Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Masters of Art (Community Work) in the Department of Social Work University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / The researcher in this study wanted to get a better understanding of the circumstances surrounding orphans in Ulundi Local Municipality. It was found that there were more paternal/maternal orphans rather than double orphans. The findings also revealed that most orphans were living with grandparents and were well taken care of as a result a majority of orphans’ school performance was not disturbed after their parents passed away. This research also revealed that most orphans were still grieving the death of their parents. The results of this study also revealed that there were no Non-Profit Organisations that offered grief counselling and built resilience in orphans. As a result of these findings the researcher recommended that the Municipalities should have a department that will employ community workers who will organise communities in order to form Non-Profit-Organisations (NPOs) that will focus on a holistic approach in meeting the needs of orphans. This means these NPOs should use programs that will meet the needs of orphans physically, emotionally and spiritually.

M.A. (Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Children do not exist in isolation of their families and communities. Grief and loss therefore affect them on multiple levels, depending on their personal, social, communal, cultural and economic circumstances. The loss of one or both parents to AIDS in South Africa renders orphaned children and adolescents vulnerable. In addition their grief experiences are influenced by the personal, cultural and communal factors which determine how their feelings of grief and loss are understood and expressed. In certain contexts and cultures, their stories of grief and loss remain unheard and unacknowledged. In many instances, these stories are tucked away in the open spaces and silences of their thoughts and expressions. The purpose of this inquiry is to explore, through creative expressive arts in therapy, the stories of grief of adolescents orphaned by AIDS living in a South African children’s home. This critical ethnographic study describes how a qualitative arts based research method was used to integrate creative expressive arts modalities into therapy sessions as a method of data collection for the study. As such, the critical ethnographic design was employed in order to give attention to the cultural context of the 16 adolescent participants and how this context influenced their sharing of their grief experiences, following the loss of one or both parents to AIDS. This was done in order to answer the research question: ‘What is the story of grief as experienced by the adolescents orphaned by AIDS living in a South African children’s home, as explored through creative expressive arts in therapy?’ In light of this, the research aim of the study was to give an ethnographic account of grief as experienced by adolescents orphaned by AIDS living in a South African children’s home, as explored through creative expressive arts in therapy. Group therapy sessions using creative expressive arts facilitated the development of various data sets which were analysed by means of discourse analysis, in order to derive common themes relating to their stories of grief and loss. The adolescents storied their thoughts and feelings about grief in therapy, through creative expressive arts modalities, demonstrating how their bereavement is impacted by the personal, cultural and social context of the South African children’s home in which they live. The findings and practical implications of this qualitative, critical ethnography provide insight into the grief experienced by South African adolescents orphaned by AIDS. This research endeavour will also expose some of the underlying assumptions about grief of adolescents who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. The study will also indicate how their v life circumstances and grief experiences are subject to elements of power, control and even religious orientation in their culture and community. In order to give voice to the grief experiences of children and adolescents as forgotten mourners, recommendations advocate further research be conducted on the grief experiences of adolescents orphaned by AIDS in South Africa. This can be done in the form of in-depth case studies or larger studies which make use of one or more creative expressive arts modalities in therapy.

M.A. (Social Work) / The purpose of this study was to provide a parent education course specially tailored to the needs of the houseparent in a childrens home. The course is intended for utilization as part of the normal in-service training programmes of resident staff. Existing materials from a large number of sources were assembled and reintegrated into a course suitable for this purpose. The focal point of the course is improvement of the relationship between houseparent and child with a view to enabling the child to utilize opportunities for growth towards a positive self-concept, responsibility, self-reliance and self-confidence. The subjects covered in the course are as follows: motivation for in-service training of resident staff knowledge of the self and self-awareness statutory procedures which precede placement in a childrens home maternal deprivation and its effect on the child in residential care developmental theory a theory of behaviour and misbehaviour factors in the family situation.

