UKZN – INSPIRING GREATNESS

Community Based Work: A response to care and support needs of

African children

Mathe, Magojo and MaharajPSS Conference, 1-3 September 2015

INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND

Ending of oppressive regimes and transformed academic and socio-economic agendas;

There are persisting bio-psychosocial and structural problems in our continent

the children living below the poverty datum line; the effects of HIV and AIDS pandemic; the escalating number of orphans and vulnerable children; sexual violence against girl children and women; abducted, displaced and children separated from parents; children in armed forces and in conflict with the law

CONTINENTS’ RESPONSE

In the Last 2 decades , demand and growth in the: social services interventions, Activism, and research interest on family and community based work with

children and youth. Many have been criticized for :

Disregarding the culture, interests, practices, experiences, and the images of the African people.

For emphasizing the weaknesses, gaps and vulnerabilities within the African family care systems.

Universalising the Eurocentric views of child care and family systems as a norm.

They tend to be locked into their own stereotypes - seeing African men as irresponsible, neglectful, abusive and irremediable; discounting the impact of historical and political experiences of many fathers across Africa.

OUR RESPONSE: UKZN & REPSSI - (UNICEF) (2009), AND USAID(2013)

In developing reflective practitioners who can respond effectively and relevantly to the psychosocial needs of the children, families and communities; an 18 months’ contextually-grounded, pan-African CBWCY training programme – was developed and implemented in 10 African countries.

Using group participation methodologies, students progress through 6 Modules:

Personal and professional Development

Human Rights and Child protection

Child and Youth Development

Care and Support of Children at Risk

Integrated Development in Communities

Service Learning

THE RESEARCH STUDY: ACTION RESEARCH IN CYCLE 3 The article draws on

data generated through a broader multi-disciplinary research that was aimed at CBWCY programme review, monitoring, and improvement.

Undertaken with 9 countries - Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

A total of 917 youth care workers and 72 academic mentors

DATA COLLECTION Desktop review from the 9

countries - quantitative data. 9 focus groups of +/- 8 members Focus groups - to obtain information

about the experiences of Academic Mentors, particularly on Module 4.

Unstructured conversations were conducted with the same mentors across the nine participating countries.

Our approach was participatory in nature.

We focused on creating an environment that ‘gave a voice’ to the study participants.

Every participant was treated as an active agent and with respect.

Module 4: Deconstructing and co-constructing Care and Support of Children at Risk in the African Context

Share

Enhance

Analyse

Plan

Act

Monitor

Evaluate

Reflect

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: AFROCENTRICITY

It holds that African interests, values & perspectives should be at the centre of any intervention or analysis of the African phenomenon

When we intervene – we should ask ourselves - is this in the interest or from the vintage point of the African family or an African child

Views African families as a Spider web – made up of a series of interdependent strands of threads

Although people may be at different positions in the web and their contributions are unique in size and length - the common factor that binds them together is the web or the core ethos of a group.

PRESENTATION & DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

Hard questions asked by the participants on the intersection of the curriculum and their practice. They shared some of the contradictions, controversy, conflicts between our module content (interpretations) and the realities of the field.

Four Broad Themes emerged in our discussions: Men and women’s participation in child and youth care

programme. Invisible/Absent Fathers in family care and support vs multi-

centricity . Child-rearing practices as culturally constructed and context

specific. Family diagram (a genogram) as an assessment tool vs ‘it takes a

village to raise a child’.

Men and women’s participation in child and youth care programme.

o 537 (58.56%) – women, 351 (38.28%) – men & 29 (3.16%) – unidentified

o Note: In Malawi and Zambia there are significantly more men participants than women.

o As such, the role and behaviour of men and fathers in family and community based care are neither universal nor immutable, but rather social constructs generated in a particular context.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Female

Male

unknown

Gender by Country

Invisible/Absent Fathers in family care and support Participants problematized - The ‘invisibility’ of men in the care

and support of children and youth within and outside families Deconstructed immigration in the African contexts. Immigration for instance was viewed as a big sacrifice for the

benefit of the families:

“we have communities of fishermen. These communities comprise of men who live around the many Islands that we have. The Islands are isolated and inaccessible from the mainland. These men end up living away from their families for extended period of time. To these fishermen, these living arrangements are a great sacrifice for the medium and long term benefit of their families. But to some of the child care workers, these men are absent fathers.”

