Chapter 10: Development of multi-disciplinary model for OVC
4.3 DIMENSIONS OF VULNERABILITY
4.3.1 Vulnerability is contextual
Different authors have reported that vulnerability differs from area to area, context to context as well as country to country (Chereni & Mahati, 2012; SADC, 2011). For example, children who are classified as vulnerable in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the US differ dramatically from vulnerable children in developing countries. In the developed world, the concept of vulnerable children refers mainly to children who are growing up in troubled families or families at risk (Potter & Brotherton, 2013).
However, in developing countries, the concept of vulnerability of children refers to children, who do not have access to basic resources such as food, clothing, housing and healthcare (Ameyaw-Akumfi, 2013). While in developed countries, exposure to risk does not imply a threat to children’s survival, in developing countries the survival of children is at risk (Mutiso & Mutie, 2018). It is common in developing countries for children to die from starvation and sicknesses that emanate from hunger and lack of care. Quite recently, 34 children were reported to have starved to death in the Eastern Cape.
In sub-Saharan Africa, many children are subjected to severe forms of poverty, famines resulting from drought, and conflicts that threaten their survival (Hlalele, 2015; Tsheko, 2011). In the conflict-ridden areas, children suffer the most. Moonga and Green (2016) define children’s vulnerability in the African context as children who are at a higher risk of missing out on schooling, living in households with less or no food security, suffering anxiety and depression, and being at a higher risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS.
In developed countries such as the United Kingdom, only 2% of children are living in child- headed households, compared to the 38% of child-headed households in sub-Saharan countries (UNDP, 2019).
In sub-Saharan countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, children are forced to work as breadwinners after the death of their parents, while in Kenya, female children are at high
risk of being sexually abused (Hlalele, 2015). In Uganda, most vulnerable children, and especially those from child-headed homes, receive social assistance from foreign agencies (Hlalele, 2015). These children are viewed as better off than those who are vulnerable caused by other circumstances. As a result, families encourage children to live in child-headed homes.
Vulnerability of children in the South African context can be defined as involuntary situations and conditions that place a child at a higher risk of deprivation of their basic survival and development needs, caused by a lack of care and support, or blatant neglect (DSD, 2012; Phillips, 2015). Vulnerability mainly centres on the lack or deficient support systems in the child’s life. In African tradition, which encompasses the Ubuntu principle of social cohesion, a child becomes a product of the whole community. The saying that it takes the whole community to raise a child is central to this concept. When a child becomes exposed to risky conditions, the extended family steps in to provide support to buffer the child from the impact of vulnerability, and in the absence of an extended family, the community in the rural areas provides support to the child (Mugumbate & Nyanguru, 2013). However, this does not automatically translate into the child being loved and nurtured, but can often lead to the child being forced to look after the household or the livestock.
In the rural context of the study, family structures have been affected by the migrant labour system, where people from rural areas migrate to urban areas in search of better job opportunities (DSD, 2021). Children are often left alone to care for themselves or remain in the care of grandparents or old extended family members, while parents work and live in the economic hubs such as Gauteng or other metropolitan areas.
The next section addresses vulnerability in the rural context. The reason why the researcher expounded this context was that researchers, who had conducted studies in rural contexts, commonly agreed that the rural/urban disadvantage continues to be an issue in the post-apartheid, democratic South Africa (Dekeza, 2018; Alpaslan & Schenck, 2012; Hlalele, 2015).
4.3.1.1 Vulnerability in the rural context
In the rural context, vulnerability of children tends to be exacerbated by the adverse conditions prevalent in most underdeveloped and under resourced rural communities.
Rural communities are characterised by “backwardness” and limited access to information (Motsa & Morojele, 2017). In addition, children growing up in such rural communities experience the perennial lack of resources, limited accessibility to resources and services; and geographical isolation, while many rural people are used to the culture of silence (Motsa & Morojele, 2017; Ntjana, 2014: Openshaw, 2014, Alpaslan & Schenck, 2012). This makes the lives of these children difficult, as they are subjected to harsher physical and environmental conditions and cannot easily access resources and services that are intended to ameliorate the impact of these conditions (Hlalele, 2015).
Rural communities usually experience negative social conditions more than their urban counterparts, and unemployment is at 47% (Ntjana, 2014; SSA, 2019). In post-apartheid, democratic South Africa, rural areas continue to receive less input or funding in terms of resources and services when compared to their urban counterparts; as such rural vulnerable children experience more vulnerability and a broader range of additional challenges, such as having to work the land, look after livestock, fetch water, and so forth, than the urban vulnerable children (Alpaslan & Schenck, 2012; Patel, 2015). They are also faced with schools and all other services being extremely far from their homes, without any public transport being available. Hlalele (2015) echoed that learner vulnerability in rural settings is a serious problem, one that is rapidly growing and that learners are receiving less than is their right in a democratic South Africa.
Troubled families are exposed to two or more risks, while families at risk are characterised by several disadvantages. These conditions predispose children in these communities to various forms of vulnerabilities and to social ills such as domestic violence, substance abuse and teenage pregnancy.