Since the turn of the millennium, Zimbabwe has witnessed a raft of socio-economic and political problems characterised by hyper-inflation; shortage of basic commodities; dwindling fiscal reserves; ballooning domestic and foreign debt; falling standard of living and high levels of migration. The devastating effects of the Aids pandemic have not helped the situation. With estimates indicating that there are more than million orphaned children, social security programmes have been overstretched resulting in the State failing to adequately provide for the needs of these orphans in the country. It is against this background that the study sought to explore the community level initiatives that communities are taking to meet the needs of orphans through community based programmes. The goal of the study was to explore the contribution of social entrepreneurship in meeting the needs of orphans in the Mberengwa district, Zimbabwe. The study was conducted using a qualitative research approach. The study was exploratory and the type of research was applied. The collective case study design was utilised. A total of twenty participants took part in the study; including six children who were benefiting from the income generating projects, four key informants who work closely with the projects as well as ten villagers who were involved in the day to day running of the projects. The participants were selected from two villages that have the projects benefiting orphans. The participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data was collected from the children and key informants by way of interviews and from the villagers through focus group discussions. The findings show that the government of Zimbabwe lacks capacity to meet the needs of orphans due to the socio-economic and political challenges and as a result, communities in Mberengwa district have taken the initiative to care for the orphans in their area through income generating projects. The income generating projects are social entrepreneurial ventures in that they aim at generating profits which are channelled towards meeting the needs of the orphans. Through the income generating projects, the orphans in Mberengwa district are able to access their needs which include food, education, clothing, shelter, birth registration and protection from abuse. Findings also indicated that in the Mberengwa district, orphan care is viewed as a community, rather than individual responsibility. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the communities in Mberengwa have inherent strengths which make it possible for them to work together in achieving common objectives. Consequently, their social ties and close social relations enable them to work together to deal with problems confronting them collectively. vi projects benefiting orphans. The participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data was collected from the children and key informants by way of interviews and from the villagers through focus group discussions. The findings show that the government of Zimbabwe lacks capacity to meet the needs of orphans due to the socio-economic and political challenges and as a result, communities in Mberengwa district have taken the initiative to care for the orphans in their area through income generating projects. The income generating projects are social entrepreneurial ventures in that they aim at generating profits which are channelled towards meeting the needs of the orphans. Through the income generating projects, the orphans in Mberengwa district are able to access their needs which include food, education, clothing, shelter, birth registration and protection from abuse. Findings also indicated that in the Mberengwa district, orphan care is viewed as a community, rather than individual responsibility. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the communities in Mberengwa have inherent strengths which make it possible for them to work together in achieving common objectives. Consequently, their social ties and close social relations enable them to work together to deal with problems confronting them collectively. It was concluded that income generating projects based on social entrepreneurial principles are a critical poverty alleviation and social protection mechanism for orphans in the Mberengwa communities as they lead to meeting their needs and furthermore, alleviate social problems in the community. In order to respond to the gap created by the government’s lack of capacity to care for the orphans, social entrepreneurship through income generating projects can be utilised to achieve social protection and poverty alleviation goals more so in the country’s quest to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Recommendations include the need to review the legal and policy framework governing the care and protection of orphans in the country to include community-based programmes. Furthermore, it is recommended to strengthen traditional orphan care structures in facilitating income generating projects based on social entrepreneurial principles as they have the propensity to help meet the needs of orphans at the community level. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

Cette thèse de doctorat met l’emphase sur les défis rencontrés par les patients atteints de maladies rares. Elle est structurée en trois parties, chacune d’entre elles dédiée aux enjeux d’un acteur au cœur de l’Odyssée diagnostique et thérapeutique des patients atteints de maladies rares. La première partie de la thèse s’intéresse au patient et à son réseau social. Le chapitre 1 considère les sources de délai à l’accès au diagnostic, et explore notamment l’effet du capital social sur le délai d’obtention du diagnostic. Le chapitre 2 évoque les externalités négatives sur la santé maternelle d’un diagnostic d’une maladie chronique chez l’enfant. La seconde partie de la thèse est dédiée à l’industrie pharmaceutique et s’intéresse aux décisions d’investissements de R&D ciblant les maladies rares. Le chapitre 3 évalue l’effet causal de l’Orphan Drug Policy sur l’effort de recherche, et le chapitre 4 envisage les inégalités d’allocation des investissements de R&D entre les maladies rares. La partie 3 est dédiée aux décideurs publics et discute des enjeux d’évaluation des bénéfices de l’innovation thérapeutique et de la définition des conditions d’accès à cette innovation. Le chapitre 5 évalue l’effet causal de l’innovation thérapeutique sur la longévité des patients atteints de maladies rares. Le chapitre 6 est une discussion critique relative à l’utilisation d’outils. / This dissertation emphasizes the challenges raised by the management of rare diseases and is structured around three key actors of the diagnostic and therapeutic “odyssey” of patients with rare diseases. Part I is devoted to patients and their social networks. Chapter 1 considers demand-side sources of delay in receiving a diagnosis; Chapter 2 explores the health spillover effects from patients’ health to their direct support structure. Part II considers pharmaceutical firms and examines how firms’ decisions to allocate R&D investment to rare diseases are impacted by innovation policies in rare arenas. Chapter 3 evaluates the causal impact of the EU Orphan Drug policy on R&D efforts in orphan drugs, while Chapter 4 investigates the inequality in allocation of R&D investment within rare diseases. Part III focuses on policymakers and addresses the issues in measuring pharmaceutical innovation benefits along with costs in rare disease arenas, while considering the opportunity cost of healthcare expenditures. Chapter 5 measures the causal impact of pharmaceutical innovation in rare diseases on longevity, while Chapter 6 is a critical discussion of decision-making tools for rational allocation of healthcare resources, and the use of a cost-effectiveness threshold.

