The importance of psychosocial support for the wellbeing of children made vulnerable by HIV is a frequently discussed topic in the fields of education and HIV-related social science research. For children to juggle both the demands of education and the impacts of HIV is an enormous challenge. Against this background, schools have been hailed as potential sources of support, yet we know little about how the school environment can provide support, which might reflect the lack of input from schoolchildren themselves. This article explores how schoolchildren made vulnerable due to HIV and AIDS might cope and even thrive in a rural school environment in South Africa. I argue that schoolchildren's own contributions and abilities are fundamental to accelerate their coping strategies, allowing them to step back from vulnerability and so gain perspective about it. An inductive analysis makes use of data generated from a method of participatory photography (PhotoVoice), conducted with schoolchildren aged 16-18 years at a rural school in KwaZulu-Natal Province. The article draws on the concept of appreciative inquiry as a framework for examining coping strategies among schoolchildren made vulnerable by HIV. The findings point to the schoolchildren's ability to identify and access resources that will encourage them to cope with HIV-related adversities in their own lives. The participants revealed an ability to point out perceived social and structural challenges that have a dominant influence on their coping strategies.
This pa per explores School Management Teams' understanding of school a ssets as a means to respond to the needs of orphans and other children made vulnerable by AIDS in the context of rural schools in South Africa. The study employed a qualitative approach of data collection, using an art-based method, that is, collage to identify the School Management Teams' responses to the needs of children orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS in a rural school context, which included their identification of assets (resources) within and outside the school context, and concerns about the mobilization and mapping out of assets u sing a collage. The School Management Teams' understanding of assets included material things such as food and clothes. The findings also show that School Management Teams relied more on outside assets than assets within the school. However, with the use of the collage, as a means to chart their way forward, School Management Teams engaged in a discussion and looked at the extent to which learners, teachers, School Management Teams, School Governing Bodies and outside community assets such as faith-based organisations, businesses and parents could be mobilized and mapped in order to effectively respond to the needs of orphans and other children made vulnerable by AIDS in a rural co ntex t.
Literature and social reality confirm that rurality and its people remain underprivileged, while groups within communities, even in urbanism, still demonstrate marginalisation and social inequalities. Not only that, but research is also limited to emancipate the perpetual deficiencies and the various inequalities that emerge within the context of rurality and community livelihood. Even the little research output in this category suffers revered outlets where rural and community studies could be disseminated. This forms the gap to which the Interdisciplinary Journal of Rural and Community Studies (IJRCS) intends to fill. This, therefore, is the inaugural statement of the Journal. The statement presents the historical background of the Journal, the focus of the Journal, and subsequently defines the conceptual understanding of the rural and community to enlighten the authors and readers about the kind of acceptable articles. The editorial process and the professional profile of our editors were presented with a conclusion that whatever knowledge production is coming from the archives of IJRCS is authentic, productive and will definitely assume national and international standards without giving loopholes for contestation
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