Children & Psychosocial Care

Outline
• Definition of a child
• Understanding risks factors children face
• Building resilience/ protective factors
• Psychosocial support and children
• Social connectedness and Ubuntu
 Class exercise
• Think about your own understanding of what a child is.
• How does society define a child?
• Reflection on:
What is a Child? by Prof Karin Murris – University of Oulu, Finland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LeW-0xN3nQ
What is a child?
 Defining a Child
Any human being under the age of 18 unless the relevant national
law recognizes an earlier age of majority.
- Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNESCO, 1998)
 DEFINITION OF THE CHILD IN SELECTED AFRICAN STATES
Country Act Definition of a child
Botswana Children’s Act, 2009. Article 2: “Child” means any person who is below the age of 18
years.
Malawi Child Care, Protection and Justice Act, 2010 Section 2 of Child Care and Protection Act: "Child" means a
person below the age of 16 years.
Swaziland Initial state party report on the Convention on - Child Care Service Order (1977) considers a child to be below
the Rights of the Child, Swaziland, 2005 16,
- Employment Act (1980) states a child as a person below 15
years
- Reformatories Act (1920) defines a juvenile adult as between 16
and 21 years (for purposes of detention).
- The Adoption of Children Act (1952) defines a child as being
below 19 years
- The Immigration Act (1982) considers a child to be below 18
years of age.

South Africa Children’s Act, 2005 “Child” means a person under the age of 18 years.
Zambia Draft Constitution, 2012 Article 311 of Draft Constitution: “Child” means a person who is
. below the age of eighteen years, and “children” shall be
construed accordingly.
Libya Children’s Protection Act, 1997 Article 1: A child is a person under 16 years
Zimbabwe Constitution, 2013 Section 4.38 (1): every child that is to say every boy and girl under the age of 18
years has the right to…
 Definition of a child according to the Namibian
Context.

The Child Care and Protection Act (No. 3 of 2015) defines a

Child as any person who has not yet attained the age of 18 years.
According to the Age of Majority Act 57 of 1972 (Repealed), all
persons, whether male or female, attain the age of majority when
they reached the age of 21 years.
Children are considered vulnerable members of
society.

Why is that the case?

• Children and youth have physical or material needs, like the need for water, healthy food,
warm clothes and a protective shelter.
• Children and youth also have emotional or psychological needs, like the need for love and
attention.
• Their minds need stimulation for learning and to grow their capacity to think, which we call
cognitive development.
• They also have social, cultural and spiritual needs, like the need for a sense of belonging
 RISK FACTORS

Things that are potentially harmful or dangerous to

a child’s healthy development and wellbeing.
 RISK FACTORS
• Poverty, inadequate food / poor nutrition, clothing • Caregiver unemployment (or seasonal work)
• Having no birth certificates or identity documents • Any medical condition that is stigmatised
• Lack of appropriate accommodation • Lack of sport / recreational facilities and opportunities
• Child labour • Loss of a parent or other caregivers
• Insufficient adult love, care, support and protection • Lack of access to essential services, including education,
healthcare, protection, livelihood opportunities, and psychosocial
support
• Physical, emotional, sexual abuse, neglect and exploitation • Harmful traditional practices

• Teen pregnancy, early or forced marriage • Inadequate or overcrowded shelter / unhealthy living
environments
• Limited access to schooling and/or dropping out • Illness, or illness in the learner’s family
• Negative peer pressure • Poor role models

• Lack of sense of belonging or identity • Alcohol or substance abuse

• Being exposed to natural disasters like floods or earthquakes • Disability, or disability in the learner’s family

• Stigma and bullying • Political unrest / conflict.

Crime / violence Not being aware of one’s rights
 Vulnerability
The word comes from the Latin word vulnerare, which means to wound, and children who are
vulnerable are easily hurt or wounded.
Children who are affected by the risk factors identified above are particularly vulnerable.
Some of the risk factors are societal, such as growing up in communities that are struggling to cope
with poverty, violence, displacement or HIV and AIDS.
Others are individual, such as not having enough food, clothes or shelter; being victims of
domestic violence and abuse; living in homes where there is little love or guidance; losing a
caregiver or taking on adult responsibilities and caring for sick relatives.
• Remember that the situations of children are not constant but change continuously.
• New risks and shocks - such as a caregiver losing a job or a drought impacting on the
harvest, or long-term stresses such as poverty - can move a child who was doing well
towards vulnerability.
• Protective factors - such as helping a parent to get a child support grant, referring a child to
a non-governmental organisation (NGO) for assistance, or the government installing a
borehole to provide safe water for the community - can move a child who was vulnerable
towards greater wellbeing.
 PROTECTIVE FACTORS
Things that protect children from harm and promote their health, happiness and development. A
stable, loving home environment and supportive adults in their lives help build children’s trust
and self-esteem.
 EXAMPLES OF PROTECTIVE FACTORS

