Understanding Family Well-Being in the Context of Rural Poverty: Lessons from the Rural Families Project

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenna Ontai ◽  
Melissa Barnett ◽  
Suzanne Smith ◽  
Joe Wilmoth ◽  
Loriena Yancura
Societies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Grech

An increasing body of literature has started to look at how disability impacts and shifts poverty in the global South in and through a range of areas, including health, education, and livelihoods. However, much of this research is limited to disabled individuals, while qualitative research focusing on and articulating the circumstances, needs and demands of rural families remains scarce, especially research focusing on Latin America. This paper reports on a qualitative study looking at how disability affects family labouring patterns in rural Guatemala, with a special focus on women carers of people with acquired physical impairments, in the bid to contribute to a more inclusive understanding of the disability and poverty relationship and its gendered dimensions. Findings highlight how in rural communities already living in dire poverty, the fragmentation of labour input of the disabled person, costs (notably health care) and intensified collective poverty, push fragile families with no safety nets into a set of dynamic responses in the bid to ensure survival of the family unit. These include harder and longer work patterns, interruption of paid labour, and/or induction into exploitative and perilous labour, not only for women, but also children. These responses are erosive and have severe personal, social, cultural and economic consequences, strengthening a deep, multidimensional, chronic and intergenerational impoverishment, transforming these families into ‘disabled families’, among the poorest of the poor. This paper concludes that research, policy and services need to move beyond the disabled individual to understand and address the needs and demands of whole families, notably women, and safeguard their livelihoods, because ultimately, these are the units that singlehandedly care for and ensure the well-being and survival of disabled people. It is also within these units that disability is constructed, shaped, and can ultimately be understood.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haris Abd Wahab ◽  
William Bunyau ◽  
M. Rezaul Islam

Author(s):  
Jose Washington Gomes Coriolano ◽  
Lucia Marisy Souza Ribeiro de Oliveira

The present reality of the Pandemic caused by the COVID-19, is characterized by new adaptations in the decrease of the social and economic activities, with the social isolations, in cities and countryside communities, causing a decrease in the commercialization of food by the familiar agriculture, damaging the activities of social organization and rural technical advice in the sustainable development of agricultural activities, by the non-governmental institutions and representative entities of the civil society, in the implementation of public policies assisted to the farmers, having a greater consequence in the social vulnerability and rural poverty. The present article aims to study the effects of the pandemic on family farming in the territory of the backlands from Araripe in the state of Pernambuco, describing the strategies adopted in the social organization of countryside communities, in reducing the social impacts of the pandemic on family farming. Through a bibliographical research, based on academic literature, newspapers and institutional reports, on the activities of rural technical assistance with principles of agro-ecology, developed during the period of incidences of the pandemic.  As a result, technological strategies were identified in the remote media, for the activities of rural technical assistance, organization of marketing of food products from family farming, at home, in greengrocers and emporiums of solidary marketing, assisted by non-governmental institutions, in the development of motivational initiatives for rural families, in overcoming social and economic difficulties, during this phase of social isolation and safety protocols to the health of countryside area families and the entire world population.


Author(s):  
Abigail Korn ◽  
Susan M. Bolton ◽  
Benjamin Spencer ◽  
Jorge A. Alarcon ◽  
Leann Andrews ◽  
...  

Rural poverty and lack of access to education has led to urban migration and fed the constant growth of urban slums in Lima, Peru. Inhabitants of these informal settlements lack land rights and access to a public water supply, resulting in poor sanitation, an inability to grow food, and suboptimal health outcomes. A repeated measures longitudinal pilot study utilizing participatory design methods was conducted in Lima between September 2013 and September 2014 to determine the feasibility of implementing household gardens and the subsequent impact of increased green space on well-being. Anthropometric data and a composite of five validated mental health surveys were collected at the baseline, 6-months, and 12-months after garden construction. Significant increases from the baseline in all domains of quality of life, including: physical (p < 0.01), psychological (p = 0.05), social (p = 0.02), environmental (p = 0.02), and overall social capital (p < 0.01) were identified 12 months after garden construction. Life-threatening experiences decreased significantly compared to the baseline (p = 0.02). There were no significant changes in parent or partner empathy (p = 0.21), BMI (p = 0.95), waist circumference (p = 0.18), or blood pressure (p = 0.66) at 6 or 12 months. Improved access to green space in the form of a household garden can significantly improve mental health in an urban slum setting.


