The HIV and AIDS pandemic in South Africa has increased the number of orphans and vulnerable children in the school system. Given the prominent role that teachers can play in ensuring that these children receive a quality education so as to maximise their life opportunities, it is important for teachers to be empowered and equipped to enable them to deal with issues surrounding orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) at schools. This study focuses on how teachers are experiencing the impact of HIV and AIDS in schools as a result of having OVC in their classes. The Department of Education has developed training courses to help teachers cope with the impact of HIV and AIDS, but the effectiveness of these programmes has not yet been evaluated. This study aims to establish how teachers who have attended these programmes feel about the assistance rendered to them to deal with OVC related issues. In order to meet this aim, a qualitative enquiry was conducted among a sample of selected teachers from the Eastern Cape. The findings suggest that, while the training has helped to improve the knowledge and attitudes of the teachers, it has not equipped them with the necessary skills to overcome barriers to implement the training programmes at school level. The findings also suggest that there is a need for ongoing support from the Department of Education and the trainers it contracts to ensure that learning from the training is implemented in the schools. Based on the research findings, the study concludes with recommendations that will help teachers to better cope with OVC related issues at school.

The recent increase in the number of children orphaned and rendered vulnerable by HIV and AIDS in South Africa has placed an added burden on schools as sites of care and support. Education policies mandate schools to develop strategies to support such children, but this is no easy task in contexts where teachers are already struggling to fulfill instructional requirements. Literature reveals that teachers in under-resourced schools, where the problem is more severely experienced regard this increased pastoral role as an added responsibility that they do not feel competent to execute. Since there is unlikely to be any significant improvement in the circumstances of these children in the near future, there is a need to discover creative ways to address this problem. I was led to ask how teachers could support children to better cope in the face of adversity in a way that could be easily integrated into the academic curriculum, so as to minimise the perceived burden of providing care and support. Based on my knowledge of the value of bibliotherapy in promoting resilient coping in individuals, I was interested to see if folktales could be used in a similar way with groups of children. Working from an asset-based perspective, and proceeding from a transformative and participatory epistemology, I adopted an action research design to explore the potential of traditional folktales to enhance positive coping responses in children orphaned and rendered vulnerable by HIV and AIDS. My choice of traditional folktales was influenced by the importance that resilience theory attaches to cultural variables in the resilience process. The participants were isiXhosa speaking children who were orphaned and rendered vulnerable by HIV and AIDS (OVC) between the ages of nine and fourteen years (n=30) in Cycle One who lived in a children‟s home or with foster parents. In Cycle Two, the study was conducted in a school setting with thirty (n=30) participants. I conducted two cycles of reflective action research enquiry to ascertain how folktales could be used to enable teachers to meet both pastoral and academic requirements. In the first cycle, I used a pre-post time series design to explore if merely telling the stories would enhance the resilience of the children. Although this use of the stories was teacher-centred, I knew that it would be an easy and time-saving way for teachers to provide support, if it proved to be effective in enhancing resilience. Drawings and accompanying explanations were used to generate data pre-and post-intervention. The thematic analysis of the data revealed that, post-intervention, there appeared to be an increase in two resilience-enhancing indicators: the children appeared to have a more positive sense of self and improved positive relations with peers/friends. Critical reflection on the process also revealed ethical and methodological concerns and problems when working with vulnerable children. The findings from this cycle informed my second cycle, in which I adopted a more participatory approach to engage the children in making meaning of the stories and explore how they related to their own lives. I used participatory arts based methods such as drawings, collages, drama and more usual qualitative strategies, such as focus group discussion and observation, to generate data. The findings from this cycle suggest that using such strategies will equip teachers with tools to enhance the resilience of OVC in a way that also promotes the attainment of instructional outcomes. This study has contributed important theoretical, methodological and pedagogical insights. Theoretically, this study has contributed to the social ecological perspective of resilience by confirming that cultural resources, such as indigenous African stories (folktales) can enhance the resilience of vulnerable children. Lessons learnt from this study had a methodological contribution to the ethics of working with children and the use of culturally appropriate resources in the field, which were folktales. This study has also contributed to the meaning making implications of using folktales, which can aid the pedagogical strategies that teachers use. Although this study was meant to be small- scale research and was not intended to be generalisable, the findings do suggest that teachers could have a resource that is time efficient, effective and could assist them to reach both their pastoral and academic goals.

This study is an exploratory investigation aimed at understanding the intrapsychic themes of children affected by HIV/AIDS, using the medium of the Sceno test. The Sceno test is a play assessment technique. The aim of this research was to ascertain if the Sceno test would be a useful procedure to increase our understanding of children's intrapsychic experience of illness, impending death, and/or the death of their parents. Four children, between the ages of 7 - 11, who are affected by HIV/AIDS and are living in a children's home, were assessed three times. Two children not affected by HIV/AIDS but who had lost their parents were also included in the study. The assessment sessions were videotaped and then the action and dialogue transcribed. A hermeneutic phenomenological methodology was used within a narrative framework to interpret the 'text' of the children's play. Several important themes arose in analysis. Children were concerned with routines, particularly within the family. This is believed to be demonstration of a need for security and structure. The role of the Mother as caring and nurturing occurred often in the childrens' play. This demonstrates attachment or wish for attachment to this figure. Other important themes were those of organising the environment and having control over the context of the play, and the theme of the doctor and illness. The Sceno was found to be a valuable means of eliciting the intrapsychic themes of these children. Limitations and implications of the study are considered. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

