CHAPTER 4: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
4.7 The vicious cycle of poverty 96
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manner in order to provide comprehensive OVC programmes. Secondly, all actors involved at various levels should begin to interrogate the underlying factors that keep OVC vulnerable to poverty. As it stands, the OVC programmes in schools is not engaging with the structural inequalities that leave some children more susceptible to poverty than others. Essentially, child poverty contradicts the guiding principles stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989) and ultimately undermines human rights enshrined in the South African Constitution.
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I don’t know what we would do without the school’s nutrition programme. Even when my three grand children would go to school without food in the morning, I always get some kind of satisfaction that they will get something to eat at school at 10:00. Sometimes the teachers even give them the food that is left to take home.
Sixty-five year-old caregiver C agreed that the nutrition programme and the fact that the school is a no fee school are of great help to her. She praised the teachers for bringing old clothes to school for OVC. She said that the children in her care had benefitted from government sponsorship for OVC at least twice, when they each received a pair of shoes:
This has made a difference in meeting us halfway because the social grant is not enough….. Buying shoes was a good idea because they wear out quickly while they are expensive to buy… although I would have wished that they get full uniform like pants and shirts as one pair gets dirty every day. I am also grateful that government said we should not pay school fees….. I wish this OVC programme could continue to sponsor our children. I like the fact that children are also taught about drug abuse…..
I am so scared for my grandson that he can be influenced by peers in the township. I am old and diabetic I cannot cope living with delinquent children.
These assertions illustrate the multifaceted nature of poverty. The caregivers are not only dealing with the care and support of OVC, but also have to deal with the loss of their own children and grandchildren who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS and also their grandchildren’s ART programmes in some instances. It must also be realized that many of the caregivers are elderly women. Due to old age and stress, many OVC are not offered adequate care and support, and these root causes of poverty give rise to unprecedented consequences.
As Fang et al. (2011) note, due to the stress of losing one or both parents, orphans might employ maladaptive strategies to cope, such as alcohol or drug abuse. This analysis depicts a classic picture of what Chambers (1985) terms the deprivation trap of powerlessness, vulnerability,
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physical weakness, poverty and isolation. Consequently, OVC who have caregivers who are poor and old are likely to drop out of school and this results in the vicious cycle of poverty.
The caregivers concurred that the social grant is not enough to sustain their families; therefore, however small it might be, the supplement from the OVC programme sponsorship makes a difference. According to the South African Presidency’s Situational Analysis of Children (2009), “social grants are assisting many families to provide food and clothing for their children”. The above responses further suggest that the OVC programme offers a degree of relief in this community; since this is a poor community, it does not have the burden of helping households with orphans. However, the caregivers also indicated that they rely on neighbors for help with food and other resources if the situation is bad. Caregiver A said that:
I get a lot of help from my generous neighbors when I am in need. Community gardens that I am involved in also help us a lot by providing us with vegetables…..
This response is consistent with Thornton and Ramphele’s (1993) observation that being part of a caring community that provides for members is a worthwhile initiative. While this observation is consistent with the concept of Ubuntu (humanism), it must also be recognized that it is the government’s primary role to care for its citizens. The findings illustrate that many OVC live in absolute poverty. As alluded to earlier, Burkey (1993) defines absolute poverty as the lack of a basic need such as food. It was established that while many OVC benefit from the school nutrition programme during the day, they are subjected to poverty after school hours.
This threatens their growth and development. According to Maslow’s (1954)(also cited in Mahlati, 2011) hierarchy of needs, a basic need or service is the absolute minimum resource that human beings, especially children, need to survive, achieve well-being and realize their full physical, psychological, social and spiritual well-being. As alluded to earlier, government
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grants have contributed to poverty alleviation, however a society that largely depends on welfare has a shaky future. Hence, social grants and the barter system are not sustainable in the long term.
The following chapter presents a summary of the study, conclusions, and recommendations.
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