“When the obvious brother is not there”: Political and cultural contexts of the orphan challenge in northern Uganda

Oleke, Christopher; Blystad, Astrid; Rekdal, Ole Bjørn

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.04.048

Cited by 90 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…According to Kamali et al [19] and Foster [13,20] his actual situation could be described as satisfactorily taken care of, and better as when he was staying with his father. We do not know, however, whether his psychological needs are met or whether the fact that he is staying with maternal kin provides an insecure future as pointed out by Oleke et al [23] and which psychological consequences this might have.…”

Section: Family Form and Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Oleke et al [21] have pointed out that the view on how orphans are catered for during the AIDS epidemic might be somewhat optimistic and Baylies [22] describes the extended family as "safety net with holes", as the protection and care offered depends on an individual's status in the network. In addition, Oleke et al [23] have pointed out that in most of sub-Saharan Africa property is inherited through the male line, which makes children that grow up with their maternal kin unsure about where they belong and which rights they have especially regarding their property.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Growing up HIV-positive in Uganda: “psychological immunodeficiency”? A qualitative study

et al. 2017

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Background This study is part of a longitudinal study among children and adolescents with HIV in both urban and rural Uganda: ‘Mental health among HIV infected CHildren and Adolescents in KAmpala and Masaka, Uganda (CHAKA) ’. Method The study is constructed of both quantitative and qualitative components. In this article we report a qualitative study on the experiences of 21 adolescents (twelve to seventeen years) living with HIV in Uganda. The purpose of the study was to investigate both the protective and the risk factors in HIV-infected adolescents’ care environment in order to understand what might contribute to negative outcomes and what might provide a protective buffer against harmful life events. Semi-structured interviews with vignettes about mental disorders were employed and a phenomenological analysis was done. Results The findings uncovered that the adolescents’ families were mostly characterized by instability and diffuse relationships that provided an insecure basis for secure attachment and emotional support. Even in stable and secure family environments, there was no guarantee for getting sufficient emotional support in order to develop a positive self-concept due to the fate being the only infected child in the family. Both secure attachment and positive self-concept are known psychological protective mechanisms that provide the individual with resilience. The adolescents in this study seemed hampered in the development of protective mechanisms and consequently seemed psychologically vulnerable and badly equipped for coping with challenges, which paves the way for the possible development of mental disorders. Conclusion To change the focus towards strengthening the children and adolescents’ development of psychological protective mechanisms implicates a change in focus from illness to health and has consequences for both treatment and prevention. Psychological health promotion must be systemic and aim at strengthening the family environment, but also to establish peer group support.

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Section: Family Form and Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Growing up HIV-positive in Uganda: “psychological immunodeficiency”? A qualitative study

et al. 2017

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“…Although extended-family networks continue to assume the primary role in orphan care and support, an increasing number of reports highlight the hardship experienced by fostering households in securing children's basic needs, including schooling, food and medical care (Nyambedha, Wandibba, & Aagaard-Hansen, 2003b;Oleke, Blystad, & Rekdal, 2005;Oni, 1995;Ssengonzi, 2009). Such struggles highlight the strain which many fostering households endure and underline the fact that neither the public sector nor communities are currently providing adequate support to the growing number of fostering households (Miller, Gruskin, Subramanian, Rajaraman, & Heymann, 2006).…”

Section: Institute Of Social Psychology London School Of Economics Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orphan competent communities: A framework for community analysis and action

Skovdal

Campbell

2010

Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies

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Vulnerable children in Africa have traditionally been absorbed and supported by their communities. However, in the context of AIDS and poverty, communities are increasingly stretched, compromising the quality of care available to children affected by AIDS. This calls for an understanding of the processes that best facilitate the capacity of communities to provide good quality care and support. In the interests of furthering debate and practice in this area, we seek to develop an analytical framework that builds on two interlinked strands. Firstly, we emphasise the need to acknowledge the active coping and resilience of children affected by AIDS, rather than seeing them as passive victims. It is through taking account of children's and communities' indigenous coping strategies, and the complex dynamics between children and fostering families, that interventions have the best chance of supporting communities so that they can best facilitate resilience and well-being of AIDSaffected children under their guardianship. Secondly, we highlight six psychosocial resources that we argue should be promoted in communities to improve the quality of support available to children affected by AIDS, and thereby enhance the coping and resilience of children.

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“…In Uganda, women moved to their husband's family at marriage and the children belonged to the paternal clan (Oleke et al, 2005). Orphans were taken care of either by their remaining biological parent or some of the patrilineal kin (Nyambedha et al, 2003a).…”

Section: Gender and Practices Of Relatednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication in the Context of Family Caregiving: An Exploratory Study of Ugandan Children on Antiretroviral Therapy

et al. 2015

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SummaryIt is important to consider the complexities of family dynamics when deciding when and how to communicate with HIV-infected children about their illness and treatment. Previous research has focused on providers’ and caregivers’ perspectives on whether, when and how to disclose HIV/AIDS diagnosis and treatment to HIV-infected children. From the perspective of HIV-infected children, communication does not mean just giving information about illness and treatment, but also encompasses emotional and material care. This paper places communication within the broader framework of caregiving in family situations. This exploratory study was conducted in Jinja district, Uganda, between November 2011 and December 2012. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews, communication by, and with, HIV-infected children in the context of family situations was explored from the perspectives of 29 HIV-infected children aged 8–17 years on antiretroviral therapy (ART) using content thematic analysis. Children’s communication with caregivers about their illness and treatment varied depending on whom they were living with and the nature of caregiving. Although a mother’s care was considered best, children described others who cared ‘like a mother’. For some, caregiving was distributed among several relatives and non-relatives, while others felt they had hardly anyone to care for them. Caregiving from the children’s perspective involved emotional support, expressed verbally and explicitly in messages of concern, encouragement conveyed in reminders to take medicines, attention when sick and confidential conversations about the challenges of having HIV and taking ART. Caregiving was also communicated implicitly in acts of provision of food/drinks to take with medicines, counting pills to confirm they had taken the medicines and accompanying children to treatment centres. Children’s communication about their health and medicines and the care they received was to a large extent shaped by the nature of their relatedness to their caregivers, the extent to which caregiving was dispersed among several people and who else in the household was infected with HIV and on medication.

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“When the obvious brother is not there”: Political and cultural contexts of the orphan challenge in northern Uganda

Cited by 90 publications

References 29 publications

Growing up HIV-positive in Uganda: “psychological immunodeficiency”? A qualitative study

Growing up HIV-positive in Uganda: “psychological immunodeficiency”? A qualitative study

Orphan competent communities: A framework for community analysis and action

Communication in the Context of Family Caregiving: An Exploratory Study of Ugandan Children on Antiretroviral Therapy

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