scholarly journals The black hole of dealing with a disability diagnosis: Views of South African rural parents

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vuyelwa V. Duma ◽  
Ntombekhaya Tshabalala ◽  
Gubela Mji
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Rural Setting ◽  
Support Needs ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Children With Disability ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rural Parents

Background: Lack of support systems in the management of health and rehabilitation related problems, including the stigma of giving birth to a child with disability, results in some parents ignoring the doctor’s prognosis of lifelong disability.Objectives: The study was conducted in the Eastern Cape province (ECP) of South Africa (SA) on parents’ views in caring for children with disability in an area with minimal health facilities in a rural setting.Method: Data was collected using exploratory descriptive qualitative methods. A Xhosa-speaking researcher facilitated six focus group discussions and conducted one individual in-depth interview with 37 parents or caregivers of children with disability residing at Happy home. Only one father was interviewed. Thematic analysis was used in interpreting data obtained from interviews.Results: The findings revealed themes indicating key concerns of parents, which were as follows: challenges with disability diagnosis, negative attitudes of health professionals, health and rehabilitation related problems, and lack of support from families and community.Conclusion: Caring for children with disability in a rural setting where services are minimal or not available to the poorest people who mostly need such services is not easy. Thus, to respond appropriately to the health and support needs of children with disability, it is crucial to understand the social context and needs of their families and caregivers. Due to size of the study, findings cannot be generalised. Recommendations are made for further studies to explore the vital issues affecting parents of children with disabilities.

Ainslie, Bill (1934–1989)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Stephenson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
African Art ◽  
Art Programs ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Black Artists ◽  
The Social ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

Born in 1934 in Bedford, Eastern Cape, South Africa, William (Bill) Stewart Ainslie was a painter and educator, and the founder of a number of visual art programs and workshops that countered discriminatory racial and educational policies in apartheid-era South Africa. These programs encouraged students to work in abstract and other modernist idioms not practiced in the country at the time. Until his untimely death at age 55, Ainslie melded his career as an artist with his vision of art as a means to combat apartheid. In the 1960s and 1970s, Ainslie fostered the only multiracial art programs in the country, culminating in a formal art school, the non-profit Johannesburg Art Foundation (1982). He helped found the Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA) and the art schools Fuba Academy (1978), Funda Center (1983) (funda means "learn" in Xhosa), and the Alexandra Arts Centre (1986). The generation of modern African artists and educators trained at these institutions shaped the course of art after apartheid. Ainslie also organized short-term workshops, most notably the Thupelo Art Workshop (thupelo means "to teach by example" in Southern Sotho) in 1983. Thupelo linked local and international artists and focused on abstraction, a radical departure from the social realist style expected of politically engaged South African art of the 1980s.

scholarly journals The Role of Religious Rituals in Fishing Community: A Study of Irakkam Fishermen in Pulicat Lake

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-216
Author(s):  
C. Subba Reddy
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Pulicat Lake ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
The Social ◽  
Psychological Strength

This article focuses on the religious rituals associated with fishing and the processes that are in vogue in the fishermen community of Pulicat Lake. The role of the rituals in the contemporary socioeconomic context of the fishermen community is analyzed by applying functionalistic approach. The data were collected from the fishermen of Irakkam Island in Tada mandal of Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh state, by employing the qualitative techniques such as in-depth interview, observation, and focus group discussions. It is found that fishermen perform varieties of rituals such as annual worshipping of ancestral spirits, ritual of launching of new boat, worshipping of clan deities at clan level, and communal worship at village level. All these rituals are considerably functional in fulfilling the psychological needs of individuals and social needs of the community at the household, clan, and community levels. The psychological prop and social cohesion are found to be the most essential features of fishermen community to cope up with the social, economic, and environmental challenges, and these rituals function as instruments to instill psychological strength and social solidarity.

scholarly journals EDUCATING RURAL SOUTH AFRICAN WORKERS IN THE EASTERN CAPE: IMPLICATIONS, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-96
Author(s):  
Matthew Osaigbovo Ovbiebo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Empowerment Theory ◽  
Skills Acquisition ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Rural Worker ◽  
Point Of Departure

Around 20-24% of South African rural workers in the Eastern Cape are illiterate and unfamiliar with modern and more productive methods of practicing their occupations. Given the challenges that are associated with rural workers, it is important to determine the problems and the prospects they experience, and the ways of providing them with training and skills acquisition. The researcher used empowerment theory as the point of departure for a theoretical framework, and a qualitative explorative study was followed to gather and analyse the data. Data were collected by means of focus group discussions, analysed ethical issues were not left out. The findings from the study revealed that the education which the rural worker would require would contain both formal and informal education. The significance of the findings is to develop the creative ability of the rural worker, to ultimately assist him through the process in creating necessary skills and knowledge for maximum production in their work and standard of living. It is also an articulation of the diversified programmes, which could allow many rural workers to become more productive and fulfilled in their endeavour. Key words: education, rural-workers, prospect, training, skills-acquisition.

