The Care Dependency Grant for children with disabilities in South Africa: Perspectives from implementation officials

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Zara Trafford ◽  
Leslie Swartz
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Care Dependency

scholarly journals The experiences of parents of children living with disabilities at Lehlaba Protective Workshop in Sekhukhune district of Limpopo province

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Tigere ◽  
Jabulani C. Makhubele
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Absent Fathers ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Interview Guide ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Life Circumstances

Background: Parents of children with disabilities have faced difficulties in looking after their children, be it socially, economically and financially. Parents in rural areas are mainly left with a huge burden, as there is a lack of services and support from both the state and non-governmental organisations. Parents in Sekhukhune district, a rural area in Limpopo province of South Africa, face challenges in raising their disabled children related to lack of resources and lack of services at their disposal.Objectives: This study focuses on the experiences and life circumstances faced by parents of children living with different types of disabilities at Lehlaba Protective Workshop in Sekhukhune district of Limpopo province, South Africa.Method: The study consisted of 14 participants who are parents of children living with disabilities. An interview guide with a set of questions was utilised to gather data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data and themes that emerged were grouped together.Results: Themes that emerged from the data showed that most of the participants had varying understandings on the causes of disabilities to their children. The participants also were of the view that a ‘cure’ for disability was available medically, spiritually or through traditional African medicine. The study also brought the notion of absent fathers, as most men do not want to be associated with children who are disabled. Stigmatisation of the parents was also a theme that the study revealed. The parents are subjected to name labelling as they are viewed to be practising witchcraft or to be paying for their sins they committed.Conclusion: Parents of children with disabilities are in their own battle in raising their children. There is a lack of support structures available for parents of children living with disabilities. There is a lack of legislation available for protecting and promoting the rights of children with disabilities. The researchers concluded that raising a child with a disability is expensive, time-consuming and straining.

scholarly journals A qualitative investigation of the role of paediatric rehabilitation professionals in rural South Africa: Rehabilitation professionals’ perspectives

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Mathye ◽  
Carina Eksteen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Skills Training ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Rehabilitation Professionals ◽  
The Family ◽  
Open Coding ◽  
Paediatric Rehabilitation

Purpose: To investigate the role that rehabilitation professionals play in the rehabilitation of children with disabilities in the rural and under-resourced community of Giyani in South Africa.Method: A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive approach was used. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used to collect data from a convenient sample of eight rehabilitation professionals. Data were transcribed verbatim by two trained students and verified by the main researcher. An inductive approach to qualitative data analysis was used. In vivo and open coding were used to generate codes.Results: Analysis of data resulted in 21 codes, 9 subcategories, 5 categories and 1 theme. The role of rehabilitation professionals was described in terms of the five categories which are to examine newborn babies and children at risk, support caregivers of children with disabilities, impart skills training for caregivers of children with disabilities, rehabilitate children with disabilities and conduct follow-ups in communities where the children with disabilities reside.Conclusion: The role that rehabilitation professionals play in the rural and under-resourced community of Giyani in South Africa is similar to the role played in high-income countries. The role that rehabilitation professionals play is not only focused on the child but also on the family.

Service providers' perceptions of families caring for children with disabilities in resource‐poor settings in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 823-831
Author(s):  
Gadija Khan ◽  
Dane Isaacs ◽  
Mokhantšo Gladys Makoae ◽  
Lorenza Logan Fluks ◽  
Tholang Mokhele ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Resource Poor

scholarly journals The practice of partnerships: A case study of the Disabled Children’s Action Group, South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan C. Philpott ◽  
Nithi Muthukrishna
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Early Childhood Development ◽  
Childhood Development ◽  
Data Generation ◽  
Action Group ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Role Of Parents ◽  
National Organisation

Background: Children with disabilities stand to gain from an array of services and interventions to support their development. However, relationships between parents of children with disabilities and professionals can be fraught, with the potential that professionals undermine the role of parents and overlook their agency.Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the nature of partnerships between parents of children with disabilities and professionals in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector, and the influences that shape partnerships within a particular context.Setting: This article documents the experiences of parents of children with disabilities from a national organisation, in respect of their partnerships with professionals.Methods: The research was a qualitative case study of a national organisation of parents of disabled children, the Disabled Children’s Action Group (DICAG), that has engaged in many different partnerships within different provinces of South Africa. Data generation techniques were document analysis and focus group discussion with staff and provincial branch members of the national DICAG office in Cape Town.Results: The findings of the study provide a nuanced and contextually situated understanding of the complexity of parent–professional partnerships in the disability sector. A key issue that emerges is that to recognise and disrupt pervasive dominant discourses and their potential to weaken partnerships, professionals need to critically attune themselves to the situated experiences of those whom they seek to support.Conclusion: The findings suggest that there is a need for a rights-based social justice agenda to underpin parent–professional relationships, to address the power dynamics and pervasive discourses that oppress the parent actors.

scholarly journals A Critical Analysis of Key Policies Shaping Services for Young Children with Disabilities in South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Philpott ◽  
Nithi Muthukrishna
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Early Childhood Development ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Childhood Development ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Young Children With Disabilities

There have been significant recent developments in the policy arena in South Africa in respect of disability and of early childhood development viz. the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy. Using Bacchi’s analytical framework encapsulated in the question, What’s the problem represented to be?, these policies were subjected to scrutiny, analysing how disability and inclusion are represented within them, and how these representations shape the lives of young children with disabilities. Among the underlying assumptions contained in these policies is that barriers excluding persons with disabilities are socially constructed and their removal will result in inclusion. Further, the policies imply that marginalisation and vulnerability are inherent traits of children with disabilities. Inclusion is portrayed as an ideology rather than a practice.  Amongst unproblematised elements of the polices is the supposition that children with disabilities are a homogenous group, and that there is a distinction between children with and without disabilities. The effects of these representations manifest in a focus on social barriers, which downplays the importance of habilitation and rehabilitation for the individual child and may result in children with disabilities being portrayed as passive recipients of services. It may also undermine choice and agency of children and their families.  Further, the analysis indicates that defining the principle of inclusion too broadly makes it difficult to measure.

Time and Latitude in South Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
J. Hers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Astronomical Determination ◽  
Limited Accuracy ◽  
Better Than

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.

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