In this essay Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim (1901) is dealt with from a postcolonial perspective, and the aim is to show how three father figures - Colonel Creighton, Mahbub Ali and the lama - individually influence Kim’s education. Furthermore, how their point of view on education and parenting can be used to understand the larger concepts of postcolonialism and the pedagogy of Empire. This essay will argue that Kipling provides three different approaches to education that each can be considered the most suitable for a white orphan in British India during the late nineteenth century. Colonel Creighton is the personification of the imperial mindset, an authoritarian leader who strongly believes in institutions such as schools. Whereas Mahbub Ali, the wild horse from beyond the border and a servant of the Great Game, advocates freedom and a non-institutionalised form of education. Last but not least, the Buddhist lama from Tibet wishes to make Kim his chela and teach him the Wheel of Life. Reading Kipling’s novel Kim helps us to create an awareness of how the world order has changed during the decades and also gives us the opportunity to look at our present time in different lights.

The IEEE 802.15.4 standard is an interesting technology for use in Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSN), where entire networks of sensors are carried by humans. In many environments the sensor nodes experience external interference for example, when the WBSN is operated in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and the human moves in a densely populated city, it will likely experience WiFi interference, with a quickly changing ``interference landscape''. In this thesis we propose Adaptive Resource Allocation schemes, to be carried out by the WBSN, which provided noticeable performance gains in such environments. We investigate a range of adaptation schemes and assess their performance both through simulations and experimentally.

This thesis explores the idea of the “monstrous-feminine,” or the idea that female monsters of television and film are linked to their femininity in a way that male monsters are not linked to their masculinity. Using the work of scholars such as Barbara Creed, Shelley Stamp Lindsey, and Jane M. Ussher, the thesis covers various facets of women’s lives as seen through the distorted lens of the monstrous. The character of Helena from the television show Orphan Black is used as a concrete example of the stages of the monstrous-feminine: the girl-child, menstruation and puberty, sexuality, and motherhood.

Fifteen million children have been orphaned by AIDS. A growing body of evidence documents impacts of parental deaths on orphans, but little is known about impacts faced by AIDS-orphan carers. This study set out to: (a) investigate physical and mental health outcomes of adults caring for children in Umlazi, a high HIV prevalence township in South Africa; (b) assess whether AIDS-orphan carers face worse outcomes compared to other carers; and, (c) identify risk and protective factors for health. Using a cross-sectional survey, data was gathered from a representative community sample from August 2008 to March 2009 resulting in the largest known study conducted on AIDS-orphan carers to date (n=1599). The majority of carers looked after non-orphaned children (66.85%) followed by AIDS-orphan (22.45%) and other-orphan children (10.69%). Orphan carers had significantly worse general health and functioning, depression, and post-traumatic stress than non-orphan carers but patterns were less clear when orphan carers were disaggregated into AIDS-orphan and other-orphan carers for comparison. This suggests that health interventions might target orphan carers, rather than singling out AIDS-orphan carers. Differences in age, gender, education, economic assets, and source of household income fully accounted for the association between being an orphan carer and poor health. Social policy grants reduced negative health disparities between orphan carers and non-orphan carers. Social support, education, economic assets, food, access to water, and housing were iii also identified as risk and protective co-factors that might reduce orphan carer disparities in health. By highlighting health as a serious issue for orphan carers and identifying risk and protective factors for health, this study offers policy and program insights into how to mitigate negative impacts faced by carers in high HIV prevalence communities facing escalating numbers of orphans.

This thesis examines the regulatory landscape relating to private orphanages, both foreign and domestically run, in China, and the formal and informal relationships between such homes and government which structure this space of order. Part A introduces the contextual factors shaping the gradual socialisation and privatisation of charitable activity generally, and the child welfare-specific social, economic and cultural dynamics influencing the emergence of private orphanages. Parts B and C set out the ethnographic findings of field-work examining the practical operations of private orphanages, and a theoretical analysis of the various interactions occurring with government orphanages, and local and central officials. It is shown that the ostensible government monopoly on institutional care of orphans, established in law and policy and consistent with the objective of maintaining tight control over civic organisations and religious-based and foreign-led activities, is belied by a proliferation of private orphanages emerging to address gaps in state welfare provision. This has led to the emergence of a delicate balance between top-down official discourse, rhetoric and law, and bottom-up pragmatic considerations. Further, the prima facie 'missing role' of the state in law, regulation and policy-making is contradicted in practice by evidence of a complexity of highly paternalistic state-orphanage relationships occurring beyond the normative framework of official laws and policies. Such extra-legal state-society interaction is characterised by informal, flexible and paternalistic negotiations with local officials, and mediated by structures of power and capacity. 'Law beyond government' and 'government beyond law' are central features of the multidimensional maintenance of this space of order, and point to several defining points of distinction of law as a cultural notion in the Chinese context, including a marked preoccupation with legitimacy over legality and paternalistic discipline and discretion over impartial adjudication.