• Enough nutritious food • School access for learners who cannot afford the fees

• Having a consistent caring adult caregiver who is • Recreational programmes and facilities in the community
involved in the child’s life

• After-school programmes (academic and recreational) • Safe schools and communities

• Community action to address unemployment and • Hygienic washing facilities and toilets
poverty

• Peer support groups or clubs • Friends

• Spiritual support • Hope for the future

• Participation in community and family events, a sense • Ability in sports, music and so on, that brings positive
of belonging attention.
 BUILDING RESILIENCE
• RESILIENCE: the ability to face, overcome and even be strengthened by difficult experiences.
• The International Resilience Project (Grotberg, 1995) identified three sources of resilience.
• To overcome difficulties, children need to draw on:
 external support and resources outside them (I HAVE)
 inner strength within (I AM)
 social and interpersonal skills that help them strengthen relationships (I CAN)
I have… I am… I can…
• people around me I trust and • someone who people like and love talk to others about things that
who love me, no matter what • happy to help others and show my frighten or bother me
• people who set limits for me so I concern • find ways to solve problems that I
know when to stop before I am • respectful of myself and others face
in danger or trouble • willing to be responsible for what I • control myself when I feel like
• people who show me how to do do doing something that is not right or
things correctly by the way they • 99% sure things will be all right dangerous
do things • decide when it is a good time to talk
• people who want me to learn to to someone or to take action
do things on my own • find someone to help me when I
• people who help me when I am need it
sick, in danger or need to learn

A child does not need all of these things to be resilient, but having only one is not enough. A child may have a great
deal of self-esteem (I AM), but if they do not know how to communicate with others or solve problems (I CAN) or
they have no one to help them (I HAVE), the child may not be able to cope with life’s challenges.
GOAL OF CHILD PROTECTION
By providing psychosocial support (PSS) we can
strengthen resilience and protective factors. We should
also be trying to reduce children’s exposure to risk
factors.

WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT?

 Psychosocial Support
• Thesupport provided by one person to another that
positively aids that person’s emotional and social
development.
• It
is a continuum of love, care and protection that
enhances the cognitive, emotional and spiritual
wellbeing of a person and strengthens their social and
cultural connectedness.
• Effective PSS enhances individual, family and community competencies and
positively influences both the individual and the social environment in which
people live.
• Good practice in PSS draws on the strengths of the child, family and
community, to strengthen resilience which leads to thriving (doing well).
• For example, if a child grows up loved by a parent or caregiver in a stable
family, the child learns how to be in a caring and stable relationship with
others.
• As SWs we can, for example, strengthen the relationship between a child and
his or her family. We can strengthen the support that the community shows to
the child and family (HOW?)
 SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS
• Social connectedness a key element of psychosocial wellbeing.
• Social connectedness refers to the (positive) quantity and quality of meaningful and supportive
relationships between people.
• Social connection refers to socially connected people who have meaningful and trusting
relationships and bonds with those around them, including friendships, as well as connections to
their families and communities.
• Social connectedness may begin with babies being carried on their mothers’ backs where they
are safe, warm, close to their mother, can hear their mother sing, the mother can easily know
when the baby needs something.
• It is important to connect to friends, family, school, teachers, clinic, NGOs and government.
Children and adults can connect at the family level and at the community level. If you are
socially connected you feel more supported and less alone
Bronfenbrenner System’s Theory
UBUNTU….

Africans believe in something that is difficult to render in English.

We call it ubuntu, botho. It means the essence of being human. You
know it when it is there and when it is absent. It speaks about
humaneness, gentleness, hospitality, putting yourself out on behalf
of others, being vulnerable. It embraces compassion and toughness.
It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can
only be human together.
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu
 UBUNTU
in
child protection
• Ubuntu best explained by the African saying "Umuntu
ngumuntu ngabantu"(isiZulu) - "we are because of others".
• This description of 'ubuntu' means that human beings exist
because of other human beings – their identity and being in
the world is established and maintained through
connections with others.
• The core of psychosocial wellbeing is the connections that
exist between people, both past and present.
• Strengthening people’s social connections with others
builds their capacity to live a full and meaningful life.
• The concept of 'ubuntu' therefore strengthens the idea of psychosocial
support – that our psychology, our identity and our basic wellbeing depend
on the quality of our human connections.
• It further proposes that we don’t only care for others because ‘it is the right
thing to do’ but that our own humanity is strengthened through showing
warmth, kindness, respect and inclusivity to all human beings.
Quotes on Ubuntu