Women’s Burden of Caring for Orphans: The bio-psychosocial and economic challenges for caregivers in a rural community in South Africa

The practical activity of orphan-care in Social Work has received unquestionable and resounding globally attention. However, the skewed care of orphans towards women and its associated bio-psychosocial and economic challenges in the rural communities deserves special investigation and analysis. This article discusses women’s burden of orphan-care and associated bio-psychosocial and economic challenges experienced by carers in Alice in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Using a qualitative research approach and voluntary purposive sampling to ensure that carers of orphans were engaged in the study, individual face-to-face interviews were conducted to engage twenty caregivers. Data were analysed thematically and backed by existing literature. The findings showed that women caregivers of orphans experienced a plethora of bio-psychosocial and economic issues when caring for orphans in the rural communities. The article makes relevant recommendations for the profession of Social Work and stakeholders of orphan-care.

Holistic Orphan Care: A Call for Change in Caring for Orphans and Vulnerable Children

Christians care for orphans and children without parental care in different forms. However, in the Global South, care is primarily provided in orphanages or large residential settings. Despite good intentions, there are limitations to provide a nurturing family environment for the children in such care environment. With current knowledge of alternative child care and in light of the holistic ministry, this article suggests an approach for the church to care for orphans and children at risk by focusing on the family and the local community. Additionally, simple steps to transition to holistic orphan care are offered.

Kafāla: The Qur’anic-Prophetic Model of Orphan Care

This article seeks to outline a Qurʾanic-Prophetic model for orphan care by presenting and analyzing some of the Qurʾanic and Prophetic concepts related to this critical topic of kafāla. By attempting to understand the Qurʾan on its own terms and tracing its words’ derivation(s), this essay proposes a Qurʾanic framework of orphan care, one that is strictly centered on kafāla and was exemplified by Prophet Muhammad throughout his life. Based on the Quranic framework of orphan care and the Pro-phetic example, which prioritize protecting the orphan’s interest, I argue that the responsibility of kafāla for orphaned and abandoned children falls on each and every one of us. This essay concludes with specific recommendations that Muslim communities can take on the community-level to fulfill our collective responsibility and alleviate the grievances of orphans. This article applies the methodology of al-waḥda al-binā’iyya lil-Qur’ān (The Qurʾan’s Structural Unity), to analyze and discuss Islam’s approach to or-phan care. The holistic method reads the Qurʾan as a unified text through its linguistic, structural, and conceptual elements. In other words, the divine text, when read in its entirety, represents an integrated whole. In addition, this approach highlights how the meaning of a specific term changes, but never to the extent that its original meaning is violated. Tracing how the relevant terms are derived from their root leads to constructing the Islamic framework for orphan care. As the Qurʾan refers to itself as al-Muṣaddiq (the confirmer or verifier of truth) and Muhaymin (overseer, protector, guardian, witness, and determiner of the truth), it, therefore, judges us by the truth. Consequently, we should seek its judgment when making a decision: “And We have revealed to you, [O Prophet], the Book in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a cri-terion over it” (5:48). Therefore, applying a Muṣaddiq-Muhaymin methodology allows us to trace a term or a concept’s use, how it developed or changed over time, and how these changes impacted its implementation in a given society’s so-ciocultural, legal, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical spheres. For this discussion, the terms analyzed are, in order of appearance: insān (hu-man being), khalīfa (representative on Earth), yatīm (orphan), al-waḥda al-binā’-iyya li-l-Qur’ān (The Qurʾan’s Structural Unity), ‘umrān (cultivating our planet’s balance, peace, justice, and sustainability), tazkiya (holistic purification), taqwā (Allah-consciousness), ‘ibāda (worship), iṣlāḥ (improve, reform, and rectify), fasad (corruption, mischief, ruin, and spoil), tughyān (to go beyond the ḥudūd [limits set by Allah]), ibtilā (test), karam (dignity, honor), karāma (honor), ta‘āruf (getting to know one another), ‘urf (local custom), ma‘rūf (doing what is right, just, and fair), ‘amr bi al-ma‘rūf wa nahiy ‘an al-munkar (enjoining the right/ honor-able and forbidding the wrong/dishonorable), laqīṭ (abandoned child), kāfil (legal guarantor), tabanni (adoption), da‘īy (to be claimed as sons), āwā (a holistic de-scription of an ideal shelter with a mission to improve a displaced person or or-phan’s life), nasab (original lineage), and farḍ kifāya (communal responsibility). Reading the Qurʾan as a “unity” ensures that the divine text will remain rele-vant, for this approach enables scholars to continue developing its ability to pro-vide answers to difficult contemporary questions and challenges.

Social Transactions or Christian Ministry?: International and Customary Adoption in Vanuatu

The recent surge of Western interest in international adoption has arrived in the South Pacific. Yet the Christian faith, despite disparate views about adoption, has required both expatriate and Melanesian families to consider, or sometimes reconsider, their own parameters for the adoption or placement of children. Orphan care has become a top social issue especially for Christians in recent decades. However, international adoptions are costly in terms of time and money, and are often at the nexus of these diverging values and conceptualizations. All parties involved can find the process frustrating and disillusioning, even if the end goal is noble and satisfying. In fact, adoption “as a norm” in Vanuatu can positively shape western understandings of adoption. In some ways, ni-Vanuatu conventions regarding jural inclusivity and exchange are closer to biblical ideas of family, kinning, and adoption. This article should familiarize people from “receiving countries” with customary adoption in the Pacific, and should help Melanesians understand the hurdles involved in international adoption. Hopefully, a path can be forged for international adoptions to be arranged such that the best interest of all parties is served.

Opieka nad sierotami we wczesnonowożytnym Kleczewie

The care of orphans was one of the main concerns of early modern magistrates across the whole Europe. In each country and town this care could take a completely different form, ranging from placing parentless children in asylums to assigning them to certain families. This paper deals with the problem of the orphan-care in a small town of the Great Poland region in 17th and 18th centuries, on the example of private town of Kleczew, located in the east part of the region.