This research was designed to explore the challenges faced by community-based interventions for orphans and vulnerable children in Mutare, Zimbabwe. This study employed qualitative case study method which focused on the two community-based organisations, FACT and Simukai. Cross-case data analysis relating to research questions was done using transcriptions organised by themes and sub-themes from focus group discussions with volunteers, in-depth interviews with caregivers and staff from both CBOs. Findings show that communities are committed to the care and support of OVCs by offering their voluntary services. Despite volunteer/caregivers’ commitment to care and support OVCs, some challenges noted by caregivers were: caregiver fatigue, lack of material resources for OVCs during visits and lack of interest in young people taking up voluntary work. Simukai and FACT interventions were found to be mainly education, psychosocial support, medical assistance, project management, capacity building and financing of self help projects for OVCs and their families. / Sociology / M. A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

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)

A quantitative study was conducted to determine the socio-economic outcomes for the beneficiaries of the Expanded Child Survival Initiative in Uganda. The population comprised of all orphans and vulnerable children who were trained under the Expanded Child Survival Initiative of which a sample of 102 respondents were included in the structured data collection process. The outcomes that were explored were employment, income, assets and family support to siblings and other dependants by the primary beneficiaries. The findings show that the outcomes of the Expanded Child Survival Initiative were positive and benefited socio economic lives of the respondents and their family members. The majority of the respondents were using the skills obtained from the training and were employed. The employment provided a source of income and the income earned facilitates the respondents in providing the basic needs of the family members. They were able to provide adequately for most of their basic needs. The findings also show that the respondents had accumulated some assets. A number of factors influenced the utilisation of the newly acquired skills including having tool kits, start-up capital and business management skills. It is recommended that training providers should provide start-up support to the apprentices in order to facilitate them to utilise the skills obtained from apprenticeship trainings. / Public Health / Thesis (M.A. (Public Health))

This research was designed to explore the challenges faced by community-based interventions for orphans and vulnerable children in Mutare, Zimbabwe. This study employed qualitative case study method which focused on the two community-based organisations, FACT and Simukai. Cross-case data analysis relating to research questions was done using transcriptions organised by themes and sub-themes from focus group discussions with volunteers, in-depth interviews with caregivers and staff from both CBOs. Findings show that communities are committed to the care and support of OVCs by offering their voluntary services. Despite volunteer/caregivers’ commitment to care and support OVCs, some challenges noted by caregivers were: caregiver fatigue, lack of material resources for OVCs during visits and lack of interest in young people taking up voluntary work. Simukai and FACT interventions were found to be mainly education, psychosocial support, medical assistance, project management, capacity building and financing of self help projects for OVCs and their families. / Sociology / M. A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

