Children heading their households are not a new phenomenon in South Africa. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has been the number one cause behind the emergence of many child-headed households in sub-Saharan Africa. This qualitative research inquiry was guided by an interpretivist epistemology. Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory was used as the theoretical framework that guided this study. A case study design was used with un-structured interviews being the primary method of data collection. Participatory task-based methods in the form of metaphors and story writing, informal observations, questionnaires and field notes augmented the data generation process. Purposive sampling procedures were used and two participants were chosen for this study. Thematic analysis of data generated the themes and sub-themes which provided insight into the lives of children in the role of parents. Findings of this study reveal that orphaned and vulnerable children in the role of parents have the task of taking care of their siblings by providing food, washing their clothes, sending them to school and helping with their homework. They also have the added task of making decisions in the home and providing parental guidance to their younger siblings in the absence of their parents. Children in this study also experienced poverty and faced stigma and discrimination from relatives, peers, neighbors and members in the community / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

Text in English / Zimbabwe had 50 000 child-headed households (CHH) in 2002 and by 2010, the figure had gone up to more than 100 000, making Zimbabwe the African country with the highest number of CHH (UNICEF & UNAIDS 2010). These statistics gave rise to the sprouting of many organisations and programmes aimed at catering for the needs of the affected children. Not much attention is given to what the CHH can do for themselves and how they have be surviving without outside help. The present study explored the resilience factors and coping strategies used by children living in CHH in the Mutasa District, Zimbabwe. The mixed method concurrent triangulation design was used in the study and a constructionist theoretical framework was adopted. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect data from 28 children in CHH, 46 community members, 24 teachers, 25 child service professionals, 10 advisory panel members, 3 government officials involved in policy formulation and implementation and 5 members of the CHH’s extended family. The Resilience Scale was administered to the CHH and the Tree of Life and problem solving activities were carried out with the children. Resilience scores obtained from the children in CHH were in the high to very high category of resilience. The qualitative data was thematically analysed. The research findings indicate that children in CHH use problem focused coping strategies. Their resilience is anchored in both individual and environmental factors. A Bidirectional Model of Resilience that is based on the findings emerged from the study.Three pathways to resilience that are embedded in this model were identified, furthermore the Self-Efficacy Strengths-Focused Model of Coping was proposed. Intervention strategies to foster resilience in CHH should focus on creating coping enabling environments and strengthening individual characteristics. / Psychology / Ph.D. (Psychology)

The purpose of the study was to investigate the services provided by the Bhambayi Drop-In Centre in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). Qualitative research design and in-depth interviews with key informants and foster parents of the OVCs were conducted. The study found that the services which are provided by the Centre enabled the orphans and vulnerable children to enjoy life as normally as possible and to experience life meaningfully. As beneficiaries of the Bhambayi Drop-In Centre the children had access to education and two meals per day. Beyond meeting such basic needs, the study also found that Centre instilled a sense of belonging and community in the children. Access to social grants enabled the children’s basic needs to be met. In addition foster parents played a crucial role in taking care of orphans and vulnerable children. / Health Studies / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

The focus of this dissertation is on exploring the needs of and services provided to orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) in Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal. This research is based on the findings from in-depth face-to-face interviews, and the focus group discussion conducted with key informants and primary caregivers of OVCs, respectively. The findings underline that although the needs of OVCs are similar to those of all other children, OVCs face unique challenges. It further shows that the government of South Africa has been responsive in developing relevant legislation, policies, and programmes that attempt to address the needs of OVCs. The findings also revealed that the services provided are coordinated, to a limited extent, through the Flagship Project led by the office of the Premier and. that coordination and integration of activities rendered by various stakeholders is crucial to a positive impact, and in increasing the accessibility of these services. / Social Work / M. A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

Children heading their households are not a new phenomenon in South Africa. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has been the number one cause behind the emergence of many child-headed households in sub-Saharan Africa. This qualitative research inquiry was guided by an interpretivist epistemology. Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory was used as the theoretical framework that guided this study. A case study design was used with un-structured interviews being the primary method of data collection. Participatory task-based methods in the form of metaphors and story writing, informal observations, questionnaires and field notes augmented the data generation process. Purposive sampling procedures were used and two participants were chosen for this study. Thematic analysis of data generated the themes and sub-themes which provided insight into the lives of children in the role of parents. Findings of this study reveal that orphaned and vulnerable children in the role of parents have the task of taking care of their siblings by providing food, washing their clothes, sending them to school and helping with their homework. They also have the added task of making decisions in the home and providing parental guidance to their younger siblings in the absence of their parents. Children in this study also experienced poverty and faced stigma and discrimination from relatives, peers, neighbors and members in the community / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