AIDS-Risk among Street Children and Youth: Implications for Intervention

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda M. Richter ◽  
Jill Swart-Kruger
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Street Children ◽  
Health Belief ◽  
Street Youth ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Aids Risk ◽  
Belief Model ◽  
The Health Belief Model

With the co-operation of staff and volunteers from non-governmental programmes in nine South African cities, focus group discussions were held with 141 street children and youth, 79 of whom were enrolled in shelter programmes while 62 were still living independently on the streets. The group discussions focused on knowledge about transmission and prevention, attitudes towards AIDS and people with AIDS, and sexual and other behaviours related to AIDS risk. Both quantitative and qualitative information on the topics covered was extracted from the transcriptions of the discussions. The results indicated that, on a superficial level, South African street youth possessed relatively good knowledge about transmission and prevention. However, a more critical analysis showed that knowledge is obscured by moral imputations. In addition, street youth disclosed extremely negative attitudes to condoms and to people with AIDS. Accounts of sexual behaviour confirmed that street children and youth engage in a number of high-risk behaviours. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for intervention and, in particular, the inadequacies of the Health Belief Model and related theories, as the sole theoretical foundation for the design of intervention programmes.

A cost-benefit analysis of concentrator photovoltaic technology use in South Africa: A case study

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 2-11
Author(s):  
Mario Du Preez ◽  
Justin Beukes ◽  
Ernest Van Dyk
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Disadvantaged Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Bidding Price ◽  
Private Investors

The South African Government currently faces the dual problems of climate change mitigation and the rollout of electricity provision to rural, previously disadvantaged communities. This paper investigates the economic efficiency of the implementation of concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology in the Tyefu area in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, as a means of addressing these problems. Two cost-benefit analyses (CBA) are carried out in the study, namely a private CBA and a social CBA. The private CBA investigates the desirability of the CPV project from a private energy investor’s perspective, whilst the social CBA investigates the desirability of the CPV project from society’s perspective. The social CBA found that the project was socially viable and was, thus, an efficient allocation of government resources. The private CBA, on the other hand, found that investing in a CPV project was not financially viable for a private investor. With respect to the incentive scheme currently offered to private energy investors, it is recommended that the maximum bidding price of R2.85/kWh be increased. A sensitivity analysis of the bidding price showed that an increase of 300% is required to attract private investors into electricity generation projects.

scholarly journals Performing the common good: volunteering and ethics in non-state crime prevention in South Africa

Africa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 496-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Kirsch
Keyword(s):  
Crime Prevention ◽  
South African ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractUsing fieldwork data from South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, this article highlights ambiguities of volunteering as idea and practice by exploring discursive strategies used by volunteers in the field of civic crime prevention when the ethical honesty and selflessness of their commitment to volunteering is questioned by others. These ambiguities relate to asymmetries in the relationship between donors and recipients of volunteering, as well as, most importantly, the challenge to determine what constitutes the ‘common good’. This article demonstrates that these strategies entail the accommodation of contentions about: (1) the social identity of the volunteer by stressing the volunteer's commitment to abstract causes and objectives; (2) powerful asymmetries between donors and recipients of volunteering by invoking an encompassing sociality; and/or (3) the (alleged) self-interest of volunteers by defining the personal benefits achieved by volunteering not as an end in themselves but as ‘private means’ to ‘public ends’. All three strategies have in common that volunteers as ‘ethical subjects’ can here be shown to be co-produced with South African ‘communities of ethics’ on different social scales.

scholarly journals The level of organisational identification amongst students at a post-merged South African university

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Breytenbach ◽  
Michelle Renard ◽  
Robin Snelgar
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
University Management ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Value Add ◽  
The University