Partant de la prémisse que 80% des enfants institutionnalisés ne sont pas orphelins (Tolfree 1995, 4), ce mémoire porte sur la production et la circulation des « faux orphelins ». Suivant un terrain ethnographique de quatre mois auprès de jeunes institutionnalisés et de responsables d’orphelinat au Cap-Haïtien, en Haïti, je soutiens que les responsables d’institution agissent de façon substitutive puisqu’ils s’acquittent des fonctions parentales même si la famille biologique existe et qu’elle est connue des institutions. En s’attribuant un pouvoir ascendant sur les familles biologiques, les responsables d’institution destituent les parents de leurs responsabilités et relèguent ces derniers à un statut fantomatique. Dans un contexte de survie, les jeunes apprennent à cumuler et à performer différents statuts, un processus transformatif qui se réalise dans la négociation de leur agentivité et dans l’exploration de la liminalité de leurs multiples statuts. Cette stratégie permet aux « faux orphelins » d’accéder à des services et ressources pour devenir des commodités et poursuivre leur fonction économique envers leur famille biologique. À partir d’une analyse systémique axée sur les concepts d’intersubjectivité, de commodification, de performance, d’agentivité et de présence absente, je démontre que la production des « faux orphelins » est une stratégie à laquelle de multiples acteurs contribuent, notamment les responsables d’institution, les jeunes ainsi que leur famille. Le cadre théorique de la circulation des jeunes est productif pour identifier toutes deux l’institutionnalisation des jeunes et l’adoption internationale comme stratégies de mobilité qui n’agissent pas à titre de finalités absolues mais plutôt de parcours dans l’espace et dans le temps. / Based on the fact that 80% of institutionalized children are not orphans (Tolfree 1995, 4), this study focuses on the production and circulation of “fake orphans”. After 4-months of ethnographic fieldwork with institutionalized youths and orphanages directors in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, I argue that, through their actions, agency heads essentially serve as substitutes for conventional parental functions, despite their knowledge of the existence of the children’s biological families. When ascribing themselves an ascending power over biological families, agency heads are dismissing parents of their own responsibilities and therefore demoting them to a ghost-like status. Driven by a survival mode, institutionalized youths learn to accrue and perform different statuses, a transformative process produced by the negotiation of their agency and the exploration of the liminality of their multiple status. This strategy allows “fake orphans” to access services and resources, which transform them into commodities and allow them to fulfill an economic function for their biological family. Based on a systemic analysis focused on concepts intersubjectivity, commodification, performance, agency, and absent presence, I demonstrate that the production of “fake orphans” is a strategy in which multiple actors are taking part, among them agency heads, youths, and their family. The theoretical framework of circulation of children is productive for identifying both youth institutionalization and international adoption as mobility strategies which are not to be conceptualized as oriented toward a final destination, but rather as a journey in space and time. / Baze sou lefèt ke 80 % nan timoun ki nan enstitisyon yo pa òfelen (Tolfree 1995, 4), etid sa a konsantre sou pwodiksyon ak sikilasyon « fo òfelen ». Apre 4 mwa travay etnikografik sou teren ak jèn k ap vin nan enstitisyon epi ak direktè òfelina nan Okap, Ayiti, mwen analize ke, atravè aksyon yo, dirijan ajans yo esansyèlman sèvi ranplasman pou fonksyon konvansyonèl paran yo, malgre ke yo konnen egzistans fanmi byolojik timoun yo. Lè yo bay tèt yo pouvwa anwo fanmi byolojik yo, dirijan ajans yo retire pwòp responsabilite yo nan men paran yo epi konsa vin fè yo jwe yon wòl preske tankou fantom. Nan chèche lavi, jèn k ap viv nan enstitisyon yo pral aprann jere plizyè estati diferan, yon pwosesis transfòmasyon ki sòti nan efò yo fè pou yo mèt tèt yo epi konprann flou ki genyen lè w ap viv ak plizyè estati diferan an menm tan. Estrateji sa a pèmèt « fo òfelen » jwenn sèvis ak resous, ki fè yo vin yon pwodwi yo menm ki ranpli yon fonksyon ekonomik pou fanmi byolojik yo. Baze sou yon analiz sistemik ki konsantre sou konsèp kosibjektivite, komèsifikasyon, pèfòmans, ajantivite, ak prezans absan, mwen demontre ke pwodiksyon « fo òfelen » se yon estrateji ke plizyè aktè patisipe ladan, pami yo dirijan ajans, jèn yo, ak fanmi yo. Fondasyon teyorik sikilasyon timoun itil pou idantifye alafwa fenomèn mete jèn nan enstitisyon ak fenomèn adopsyon entènasyonal kòm estrateji mobilite ki pa dwe konsèptualize tankou de jès ki gen yon destinasyon final, men plis tankou de vwayaj nan espas ak tan.