Background: Orphanhood is a major consequence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. There is little evidence concerning psychological problems for AIDS-orphaned children. This thesis explores the relationship between orphanhood status and mental health. It also examines mediating influences of environmental risk and protective factors, and interactions between factors, on children’s psychological problems. Methods: 1200 isiXhosa-speaking children were interviewed, using standardised questionnaires, in deprived urban settlements of Cape Town. A qualitative stage with 60 AIDS-orphaned children, 42 caregivers and 20 professionals explored participant perceptions of risk and protective factors. A quantitative stage compared 1025 AIDS-orphaned children to control groups of other-orphans and non-orphans. Data were analysed with t-tests, chi-sq, anovas, regression and log-linear analyses. The study took place in collaboration with Cape Town Child Welfare. Results: AIDS-orphaned children reported more depression (p<.001), peer relationship problems (p<.001), post-traumatic stress (p<.001), suicidal ideation (p<.05), delinquency (p<.001) and conduct problems (p<.001) than other-orphans and non-orphans. Anxiety showed no differences. Compared to Western norms, AIDS-orphaned children showed higher levels of internalising problems and delinquency, but lower levels of conduct problems. These differences remained when controlling for socio-demographic factors. A number of factors strongly mediated the relationship between AIDS-orphanhood and mental health. These include poverty-related factors (food, education and social security, p<.001). caregiving-related factors (caregiver illness, p<.001, excessive housework p<.001, being a streetchild, p<.001) and AIDS-related stigma (p<.001). Cumulative effects were also found. Food insecurity and AIDS-related stigma interacted to raise likelihood of disorder from 19% to 83%, and orphanhood status and bullying interacted to raise likelihood from 12% to 76%. Conclusions: This thesis shows clear evidence of heightened psychological problems amongst AIDS-orphaned children. It also indicates mediating factors and points to areas of possible intervention. The South African Ministry of Social Development plans to scale up the study to a national survey of AIDS-orphanhood.

Titel: Barns upplevelser av vad som främjar hälsa och välmående när de bor på barnhem.   Bakgrund: Över 153 miljoner barn beräknas vara föräldralös utifrån en rad olika orsaker så som missbruk, krig och sjukdom. Många av dessa barn drabbas av ohälsa, både psykiskt, fysiskt och emotionellt då deras grundläggande behov blivit åsidosatta. Detta kan leda till negativa konsekvenser i vuxenlivet dock finns det även stärkande och skyddande aspekter av att komma till barnhem för dessa barn.   Syfte: Syftet med studien är att belysa barns upplevelser av vad som kan främja hälsa och välmående i situationen att bo på barnhem.   Metod: I denna studie har åtta artiklar med kvalitativ ansats valt ut. Dessa har barnens perspektiv i fokus. Artiklarna har kvalitétsgranskats, analyserats och slutligen sammanställts.   Resultat: När barnen kom till barnhemmet beskriver det att de fick sina grundläggande behov tillgodosedda, såsom husrum, mat, utbildningen och sjukvård. Emotionella behov blev även tillgodosedda genom stabila relationer med personal och vänner. I majoriteten av studierna uttrycker barnen vikten av att bli älskad och respekterad; att känna sig önskad och accepterad; känna att någon bryr sig och att känna en samhörighet.   Konklusion: Att få de grundläggande behov tillgodosedda var viktigt för att öka tryggheten. Andra betydelsefulla aspekter var att ha stabila relationer till vuxna och vänner samt tillgång till utbildning.

Student Number : 0217201P - MA (Housing) dissertation - School of Architecture and Planning - Faculty of Humanities / South Africa currently has the fastest growing HIV/AIDS pandemic in the world. Against this backdrop it is therefore not suprising to learn that 4 million children or about 10% of the entire South African population will be orphaned by the year 2015 (Davis, 2002:52; Whiteside & Sunter, 2000 in Madhavan, [2000:1]). These projections paint a clear picture of the challenges that lie ahead for accommodating and sustaining a prevailing family structure of households that are headed by children who are left behind by parents succumbing to the ravages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Because of their vulnerable age and laws and policies that do not fully cater for their needs, these children become victims of exploitation and abuse and forfeit their human rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the South African Constitution (1996). This study aims to unearth the plight of these children. In particular it will focus on the right of entitlement to family property when their parents die or are debilitated by HIV/AIDS related diseases. It concludes by challenging government and other stakeholders to review existing policies and to ensure that legislation is in place that mitigates against any form of violence, abuse, trauma or ostracism to which orphaned children are subjected to by unscrupulous caregivers.