Chapter 10: Development of multi-disciplinary model for OVC
4.5 FACTORS EXPOSING CHILDREN TO VULNERABILITY
4.5.2 Structural Factors
4.5.2.1 Family factors and circumstances
In neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the socioeconomic conditions continue to deteriorate, which causes their people to continue migrating to South Africa in search of a better life (Willie & Mfubu, 2016). At the Beit Bridge border post, children as young as 12 years have been found to try to cross the border illegally (Willie & Mfubu, 2016).
In the Maleboho East Circuit, there are a considerable number of migrant children who are registered in the schools. Having an immigration background presents serious challenges and barriers to their education (Mahmoudi & Mothapo, 2018). They have difficulty in understanding the local language, and are forced to learn a new local language. Their situation may be perpetuated by the lack of proper identification documents or a birth certificate, both of which are necessary when registering at a school.
In 2019, many learners were deregistered from local schools cause of their lack of proper documentation.
Jopling and Vincent (2016) identify dysfunctional families, families at risk and troubled families. In their view, these families are generally lacking an enabling environment to allow children to develop and function well. They are often chaotic, disorganised, and lack a proper value and moral structure (Jopling & Vincent, 2016). In these families, there is also generally a neglect of children (Pillay, 2011). Though there are adults in these families, they do not have either the maturity or the moral grounding for children to model their life after them (Herruzo, Trenas, Pino, & Herruzo, 2020). Unfortunately, evidence also shows that such dysfunctional families tend to have more children or a greater number of people living in one household (Herruzo et al., 2020).
In South Africa, many children are living in dysfunctional families, or families that are classified as either troubled or at risk (DSD, 2021, Kheswa, 2017). Some believe that even more than a whole generation after the end of apartheid, dysfunctional families are the outcome of the past separate development in the country, where resources and opportunities were concentrated in urban areas, while some areas (especially rural areas) were left without receiving any development or infrastructure. This forced people to migrate to urban areas to find work, leaving their families behind. Migration to the urban areas is still a major factor for rural areas experiencing no economic growth. Social factors such as poverty, unemployment, HIV/Aids, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and the increase in the number of child-headed families also tend to compromise the quality of family life (Kheswa, 2017).
There is notable erosion of family life, even in families that are said to be intact there is a noticeable compromise of family life (Kheswa, 2017). This is blamed on socioeconomic factors, where both parents work and spend more time at work than with their children.
When children have little contact with their parents, because of an irregular and unstable family life, then the parent−child bond is weakened (DSD, 2021). Evidence has shown that when children are left in the care of people who are not their biological caregivers or their extended family for an extended period, the probability that they may be mistreated is high (UNICEF, 2018).
Research studies strongly suggest that children who are orphaned or whose parents are not able to care for them optimally are more likely to suffer emotional, physical and transactional sexual exploitation than all other groups of children (Hlalele, 2015; Mutiso
& Mutie, 2018). Children who grow up in stable families and supportive parents, experience a strong caring environment. As a result, families that are stable, secure and possess protective factors, make their children less prone to vulnerability than children who are coming from dysfunctional families (Hlalele, 2015; Mutiso & Mutie, 2018).
In this circuit, more children live in single-parent families and evidence shows that many single parent families are poor and unstable, and lack proper family values. Preliminary evidence from one school has shown that 60% of the learners came from single-parent families (Mothibe, 2020). Children who are living with single parents are at a higher risk of experiencing physical and sexual abuse (Ameyaw-Akumfi, 2013). Studies show a strong connection between the father’s absence and the abuse of children (Makofane, 2015).
Apart from single-parent families, there is an increasing number of child-headed households [CHH]. CHH are defined as those that are under the care and supervision of a person below the age of 18 years of age (DSD, 2005; Mturi, 2012; Pillay, 2016). They include households headed by children living with adults who are either very old or too sick to be responsible for the household (DSD, 2005). This situation is often caused by social and economic situations in the community of the Maleboho East Circuit as well as the broader Limpopo Province, where parents migrate to places such as Gauteng or other metropolitan centres for work opportunities. This forces their children to live in homes where there is no adult supervision, and the children assume adult roles and take care of their siblings in the absence of their parents.
Children who are living in CHH are faced with the difficulty of having to raise their siblings, which leads to their social disempowerment, increased school abseentism, which leads to their poor school performance (Pillay, 2016; Cluver et al., 2012). Literature has also
documented that CHH experience a shortage of resources, which places them and their siblings at risk of experiencing starvation and malnutrition (Pillay, 2016). Children who come from these families tend to be sickly, with inadequate access to medical care, while girls living in CHH experience all kinds of sexual exploitation while they try to provide for themselves and their siblings (Skoudal & Daniel, 2012; Pillay, 2016).
Mturi (2012) supported the view that they tended to be more vulnerable and may encounter challenges such as failure to access social services, inability to generate resources and unresolved grief. However, it should be noted that not all children living in CHH are vulnerable. Some children have strong resilience and function even better than children who are coming from families where there are both parents (Lethale & Pillay, 2013). Children’s problems are vast, especially in an environment where a high number of families are unstable, or where OVC are faced with multiple risks. In these families, there are multiple factors associated with vulnerability, most of which lead to greater vulnerability (Jopling & Vincent, 2016).
The ecosystem framework postulates a reciprocal relationship between children and their environment. As a result, the problems that children experience in their home environment will eventually cascade to their education process. On the other hand, the impact that HIV/AIDS has had on families cannot be overlooked. Several research studies have indicated that HIV/AIDS has had a serious negative impact on South African families (Skinner et al., 2013). Therefore, the following discussion elaborates further on how South African families had been affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
(a)The impact of HIV/Aids on families
The HIV/Aids pandemic has affected families negatively, especially in sub-Saharan Southern Africa (UNICEF, 2009; UNDP, 2013). Many parents died from AIDS or AIDS- related illnesses, leaving their children with no-one to look after them. Though the infection rate of HIV/AIDS has been reduced in many countries; its impact on families, communities and societies will still be evident in many years to come.
Children living in households where a parent or both parents are living with HIV/AIDS are faced with various forms of difficulty (Skoudal & Daniel, 2012). They often must care for their sick parent and are faced with the thought of the possibility of their parent dying. In some cases, they witness their parents dying (DSD, 2012; REPSSI, 2009). This leaves the children with a deep, long-lasting trauma, and emotional, cognitive and psychological scars (Cluver et al., 2009; REPSSI, 2009). The scourge of HIV/AIDS compounds the problem of children’s vulnerability. Many children are left with one or no parent, while in some cases, they had to deal with their ailing parents. Having to care for parents while still young, also leaves children with deep emotional scars, which causes psychosocial issues later on in their life (Cluver et al., 2012). The long-term sickness and eventual loss of a parent or both parents exposes children to a wide range of abuse (Skinner et al., 2006). It also creates feelings of hopelessness, fear, self-blame, despondency and desperation in these children.
This situation is worsened by the fact that children do not receive any intervention after the death of a parent or parents (Cluver et al., 2012). For many children, life has to continue as normal after the loss of their parents. Without any intervention, children lose the meaning of life. In cases where there are no adult caregivers after the loss of a parent or parents, the older child will be forced to take on the adult role and care for their siblings.
In worst cases, they are forced to leave their family home and relocate to live with other relatives. Evidence shows that these children are in some cases subjected to sexual abuse, as well as financial abuse, where young children are forced to work for their food (Mutiso & Mutie, 2018; Pillay, 2016).