Focusing on the rights of children who are deprived of their family environment and remain in child-headed households in the context of the HIV epidemic in Africa cannot be more relevant at present as the continent faces a significant increase in the number of children who are left to fend for themselves due to the impact of the epidemic. The impact of the epidemic is so severe that it is likened to an armed conflict. In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 22.4 million people are living with HIV, and in 2008 alone, 2 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses. Such massive loss of human lives is itself a tragedy. However, the repercussions of the epidemic suffered by children may be less visible, yet are just as far-reaching, and in all likelihood longer lasting in their effects. Initially, it appeared that children were only marginally affected by the epidemic. Unfortunately, it is now clear that children are at the heart of the epidemic. In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 14 million children lost their parents to AIDS-related illnesses and an unimaginable number of children consequently find themselves in deepened poverty. Traditionally, children who are deprived of their family environment in Africa have been cared for by extended families. However, the HIV epidemic has dramatically affected the demography of many African societies. As the epidemic continues to deplete resources of the affected families and communities, extended families and communities find it more and more difficult to provide adequate care to the increasing number of children who are deprived of parental care. As a result, more and more children are taking care of themselves in child-headed households. The foremost responsibility of states with regards to children who are deprived of parental care is to support families and communities so that they are able to provide adequate care to children in need of care, thereby preventing children from being deprived of their family environment. While strengthening families and communities, as required by articles 20 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child and 25 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, as well as other international guidelines such as the 2009 UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, states also have the responsibility to provide ‘special protection and assistance’ to children who are already deprived of their family environment and are living in child-headed households. The important question is how to interpret the right to alternative care, and special protection and assistance, with respect to children in child-headed households. The study examines the international standards and norms regarding children who are deprived of their family environment including children in child-headed households and explores the ways those children are supported and protected in South Africa, against the background of related developments in a number of different African countries, including Namibia, Southern Sudan and Uganda. In 2002, the South African Law Reform Commission made the important recommendation that child-headed households should be legally recognised. The Children’s Amendment Act (No 41 of 2007), which amended the comprehensive Children’s Act (No 38 of 2005) gave effect to this recommendation by legally recognising child-headed households under prescribed conditions. It is a bold step to strengthen the protection and assistance given to children in child-headed households. However, child-headed households should not be legally recognised unless all the necessary protection and assistance measures are effectively put in place. In order to design and implement the measures of protection and assistance to children in child-headed households, a holistic children’s rights-based approach should be a guiding light. A rights-based approach, which articulates justiciable rights, establishes a link between the entitlement of children as rights-holders and legal obligations of states as duty-bearers. States have the primary responsibility to provide appropriate protection and assistance to children who are deprived of their family environment. This is a legal obligation of states, not a charitable action. A rights-based approach is further important in that it ensures that both the process of mitigation strategies and the outcome of such efforts are firmly based on human rights standards. The study argues that legal recognition should be given to child-headed household only after a careful evaluation based on the international standards with regard to children deprived of their family environment. It further argues that measures of ‘special protection and assistance’ should be devised and implemented using a rights-based approach respecting, among others, children’s rights to non-discrimination, to participation and to have their best interests given a priority. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

This thesis had two maim aims. First to analyse the work of municipal social workers in Pardubice county. It sought to answer following questions: what are the current practices of OSPOD workers in various areas of their work? What will the new law on social protection of children change? What else is needed to move closer the best possible practise? The second aim was to estimate what proportion of children currently placed in institutions for babies in Pardubice county would need foster in case the institutions were closed down and what proportion of children currently placed need not be removed from the family at all were their families provided with support. As for the first aim, the analysis has shown that many aspects of the work of OSPOD play an important in the system of care for vulnerable children, yet the current practise in most of them significantly lags behind what could be called best possible practise. The new law will change the situation only partly. On the positive side significant changes in the practise of OSPOD is achievable. As for the second aim, due to limitations of available data, only very rough estimates could be made. But the estimates suggest that not so huge human and financial resources would be required to replace institutions for babies

The thesis "System of care for vulnerable children and amendment to the Act on Social and Legal Protection of Children in the reflection of key stakeholders" deals with attitudes of actors involved in the issue of care for vulnerable children towards existing state of system of care for vulnerable children, pros and cons of its partial aspects, as perceived by actors from their point of view. Attention is also focused on the process of change that is sphere of care for vulnerable children currently undergoing in connection with the adoption of the amendment to the Act on Social and Legal Protection of Children, which entered into force on January 1st 2013. Based on the knowledge gained through expert interviews, opinions of actors are illustrated both of the comprehensive conception of the amendment, as well as of relation to its individual measures. The aim of the thesis is to present a coherent interpretation of perspectives that actors of different expertise hold with regard to the existing concept of policy and to the way it is modified by the new legislation and thus to find out what are the areas of conflict and consensus between their views and on the basis of that reveal the extent to which the form of amendment to the Act on Social and Legal Protection of Children is based on shared...

The aim of this work is to introduce a new concept of children's home which seeks to find a relationship between family environment, specific needs of children or necessary architecture requirements which are important in perceiving the space in which children are.

The objective of this study was to explore which practices and factors at a Tanzanian non-governmental family home, that has promoted former female residents’ health empowerment and health literacy. Semi-structured interviews were completed with five former female residents. The data were analysed using a thematic analysis forming four main themes: 1) The family home values 2) promoting independence 3) cultural identity 4) health literacy. The findings suggest that the family homes approach of resembling family-like environments and relationships alongside maintaining the cultural and societal norms and customs, promotes health literacy and health empowerment amongst the female residents. It is suggested that future research focuses on identifying and confirming specific organisational practices and factors, that promote health literacy and empowers health and wellbeing to ensure health for all and to ensure that no one is left behind.