Overview

Programme:	2
Key question:	3
Start date:	01/10/2002
End date:	Ongoing
Status:	Data cleaning & analysis; preliminary results available
Contact:	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Project outputs: ACHWRP
i) Documantation of the effects of parental/caregiver death on the welfare of children; ii) Integrated management plan for child services in Amajuba District of KwaZulu Natal

This long-term project began in 2003 as a collaborative initiative of the Center of International Health and Development, Boston University, and HEARD.

It has two core aims:

To document the consequences of parental or caregiver death on the health and well-being of orphans;

To facilitate the development of a child welfare management plan amongst government and NGO agencies in Amajuba district, a peri-rural area in KwaZulu-Natal.

Three rounds of household surveys were completed in July 2007. Preliminary findings include:

All children are vulnerable. However, orphan children are more likely to bear the burdens of caring for ill adult household members and living apart from their siblings.

No significant differences between households with orphans and households that have no orphan children with regard to size, demographic composition and socio-economic status;

No significant differences between orphan and ‘non-orphan' children with regard to accessing social grants (in terms of acquiring and having identity documents and birth certificates), nor in educational handicaps (in terms of repeating a school grade or being two or more years behind standard age grades);


Social grants are critical supports for household welfare in general (between 2004 and 2005, the percentage of households in Amajuba receiving grants increased from 73.24% to 80.1%);

Orphan caregivers are primarily women, older than 55 and often unmarried, divorced or widowed. They are more vulnerable than ‘non-orphan caregivers' in the sense of being more prone to poor health, frequently caring also for an ill adult household member and having more children in their care than ‘non-orphan caregivers';

Some children as young as 10 years old are sexually active, irrespective of their status, but within this group, orphans are twice as likely to have had sexual intercourse than non-orphans;


Children who reported having consumed alcohol were four times more likely to have had sexual intercourse.

One of this year's highlights was the report-back event held on 2nd August in the Newcastle Town Hall to mark the end of the data collection phase. Team members from the CIHD and HEARD made presentations to an audience that included representatives of the Amajuba District Municipality, Newcastle Municipality, District government departments, NGOs, FBOs, and local schools.


This event was one feature of a process of engaging with local stakeholders that began in 2003, leading to formulation of an "Advocacy Plan" in 2005, and which will continue in diverse ways in 2008, towards fulfilling the aim of assisting the development of co-ordinated child welfare interventions in the District.