Statistics on HIV/AIDS are alarming. Very little is known about how communities are actually coping with this disease and what methods seem to be working to empower them to deal with it. Psychosocial distress is one of the dimensions of the impact of AIDS on children and families, and stresses the necessity to enhance the capacities of extended families and friends to be able to deal with these psychosocial issues. Using qualitative research and a case study as the strategy of inquiry, this dissertation of limited scope explores and describes the factors influencing the capacity of extended families in providing psychosocial support to AIDS orphans. A literature study was done to give a theoretical overview on the following aspects: * AIDS orphans * The extended family and HIV/AIDS To reach the first objective of this study, an empirical study was done and semi-structured interviews were used to obtain information from four extended families in the Mukwe area of the Kavango Region in Namibia. The literature study and the empirical study enabled the researcher to draw conclusions on the factors which influence the capacity of extended families to provide psychosocial support to AIDS orphans. The information was analysed, interpreted and published in this research report so as to reach the other objectives of this study. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Play therapy)

M.Ed. / Orphans living in child-headed households within underprivileged communities are amongst the most vulnerable children, and protection of their rights deserves to be the main focus of all individuals, governments and agencies dealing with such children. There is a need to stimulate broad-based discussion, heightened awareness of, and sensitivity to their plight, special needs and ... rights.

D. Tech. Education / The HIV/AIDS pandemic is one of the greatest humanitarian and development challenges ever faced by the global community. It is alarmingly estimated that by 2015 more than 30 per cent of all children younger than 15 years of age will have lost their mothers to HIV. This means that, by 2015, a total of 5.7 million children in South Africa will have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Research has shown that children orphaned by the pandemic - if not cared for - are likely to engage in alternative actions that pose a risk to themselves and society. This implies that it becomes critical to raise orphaned and vulnerable children well to ensure that we don't have a society filled with people who pose a danger to themselves and others. The study is based on systems theory which unravels the multilayers of the government system to bring to bear the challenges regarding care-giving and education experienced at the level of national, provincial and local government. The purpose of the study was to investigate the care-giving process and education of orphaned and vulnerable children.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Since HIV/AIDS is closely connected with adult sexuality, children in early schooling are often overlooked in debates around the pandemic. However the growing number of children who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS cannot be ignored. This qualitative study gives voice to young childrens' experiences and understanding of HIV/AIDS in Savannah Park, province of KwaZulu-Natal. The study also explores how HIV/AIDS intersects with other barriers to learning and development and the effect this has upon childrens' lives. Twenty learners between the ages of 8-9 years who come from low income families were selected as participants in this study. They were interviewed using focus group interviews. During the focus group interviews, various participatory research techniques such as drawing, story telling, projection, games and movement evaluation exercises were employed. One of the key findings that emerged was that the participants consistently identified HIV/AIDS as a deadly disease. There was also a deep sense of fear amongst participants that their family members will contract HIV/AIDS rendering them vulnerable to the devastating impacts of the disease. Another important finding was that many participants were able to correctly identify symptoms of the disease revealing intimate knowledge and personal experience of the disease. Some modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS were also particularly well known amongst participants such as touching blood and sharing infected needles. This study however highlights the need for children in early schooling to be given accurate information on the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS. Participants were also restricted in their knowledge of preventative measures against the HIV/AIDS virus and did not have any specific knowledge of anti retroviral drugs. Another key finding was the high levels of awareness amongst participants of the challenges experienced by HIV/AIDS infected and affected children. Lack of money, food, clothing and support coupled with sickness and high rates of absenteeism within a HIV/AIDS context impeded learning from their perspective. The views participants express also reveal that HIV/AIDS affected and infected children are still subject to prejudice, isolation and stigmatization within educational settings. However there is hope in that many participants expressed warmth and friendship towards HIV/AIDS infected children. Support structures such as family members, neighbours, teachers, social workers, church and medical personnel were also regarded as having a positive effect on the lives of HIV/AIDS affected and infected children. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This dissertation aims to examine the impact that HIV / AIDS is having on children in South Africa by focusing on two case study areas in KwaZulu-Natal. The research study examines impacts such as increased poverty, emotional stress, vulnerability, stigma, deprivation of education and criminal behaviour and the coping mechanisms put into place to address these impacts. HIV / AIDS is impacting on children in several different ways. HIV / AIDS increases child vulnerability and poverty and has a detrimental impact on child health and welfare as well as education and socialisation. The impacts discussed in this research study have been highlighted through data obtained from key stakeholders working with children in the HIV / AIDS field. The research will argue that insufficient support is being provided for the future generation of South Africa and if the country is to minimise the damage, which will inevitably be caused as a result of this epidemic, policies aimed at child welfare must be implemented immediately. The future development of South Africa is at stake and it is the children of this nation who will feel the consequences of the present governmental failure to provide for the people, should they continue to ignore the severity of the epidemic. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005

Thesis (M.Sc. (Environmental Science)) - Rhodes University, 2008.