(Uganda)

Child-rearing practices as culturally constructed and context specific. Participants stressed a need to redefine the African family

systems – challenge ideologies that view Africans, particularly men as ridden with oppressive hostilities

Interrogated the ‘accepted truth’ about some aspects of child-rearing that are regarded as universal. For instance, the need for an emotional bond with a parent/s or a caregiver, the need for security and protection. Participants in different countries argued that how children

are reared to achieve this bond can be quite diverse across cultures.

They questioned how our programme expected our students to assimilate to an idealized Eurocentric family value system – eg. Touch/ physical contact as a symbol of affection.

“When both parents are not involved in child rearing practices, this does not imply that one of them does not love his/her children. Parents play different and complimentary roles within African family settings.” (Malawi)

There is a dominant perception among the child care givers that African parents are unloving and abusive to their children. We need to redefine abuse in this program. For instance, in many African families, parents work in the fields with their children for long hours. To these parents, they are training their children to be responsible, disciplined and skilled adults. But to many of us, this is child abuse” (Zimbabwe)

“The module emphasises capacity building to parents and their responsibility to the rearing of their children. However, in most families within our setting only 1 parent becomes involved in child rearing practices due to for instance employment demands and the prevailing culture.” (Namibia)

FAMILY DIAGRAM (A GENOGRAM) AS AN ASSESSMENT TOOL VS ‘IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD’

The relevance of the three generational family diagram used to assess child’ support structures and relationships in our Module 4 Study Guide was scrutinized.

It was argued that our family assessments tools such as the genogram should not focus on individuality and visible physical reality since the African family structures sometimes include members who are not biologically related and an extensive network of cousins.

“The family diagram does not accommodate support and relationships that our children experience beyond family blood lines” (Tanzania)

“It becomes difficult to apply this assessment tool to real life experiences of the care givers in our settings because there are many children in our communities that are raised by parents and families that are not their blood relatives.” (Uganda)

“In our settings, relatives are not determined by blood lines. For instance, in my family we have someone whom we grew up with. We don’t even know his real family but to us, he is a brother, a child to our parents and his children are ours.” (Swaziland)

“The dominant ideology in child and youth care work views children who are living outside their biological relatives as displaced. We really need to redefine these family care and support arrangements in order to accommodate the realities of the majority of our children.” (Lesotho)

ACTIONS TAKEN: TRANSFORMATIVE INTERVENTIONS

Regional IKS Workshop: where we looked at the African history what it means to be an African, We engaged in the decolonization exercise

where we challenged the Eurocentric basis of our professions,

we defined the African family systems and described the provision of support and care in the African context

Curriculum transformation - we infused IKS in our modules

This paper is an expression of our continuous devotion to the African worldview and its legitimacy in finding solutions to the African problems.

MOVING FORWARD

Continuous reflection, alignment, and restructuring of our intervention systems

We need to redefine care and support to capture African realities and experiences

We need to redefine the African family We need to assert the Afrocentric philosophies,

ideologies and approaches of care and support which highlights the core social values and responsibilities of our communities which are collective in nature, stress the interconnectedness of all things, link the social life with the material life, believe in many sidedness, and most importantly – they resonate with the aspirations and realities of the majority.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

REPPSI , especially the project officer for providing the statistical analysis of our student enrollments

Project team: UKZN, REPSSI 10 Countries: Module coordinators, Mentors

and students

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Asante, MK (2003). Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change. African American Images, Chicago

Daniels, JE (2001). Africentric Social Work Practice : The New Approach for Social Work Practice Intervention in the 21st Century. International Social Work 2001 44: 301

Graham, MJ (1999). The African-Centred Worldview: Toward a Paradigm for Social Work.Journal of Black Studies, 30(1), 103-122

Mabetoa, M (2013). Child and Youth Care Workers in South Africa. Technical Brief NO.5 March 2013.

Mbiti, JS (1969). African Religions and Philosophy. Heinemann Education Botswana (Pty) Ltd, Botswana

Seepe, S (2004). Towards an African Identity of Higher Education. Vista University and Skotaville Media, Pretoria.

Thank YouSIYABONGA!