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Amajuba Child Health and Well Being Research Project Social Marketing
Project Started : June 2005
Project Ends : Ongoing
Lead Researcher : Tim Quinlan
Project Donor : National institutes of health and the JFA
Overview
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 among government and NGO agencies in the 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.
Research Questions
- Document impacts of parental death on well being of children, and other household demographics, in Amajuba District. Research examined five domains: education, health and nutrition, household demographics, risky behaviours and overall well being
- Use research findings to inform child welfare agencies in Amajuba District
Strategic Questions
Wellness, caregiving and vulnerability
Expected Knock-On
Well documented findings on impact of the epidemic on children's well being
Advancement of coherent and well functioning children's programmes, especially orphans and vulnerable children referral systems
Project Impact
Address children's vulnerability using research findings to develop integrated management framework to inform child welfare agencies - e.g. developing or strengthening coherent referral system; support civil society organisations working with children and community to address HIV/AIDS and related challenges.
Brief Description
Three year longitudinal quantitative research looking at a cohort of school going children from 2004-2007
Collaborators
- CHID, Boston University
Key Phases
| Started | Completed | Description |
|---|---|---|
| June 2009 | Ongoing | Study design |
| June 2009 | Ongoing | Data collection |
| June 2009 | Ongoing | Data analysis |
| June 2009 | Ongoing | Reports and manuscripts writing |
| June 2009 | Ongoing | Advocacy Strategies |
Outputs and Activities
- Manuscripts, reports and presentations at local and global conferences / meetings
- Amajuba Family and Child wellbeing Conference, Newcastle
- Data collection phase completed
- Community report back session, Newcastle
- Data collection of SCOs in Amajuba District
- Mapping of Newcastle CSOs and official hand over to Newcastle Local AIDS Council (LAC) as foundation for restructuring of Newcastle
- Lead task teams at Newcastle and Dannhauser sub-district to develop/strengthen children's referral system
Workshops & Training
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