Caregivers’ perspectives on preparing girls to leave care in Ethiopia
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-10-2021-0041 |
| Published date | 21 March 2022 |
| Date | 21 March 2022 |
| Pages | 111-126 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Children's services,Sociology,Sociology of the family,Children/youth,Parents,Education,Early childhood education,Home culture,Social/physical development |
| Author | Adrian D. Van Breda,Anduamlak Molla Takele,Messay Gebremariam Kotecho |
Caregivers’perspectives on preparing
girls to leave care in Ethiopia
Adrian D. Van Breda, Anduamlak Molla Takele and Messay Gebremariam Kotecho
Abstract
Purpose –Research on caregivers’ experiences of and perspectives on preparing young people to
leave care in Africa is lacking. A clearer understanding of caregivers’ practice and experience is
important for developing improved care-leaving services. The aim of this study is to describe the
experiences and perceptions of caregivers providing care-leaving services at one residential care
institutionin Addis Abba, Ethiopia.
Design/methodology/approach –A qualitative description research design was used to examine the
perspectives of seven caregiversand three key informants concerning the preparation of female care-
leavers for leavingcare and their readiness to lead an adult life in Ethiopia.Participants were purposively
selected and data were collected through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. The
generateddata were analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings –Caregivers are passionate about theirwork, seeing it more as a calling than as a job, and
think of themselves as parents to the children. Most reported receiving at least some training, albeit
informal or ad hoc, and faced challengesbecause of lack of resources. Regarding their preparation of
the girls for leaving care, caregivers reported inadequate success in financial literacy and savings,
continuedschooling, cooking, culturalliteracy and aftercare support.
Originality/value –This study thus underscoresthe absence of a preparation for leaving care practice
guideline and an independent policy that guides care-leaving in Ethiopia. Policy improvement on
caregiving that recognises and values the complexity of the job of caregiving, and thus the need for
greatereducation, is highly needed. This paper shedslight on the issue of supporting caregivers’ attempt
to mentor femalecare-leavers in Ethiopia.
Keywords Ethiopia, Caregiver, Independent living, Leaving care, Care giving, Female care-leavers,
Emerging adulthood
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Globally, there has been an increase in research on the transition of young people out of
alternative care, also known as out-of-home or foster care, towards young adulthood,
termed care-leaving. Initially, this research emerged almost entirely from countries in the
Global North (i.e. the minority or developed world) (Stein and Munro, 2008;Courtney, 2009;
Mendes et al.,2011;Mann-Feder and Goyette, 2019). More recently, research has been
emerging from countries in the Global South (i.e. the majority or developing world) (Dutta,
2017;Cameron et al., 2018;Van Breda and Frimpong-Manso, 2020). This is true also of
Ethiopia, which has begun a care-leaving research programme in recent years (Pryceet al.,
2016;Takele, 2017;Takele and Kotecho, 2020;Berhanu, 2021;Strahl et al., 2021;Takele
et al.,2021
).
Much of the care-leaving research has focused on the experiences of young people who
have transitioned out of care, named care-leavers, their generally negative outcomes and
the factors that might facilitate better outcomes, which are often framed as resilience
processes. An important component of this research is the preparation of young people for
Adrian D. Van Breda is
based at the Department of
Social Work and
Community Development,
University of
Johannesburg,
Johannesburg, South
Africa. Anduamlak Molla
Takele is based at the
Department of Sociology,
College of Social Science
and Humanities, Debre
Markos University, Debre
Markos, Ethiopia, and
Department of Social Work
and Community
Development, University of
Johannesburg,
Johannesburg, South
Africa. Messay
Gebremariam Kotecho is
based at the School of
Social Work, Addis Ababa
University, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, and Department
of Social Work and
Community Development,
University of
Johannesburg,
Johannesburg, South
Africa.
Received 6 October 2021
Revised 9 February 2022
Accepted 16 February 2022
The authors express their deep
appreciation for the study
participants’ willingness to
share their perspectives and
experiences on preparing girls
for leaving care.
DOI 10.1108/JCS-10-2021-0041 VOL. 17 NO. 2 2022, pp. 111-126, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660 jJOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES jPAGE 111
leaving care, which has most often been termed independent living programmes
(Scannapieco et al.,1995). These are programmes offered to young people in preparation
for their transition out of care and may continue after havingleft care, though these are often
referred to as aftercare programmes. They mainly include a range of services related to
education, employment, housing, mentoring, behavioural health, permanency enhancement,
pregnancy prevention, parenting support and financial literacy and asset building (McDaniel
et al., 2014). Research on these programmes has tended to focus on programme outcomes
(Montgomery et al., 2006;Donkoh et al., 2009;Yelick, 2017) and reviews of these studies
have shown less than enthusiastic results.
An area of care-leaving that is less understood concerns the experiences and perceptions
of individuals working in the alternative care system to prepare children for leaving care,
that is, those implementing independent living programmes. Some of these studies have
focused primarily on the perceptions of serviceproviders concerning care-leavers and their
care-leaving journey and outcomes (Gwenzi, 2018;Sulimani-Aidan, 2018), while some have
focused on the perceptions of care staff concerning the services they provide (Fowler,
2016). In fact, we struggled to find literature that meteither of these criteria –most research
on care-leaving has been conducted from the perspective of care-leavers. While the
experiences and perspective of service users are primary, we argue that the experiences
and perspective of services providersare also important.
The aim of this study, therefore, is to describe the experiences and perceptions of
caregivers providing care-leavingservices at one residential care institution in Addis Abba,
Ethiopia. Specifically, we are interestedin understanding the experiences of caregiversand
other role players in giving care to girls preparing to leave the care setting, and their
perceptions of the readiness of the girls to leave care.In the following section, we provide a
brief contextualisation of the care context and legislation in Ethiopia, followed by a limited
review of the literature relevant to this study. Following an account of the methodology, we
present two primary themes that emerged from the analysis, namely, caregiverexperiences
and care-leavers’ preparation for independent living. We discuss the findings in relation to
providing robust and holistic programmes for leaving care, leading to implications for
practice.
Leaving care legislation, policy and practice context in Ethiopia
Poverty, HIV, AIDS, war, parental death and deterioration of informal support systems are
the most cited reasons that push orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) to enter
alternative childcare systemsin Ethiopia (Kauffman and Bunkers, 2012).
Ethiopia is believed to be home to over five million OVCs, although there is a lack of recent
data in this regard (Ministry of Health, 2007). Although de-institutionalization advocates
argue that placing OVCs in institutional childcare centres is the last resort, because of its
negative effect on the children’s future development, residential care has been the major
care provider for OVCs in Ethiopia (Takele and Kotecho,2020;Takele et al.,2021).
To address the growing orphan crisis in Ethiopia, the National Guidelines for the Alternative
Care of Children (Ministry of Women Children and Youth Affairs, 2009) and the National
Child Policy (Ministry of Women Children and Youth Affairs, 2017) are the notable policy
frameworks that are put in place. The guidelines givegood attention to care-leaving issues,
but the educational requirementsof caregivers are low. Section 9 of this guideline concerns
human resourcing of institutional childcare and states the required educational qualification
and associated experience for a caregiver as follows: “A home mother should have
completed at least Grade 6 and shall have at least three months’ relevant training and a
minimum experience of one year as an assistant home mother.” There is also no mandate
for in-service training in caregiving,which may impact the quality of care for children in care
(Takele et al., 2021).
PAGE 112 jJOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES jVOL. 17 NO. 2 2022
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