study is therefore rather small.
23. For an elaborate description of the methodology and the ethical aspects of studying children and young people in vulnerable circumstances, see Van Dijk, 'Beyond Their Age"', pp. 47-78.
24. D. van Dijk (2006), 'Researching Children: Studying Agents or Victims? Methodological and Ethical Difficulties in a Study among Children and Young People in South Africa', African Sociological Review, 10, 2 (2006), pp. 151-63.
25. H. Meintjes and S. Giese, 'Spinning the Epidemic: The Making of Mythologies of Orphanhood in the Context of AIDS', Childhood, 13, 3 (August 2006), p. 415.
26. H. Saloojee and J.M. Pettifor, 'International Child Health: 10 Years of Democracy in South Africa: The Challenges Facing Children Today', Current Paediatrics, 15, 5 (October 2005), p. 432.
27. Shisana, and Simbayi, Nelson Mandela/HSRC Study, p. 68.
28. Meintjes et al. 'Demography'.
29. K. Schenk et al., Who are the Vulnerable Children? Exploring the Implications of Different Definitions for Determining Program Eligibility (UNICEF, 2007), available at http://www.unicef.org/files/Who_are_the_vulnerable_children_-_Exploring_the_implications_of_different_criteria.pdf, retrieved on 17 August 2007.
30. In the estimates of Meintjes et al.'Demography', 'de facto' child-headed households are omitted even though they are included in the definition of a child-headed household in the Children's Amendment Act, No. 41 of 2007, section 137(1)(a). A Zimbabwean study found that the caring roles of children in these households is sometimes denied by state health officials, which makes such children even more invisible.
31. E. Robson, 'Hidden Child Workers: Young Carers in Zimbabwe', Antipode, 36, 2 (March 2004), pp. 227-48.
32. Brown, et al., Strengthening.
33. Although social grants reduce poverty among poor families, many poor people are not eligible for them. Poor unemployed people who are too young for an old age pension or too old for a Child Support Grant are not provided for in the social security system. For more discussion, see J. Seekings and N. Nattrass, Class, Race, and Inequality in South Africa (Scottsville, University of Kwazulu-Natal Press, 2005), pp. 365-7.
34. It has been argued that, in the context of severe poverty, the FCG may even lead to the commercialisation of orphaned children: H. Meintjes et al., Children 'In Need of Care' or In Need of Cash? Questioning Social Security Provisions for Orphans in the Context of the South African AIDS Pandemic (Cape Town, Children's Institute and Centre for Actuarial Research, 2003).
35. H. MacGregor, 'The Grant is What I Eat: The Politics of Social Security and Disability in the Post-Apartheid South African State, Journal of Biosocial Science, 38, 1 (January 2006), pp. 43-55, maintains similarly that the possibility of claiming a disability grant influences how people perceive and experience illness.
36. Van Dijk, "Beyond Their Age"
37. L. Alanen, 'Childhoods: The Generational Ordering of Social Relations', in B. Mayall and H. Zeiher (eds), Childhood in Generational Perspective (London, Institute of Education, 2003), p. 41.
38. T. Davids and F. van Driel, 'Changing Perspectives', in T. Davids and F. van Driel (eds), The Gender Question in Globalization: Changing Perspectives and Practices (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2005), pp. 3-22.
39. Ibid., p. 7.
40. N. Kabeer, 'Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal', Gender and Development, 13, 1 (March 2005), pp. 14-15.
41. A. Honwana and F. de Boeck, 'Introduction: Children and Youth in Africa: Agency, Identity and Place', in A. Honwana and F. de Boeck (eds) Makers and Breakers: Children and Youth in Postcolonial Africa (Oxford, James Currey, 2005), pp. 7-12.
42. E. Robson et al., 'Conceptualizing Agency in the Lives and Actions of Rural Young People', in R. Panelli etal. (eds), Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth: Rural Young Lives (New York, Routledge, 2007), pp. 135-48.
43. K. Meursing, A World of Silence: Living with HIV in Matabeland, Zimbabwe (Amsterdam, Royal Tropical Institute, 1997), pp. 44-5.
44. All names of the children and young people are pseudonyms. Zack (18) had lived with his cousin (21) since their grandmother had left three years earlier.
45. One-to-one interview, September 2005.
46. The grandmother worked as a volunteer for a CBO that assisted poor families. Individual interview, April 2006.
47. Statistics South Africa, Marriages and Divorces 2006 (Pretoria, Statistics South Africa, 2007), p. 2. The available statistics are not broken down by population group, but the brideprice (lobola) the groom's family pays to the bride's is often given as a reason for African couples to postpone marriage.
48. One-to-one interview with one of the health counsellors of Ubuntu Education Fund, April 2006.
49. Mona's father died when she was 12. Since that time, she had been living alone.
50. Noleta had lived in an informal settlement with her younger sister (9) and brother (8) after her mother died when she was 18.
51. One-to-one interview, November 2004.
52. One-to-one interview, March 2005.
53. Robson, et al., 'Conceptualizing Agency'.
54. One-to-one interview, April 2006.
55. Crewe, 'Others Will Not Save Us'.