One of the challenges facing health care professionals today is the phenomenon of rendering care to children who have been orphaned in the AIDS pandemic. The number of AIDS orphans in South Africa has risen out of all proportion and is causing existing health and social structures to become stretched in providing care to this vulnerable population of children. The objectives of this study are to explore and to describe the lived experience of children living in a township who have become AIDS orphans and to develop broad guidelines for Primary Health Care Nurses (PHCN’s), related professionals and partners involved in the care of AIDS orphans living in a township. The theoretical grounding of this study is found in Kotze’s Theory on Nursing Accompaniment (Kotzé, 1998:3). The proposed research design was based upon a qualitative study using an explorative, descriptive, contextual and phenomenological strategy of inquiry. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews from a purposively selected sample and then analysed using the steps of qualitative data analysis proposed by Tesch (in Creswell, 1994). Guba’s model was used to assess the trustworthiness of the qualitative data. Based upon the findings, guidelines were developed to assist PHCN’s related professionals and partners involved in the care of AIDS orphans living in a township. Through this study the goal of the researcher was to give a voice to AIDS orphans living in a township and to represent accurately their lived experience.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / The influence of the HIV and AIDS pandemic has had a detrimental effect on the lives of children and adolescents affected by it in that the disease has caused the loss of their parents or parental support. The result of the HIV and AIDS pandemic has seen an increase in the number of children and adolescents living in child-headed households. Research shows that children living in child-headed households may be at risk both in a socio-economical and educational manner. There is a concern that children living in child-headed households may also be affected developmentally, especially with regard to development into adulthood. Psychosocial developmental theory of an individual posits that there is an interaction between social and psychological factors which is to say that an individual’s culture, values, beliefs, attitudes and feelings are all involved in how an individual develops into an adult. This research study aims at exploring the psychosocial developmental experiences of Grade 10 learners from child-headed households. A phenomenological multiple case study design was used to gain an in-depth understanding of four cases. This design was descriptive and exploratory in nature. The data collection methods used included semi-structured individual interviews and collages with four purposefully selected participants, and a focus group interview with a separate group of participants from similar circumstances. The data was subjected to content analysis so as to explore emerging themes as related to the psychosocial developmental experiences of the participants. The findings revealed that the psychosocial developmental experiences of the participants can be described by three themes, namely psychological experiences, social experiences and educational experiences. The sub-themes that emerged demonstrate that these participants have a generally positive outlook on life and the future. The participants demonstrated a desire for a better life and felt that getting a good education would stand them in good stead to reach their dreams and goals. Despite this positive outlook, findings also indicated that there is a need for psychological and social support for learners in child-headed households. As such it is recommended that support systems such as mentors and educational psychologists are implemented in school and community environments.

D.Ed. / The purpose of this inquiry was to explore perceptions and practices of family well-being in the context of child-headed families, and to propose a comprehensive framework that would be beneficial for supportive, educational interventions in the families. This inquiry was conducted among orphans living in two child-headed families. Family life of the orphans was the major focus of this study. All the resources from within a family, the activities, interactions and the way a family organizes and plans determines the well-being of individuals in the family. The specific characteristic of this inquiry is that it captures phenomena around human group way of life (families) and human conduct (lived experiences, interactions and behaviours). It is for this reason that the qualitative ethnographic design was employed and a Grounded Theory Approach of analysis was used to inductively derive a comprehensive framework for the facilitation of well-being in the child-headed families who participated in this study. Data generation was done through in-depth interviews, small group discussions, visual and imagery observation, and theoretical sampling. Interviews were conducted with orphans 12 years and older and for orphans under the age of 12 years observations were employed for ethical compliance. The grounded theory analysis included initial coding, focused coding, axial coding, identifying main categories and memo writing to develop the framework.

Thesis (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / According to literature, children who live in Children’s Homes are of the most damaged children in society. The contextual circumstances from which these children come, together with the trauma of removal, result in these children feeling rejected. The characteristic needs of these children are the need for love and attention, to be of value and to belong somewhere. The satisfying of these needs at school is therefore very important for the child’s development. The inclusive culture of a school is the creation of a school community where everyone feels safe, is accepted and regarded as worthy. This will be reflected in policy and practice. To belong, be accepted and acknowledged, is the nucleus of social inclusion. The purpose of the research was, therefore, to acquire understanding for the experience of six children from a Children’s Home concerning social inclusion in a local main stream school. Five dimensions of social inclusion, as found in the literature, formed the framework of this research. They are: acknowledgement of worth, human development, involvement and participation in decision making, sharing of social spaces and material prosperity. The research takes the form of a qualitative study. In order to obtain understanding for the experience of the children, a basic interpretative research design was decided on. A purposeful sample was selected. For the production of data use was made of individual semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and observation. Data was processed by doing qualitative content analysis. Significant units were coded and categorised. Each child has his/her own construction of reality, but an experience which was expressed throughout, is their experience that they are regarded and treated as an inferior group. This is a harmful situation for the children and recommendations were made to pay attention to this within the school context.

The purpose of this research was to highlight the benefits of a Memory Box Programme on the social and emotional developmental functioning of orphaned children. The study focused on the memory box approach used by Sinomlando Centre with orphaned children. The Sinomlando Memory Box Programme has been in existence since 2000. The overall objective of this Memory Box Programme is to enhance resilience in vulnerable children and orphans affected by HIV and AIDS through the methodology of memory boxes In contributing to the discourse on memory work, an interpretive method of data collection and analysis in the form of a focus group discussion and thematic analysis was utilized in this study. Three focus groups were conducted with 26 orphaned children between the ages of 12 years to 15 years. Sampling of the children was based on a purposive sample, targeting children orphaned by AIDS who attended a 5-day camp conducted through a local NGO. The results of the study indicate that children who attended the Sinomlando Memory Box Programme had benefited from their involvement in the programme in diverse ways. They felt that being involved in a Memory Box Programme equipped them with better coping mechanisms and skills. These included the appropriate expression of feelings, the ability to talk about their parent’s death, and overcoming their sense of alienation so they could better cope with their difficult circumstances. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

See the attached abstract below