Author(s):  
Harrison Kofi Belley

Local governments have been created as agents of local development in which the people in the local areas are given greater opportunities to influence policies and programs that directly affect their well-being and thereby reducing their poverty levels. But the implementation of the policies and programmes is bedeviled with many problems. Key among them is the issue of financing the local development projects in order to reduce rural poverty. The government of Ghana attempted to reduce this problem when it introduced a development fund in1994 known as the – District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to encourage local governance and deepen Government’s commitment to decentralization in general and fiscal devolution in particular. The study therefore, seeks to assess the impact of District Assembly Common Fund on Local Government Development in the Adaklu District Assembly in the Volta Region of Ghana. The study mainly adopted qualitative methods of research to obtain information on the experiences of the poor people in the Adaklu communities selected as study areas. Interview guides were used to obtain information from the people in the communities, staff of the Assembly and some heads of the decentralized departments. A major finding of the study is that the assembly did not involve the rural people in the poverty reduction programmes in the district.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Andrea Barrera Ramirez ◽  
Hernan Dario Franco

ABSTRACTDecades of violence in Colombia led to the relocation of millions of rural families into urban areas, where the violation of human rights and abuse add to the struggle to meet most basic needs. Lack of housing, economic instability, poor access to healthcare and educa­tion impact their overall health. Unfortunately, implementation of laws created to alleviate the crisis has been unsuccessful, as armed groups target aid efforts through violence and threats. While the role of physicians is limited, advocacy and collaboration with other organizations can help improve the health and well-being of this population. RÉSUMÉDes décennies de violence en Colombie ont mené au relogement de millions de familles rurales vers des milieux urbains, où la viola­tion des droits de la personne et les sévices exacerbent la lutte pour subvenir aux besoins fondamentaux. Le manque de logement, l’instabilité économique, et l’accès restreint aux soins de santé et à l’éducation ont un impact sur leur santé globale. Malheureuse­ment, l’établissement de lois conçues pour alléger la crise s’est révélé sans succès, puisque des groupes armés ciblent ces efforts d’aide humanitaire avec de la violence et des menaces. Bien que le rôle des médecins soit limité, les activités de plaidoyer et la collaboration avec d’autres organismes peuvent aider à améliorer la santé et le bien-être de cette population. 


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudhir Maske

National Rural Employment Grantee Act (NREGA) is one of the progressive and transformative legislation passed by Indian Parliament in the year of 2005 by UPA government for ensuring employment guarantee and livelihood security to each rural household. In year 2007 it is renamed as Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The fundamental goal of this right based policy initiative is to provide employment guarantee and promote infrastructural development in the villages for the well-being rural household, it has also been considered as an integrated approach for rural poverty eradication and sustainable development. Since, nine years MGNREGA is being implemented in all 623 districts of the country, but it has not shown the result which had been expected and even put forward in MGNREGA objectives. Most of the evaluation studies shown that the scheme is not working properly at ground level because of its poor implementation. There are many issues and challenges are coming up in its implementation. It is observed that very few states like Andhra Pardesh, Rajasthan, etc. where programme is being implemented in successive mode. Maharashtra state is mile stone in MGREGA, the origin Of EGS scheme is a backbone of this act. In 1974, the Maharashtra state government had started Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and it was put into operation for entire year. At present the previous employment guarantee scheme has merged into MGNREGA guideline issued by the central government. Though the state has reach experience of EGS implementation, but the present merged MGNREGA programme is not working properly at ground level. There are many issues are coming up in its implementation process which are caused by different factors such as demand of work, identification of work site and planning, complicated administrative structure with less competent staff, delay in payment, lack of human resources. The author has made an attempt to analyze these factors based on case study of two villages, named Kashod Shivpur and Bhilkhed in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. FGD and interview schedule was used for data collection. This paper also trying to highlights if the act has implemented with spirit and commitment how it can help to regenerate the village resources to achieve the prime goals of sustainable development.


2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol M. Worthman ◽  
Catherine Panter-Brick

AbstractAs challenges to child well-being through economic disadvantage, family disruption, and migration or displacement escalate world wide, the need for cross-culturally robust understanding of childhood adversity proportionately increases. Toward this end, developmental risk was assessed in four contrasting groups of 107 Nepali children ages 10–14 years that represent distinctive, common conditions in which contemporary children grow up. Relative cumulative burden (allostatic load) indexed by multiple dimensions of physical and psychosocial stress was ascertained among homeless street boys and three family-based groups, from poor urban squatter settlements, urban middle class, and a remote rural village. Biomarkers of stress and vulnerability to stress included growth status, salivary cortisol, antibodies to Epstein–Barr virus, acute phase inflammatory responses (alpha1-antichymotrypsin), and cardiovascular fitness and reactivity (flex heart rate and pressor response). Individual biomarkers of risk and allostatic load differed markedly among groups, were highest in villagers, and varied by components of allostatic load. Such data suggest a need for critical appraisal of homelessness and migration as a risk factor to youth, given prevailing local conditions such as rural poverty, and represents the only multidimensional study of childhood allostatic load and developmental risk in non-Western settings.


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