The purpose of the study was to investigate the services provided by the Bhambayi Drop-In Centre in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). Qualitative research design and in-depth interviews with key informants and foster parents of the OVCs were conducted. The study found that the services which are provided by the Centre enabled the orphans and vulnerable children to enjoy life as normally as possible and to experience life meaningfully. As beneficiaries of the Bhambayi Drop-In Centre the children had access to education and two meals per day. Beyond meeting such basic needs, the study also found that Centre instilled a sense of belonging and community in the children. Access to social grants enabled the children’s basic needs to be met. In addition foster parents played a crucial role in taking care of orphans and vulnerable children. / Health Studies / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

Zimbabwe had 50 000 child-headed households (CHH) in 2002 and by 2010, the figure had gone up to more than 100 000, making Zimbabwe the African country with the highest number of CHH (UNICEF & UNAIDS 2010). These statistics gave rise to the sprouting of many organisations and programmes aimed at catering for the needs of the affected children. Not much attention is given to what the CHH can do for themselves and how they have be surviving without outside help. The present study explored the resilience factors and coping strategies used by children living in CHH in the Mutasa District, Zimbabwe. The mixed method concurrent triangulation design was used in the study and a constructionist theoretical framework was adopted. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect data from 28 children in CHH, 46 community members, 24 teachers, 25 child service professionals, 10 advisory panel members, 3 government officials involved in policy formulation and implementation and 5 members of the CHH’s extended family. The Resilience Scale was administered to the CHH and the Tree of Life and problem solving activities were carried out with the children. Resilience scores obtained from the children in CHH were in the high to very high category of resilience. The qualitative data was thematically analysed. The research findings indicate that children in CHH use problem focused coping strategies. Their resilience is anchored in both individual and environmental factors. A Bidirectional Model of Resilience that is based on the findings emerged from the study.Three pathways to resilience that are embedded in this model were identified, furthermore the Self-Efficacy Strengths-Focused Model of Coping was proposed. Intervention strategies to foster resilience in CHH should focus on creating coping enabling environments and strengthening individual characteristics. / Psychology / Ph.D. (Psychology)

Five years ago at the age of 14, Rutendo Chaibva was double-orphaned by AIDS. A "Family Post Bereavement Property and Responsibilities Disbursement Committee" assigned her uncle Eric Gara as "replacement parent". Rutendo and her " replacement mother" Gerlinda were co-participants in the Participatory Action Research Study. It started in a therapeutic relationship after the family experienced some difficulties in integrating Rutendo into the reconstituted family. Both the therapy and research conversations explored and identified several pastoral and other challenges that militated against the integration process. Rutendo and Gerlinda's road was littered with, among others, minefields of silence and tears, secrecy, multiple losses, unresolved bereavement, unfinished business, anger, fear, and groping for Christian fellowship. It was concluded that personal, family, pastoral and other challenges, and, HIV/AIDS related complexities had militated against the integration process. At the end, Rutendo and Gerlinda acknowledged that therapy and the research processes had impacted positively on the integration process that improved significantly. / Practical Theology / M. Div. (Pastoral therapy)

This study explores the multiple ways in which Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) functioned through concrete biomedical institutions, namely, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the World Health Organization (WHO). AIDS is viewed as a product of the full range of institutional practices in which it became embedded and in which it was set within the boundaries of Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease (see the Preface section). This biomedical model of disease was materialized through journalistic practices and sold as news. Within these operative terms can be understood another analytical strategy that also designates the main domain of my study of this contemporary social form: I argue in this thesis that knowledge about AIDS was by no means dependent solely on the objective, scientifically determined, "received narrative" of biomedicine; what is today known as AIDS is also a product of a wide range of social practices produced and reproduced over time and space. AIDS is also an outcome of the resolutions, judgements and decisions that working journalists made over time in terms of what they generated or covered as news; the disease is also product of a large assortment of representational mirrors that I call `authentic voices', to take as good examples, the "narrative of moral protest", the narrative of a "homosexual disease", the narrative of a "heterosexual disease," and the narrative of a "modern-day Black Death" (plague). The story of AIDS in the media can also be seen to be defined by the proliferation of these authentic voices. From this reading, the distinctive trait of AIDS in the media lies in the fact that it is a constructed object, a disease framed through a specific structure of meanings. When we look at these structure of meanings we find that their moral and cultural assumptions and stereotypical connotations embody certain aspects of the organism of the society within which they were created and nourished over a much longer history. / Sociology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)

The rapid increase in HIV-infections is changing the face of modern society. The number of HIV/AIDS orphans for sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase to 18, 67 million in 2010. Education has a pivotal role to play in effectively dealing with the effects of the pandemic, as well as creating awareness among learners. The focus of this study is to explore educators’ perceptions of teaching learners about HIV/AIDS and of schools as care-giving centres for orphans and vulnerable children. The HIV/AIDS education curriculum has been introduced in a milieu of change and restructuring in South African education, presenting particular challenges for educators. This study set out to uncover how educators are engaging with their new roles and responsibilities when teaching HIV/AIDS education. / Sociology / MA (Social and Behaviour Studies in HIV/ Aids)