Orientation: Organisational  identification  (OI)  refers to individuals  perceiving  that  they belong  to and  are one with  their  organisation.  Limited  research  has  been conducted  on university students’ levels of OI within the South African context.Research purpose: The aim of the study was to determine the level of OI amongst students at a post-merged university in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.Motivation for the study: Levels of OI amongst students at a post-merged university could be low, as a result of students not yet adopting the values of the merged university. Yet, no such study has been undertaken at this university since the merger.Research design, approach and method: Mixed methods were used in this study, consisting of qualitative  research  (N = 16)  for  which  focus  group  discussions  were  used,  as  well as quantitative  research  (N =  603)  for  which  an  online questionnaire  was  sent  to  the student sample.Main  findings: The  level  of  OI  amongst  the  students  was found  to  be  high.  Furthermore, students’  race,  campus, university  tenure  and  residence  have  a  significant influence  on students’ levels of OI. Black students identified more with the university than other races and students who studied longer at this university had lower levels of OI. Residence students had a greater level of OI than those who stayed off-campus.Practical/managerial implications: Students should be encouraged to adopt the core values of this university to ensure that OI levels increase. In order to improve OI, university management should  implement  action  plans  for those  student  segments  who  have  exhibited  low  levels of OI.Contribution/value-add: This  research  contributes  to  the current  body  of  knowledge concerning OI which is under-researched within a post-merged university context.

scholarly journals We Have Come to Stay and We Shall Find All Means to Live and Work in this Country: Nigerian Migrants and Life Challenges in South Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adediran Daniel Ikuomola ◽  
Johan Zaaiman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
South African ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Cultural Challenges ◽  
Economic Disparity ◽  
Life Challenges ◽  
The Social ◽  
Depth Interviews

In recent times many Nigerians have been singled out when it comes to criminal activities and xenophobic attacks in South Africa, which leads to disruption of the hitherto cordial relationship between South African host communities and Nigerian migrants. Nevertheless, the rate of Nigerians migrating to South Africa keeps soaring. Studies of migration between Nigeria and South Africa, have been scanty, often limited to the study of traditional economic disparity between the two countries with less emphasis on the social-cultural challenges facing Nigerian migrants in the host communities.This paper thus examined the socio-economic and cultural challenges facing Nigerian migrants in selected communities in Johannesburg, South Africa. Data for the study were collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with Nigerian migrants in Hillbrow, Braamfontein and Alexandra suburbs in Johannesburg, South Africa.

scholarly journals An Exploration of Absenteeism among Nursing Students in the context of a South African University

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-291
Author(s):  
Moreoagae Bertha Randa
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
South African ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Undergraduate Nursing Students ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Undergraduate Nursing ◽  
Student Relationship ◽  
Lack Of Commitment

Background: Absenteeism among university and college students is a global challenge. Not only does absenteeism result in inadequate learning, but it also disrupts the way in which classes are conducted. Objective: The study sought to explore and understand the reasons for absenteeism from the perspectives of the nursing students in the context of a South African University. Methods: The study used an explorative qualitative design to conduct four focus group discussions with undergraduate nursing students. Tesch’s method of data analysis was followed. Results: One theme and four sub-themes emerged, such as the negative attitudes of lecturers, poor guidance and lack of prompt feedback from lecturers, lack of commitment from lecturers and classes starting late, and inability of the students to cope with the workload. Conclusion: The study revealed that the main reasons for the students’ absenteeism from scheduled learning experiences were related to the lecturers’ behaviour and practices. The poor lecturer-student relationship discouraged the students from attending classes.

scholarly journals The Enforcement of Socio-Economic Rights

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
RJ De Beer ◽  
S Vettori
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
Obvious Reason ◽  
Court Orders ◽  
The Government ◽  
State Employees

In recent years the South African legislature has made a very bold attempt to improve the socio-economic conditions of citizens. Amongst others, the Social Assistance Act 59 of 1992 provides for monthly payments to citizens under certain prescribed conditions. In situations where other legislation does not provide a remedy for those unable to care for themselves the Constitution provides for justiciable socio-economic rights. Unfortunately legislative rights alone have proved insufficient and all too frequently the constitutional values and aspirations of human dignity and equality have had a ‘hollow ring’. The most obvious reason for this failure of delivery on the part of the government is of course a shortage of financial resources.  Another reason has been a simple disregard for the terms of legislation and court orders by organs of the state and state employees.  The authors are of the view that in order to avoid such a dire result, the courts, given their broadly framed constitutional powers, should be adventurous in crafting means to ensure that their orders are properly implemented and adhered to. This article explores the role that courts can play in ensuring proper implementation of both the terms of social security legislation as well as the implementation of court orders with reference to well-fare judgments in the Eastern-Cape.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document