Newswise — In Rwanda, many orphaned or abandoned children live in "child-headed households," without little or no support from adults. These children display a range of positive coping strategies and resilient characteristics to survive and sometimes thrive, reports a study in the current issue of Intervention: International Journal of Mental Health, Psychosocial Work and Counselling in Areas of Armed Conflict. Intervention, a publication of the War Trauma Foundation, is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals, and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry.
The findings will help to guide programs to help enhance coping and build future skills for Rwandan children in child-headed households in Rwanda, according to Laura May Ward of Canadian Baptist Ministries and Carola Eyber of Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh.
How Do Child-Headed Households Cope?The researchers looked at the vulnerabilities, strengths, and coping strategies of Rwandan children living in child-headed households. Many children in Rwanda are on their own because of the AIDS epidemic, the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and periodic conflicts since then. They face often-severe social, economic, and psychological difficulties, often including rejection and exploitation by their communities. The study was based on interviews with 104 children, some as young as five, living in child-headed households.
On a daily basis, the children dealt with problems like hunger, poverty, social isolation, and exploitation. They worked very hard to meet basic survival needs, yet often went without food. This resulted in anxiety—especially for the children who were responsible for others in the household. The children received little support, and were often forced them into "negative" coping strategies (such as prostitution) to get by.
What positive social support the children received came more often from other children than from neighbors or extended family. These forms of peer and community support were "protective factors that enhanced the children's psychosocial well-being," Ward and Eyber found.
Despite these difficult conditions, some of the children not only coped but "exhibited great resilience." Children in the households, including younger children, devised often ingenious ways of earning money. Despite their vulnerability, they conducted themselves in a mature way, showing a sophisticated sense of "good" and "bad" solutions to problems.
"Both boys and girls showed deep commitment to their families, making sacrifices"¦so that a future could be secured for other members of the household," Ward and Eyber write. The children "desired to live wisely," and wished they had people in their lives to provide guidance, support, and comfort. The social support they did receive had a positive impact on their lives, "allowing them to express resilient characteristics that they may have developed through their experiences of hardship." The findings have important implications for efforts to help Rwandan children in child-headed households. The children need programs to help them deal with the issues they face in the present, while providing them with skills, confidence, and ability to sustain themselves in the future. "By recognizing and enhancing the resiliency of children, they are given the opportunity to rise beyond mere survival, and to thrive as they face future challenges," Ward and Eyber conclude.
About InterventionIntervention, published thrice yearly, is an international multi-disciplinary journal of mental health, psychosocial work and counseling in areas of armed conflict. The audience includes mental health workers such as psychiatrists, psychotherapists and psychiatric nurses, and also for counselors, psychosocial workers and community workers, staff members of NGO's developing mental health or psychosocial projects, and international experts in the field. Intervention is a publication of the War Trauma Foundation (http://www.wartraumafoundation.nl/). Visit the journal website at http://www.interventionjnl.com.
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