1. Children as Carers: How caring for families affects children’s well-being Lesley Holst Save the Children December 5, 2011
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa
4 to 8 December 2011, Addis Ababa

2. Background OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Background
4 case studies: Angola, Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Innovative child-led research.
Rationale:
Burden of care is increasingly falling on the shoulders of children.
Little information available about the specific challenges faced by child carers
Limited understanding about the gender expectations on boys and girls in caring roles
Few policies and programmes are designed to meet their needs and rights.
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN

3. Child-led research OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Child-led research
Purposive sample of 12 children in each country, trained to conduct research
The 12 then interviewed two to three other child carers in their area
A total of 124 children (61 girls and 63 boys) participated in the four countries
Documented the results using cameras and drawings
Second workshop conducted to present their findings
Researchers applied the Save the Children “Child Safeguarding – Safe Child Participation Policy Guidelines
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN

4. Who are child carers? OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Who are child carers?
Living with HIV-infected parents: chronic and debilitating illness; some close to death.
Living with and caring for increasingly frail grandparents; shift of roles.
Heading households and caring for younger siblings
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN

5. Findings: OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Findings:
Children cared for many people: adults and many children and repeatedly.
“ I have problems of looking after my grandparents and my sick mother. There are ten of us children too. My youngest sister is also sick.” (17 year old girl in Uganda)
“ My mother and my father passed away. I looked after my father with my mother and then my mother and then my sister came home and she was sick too. She passed away. Now I look after my little sister and brother and my aunt’s child. I also look after my great grandmother and my grandfather and grandmother.” (Girl, 14 Zimbabwe)
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN

6. Boys and Girls care OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Boys and Girls care
During the research, both boys and girls were identified as carers. “Boys were carers as often as girls”
“Boys and girls are caring. If you are the eldest then you must look after the young ones. If you are the only one there then you look for your grandmother – boy or girl. I am a boy, but I look after my father who is sick and my little brother, and when my uncle comes home, him too sometimes.” (Boys, Nigeria)
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN

7. Economic responsibility
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Economic responsibility
Child carers defined their identity as a child who worked very hard to ensure the economic livelihood of the family (food)
Caring for the sick was secondary
Caring for the sick place an “additional financial burden”
“Sometimes at the health desk they give you a prescription for the child, but there are no drugs. You get the prescription and then you have to go and buy the drugs yourself. I have to do small jobs to earn money to pay for the drugs which we are going to buy.” (Girl 13, Angola)
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN

8. Caring responsibilities
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Caring responsibilities
Concerns about caring for sick properly and contracting HIV
“There are some people who come to talk about HIV/AIDS, they just move around and talk and then go away. Nobody has shown me how to care for HIV person.” (Uganda)
Children took pride in caring for sick family members
“We love them so we feed them and bath them…they are our grannies we need to support them” (Boy, 17 Uganda)
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN

9. Caring responsibilities
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Caring responsibilities
When asked which work they wanted removed, they never talked about removing the burden of caring for sick family members but rather they wanted the burden of finding money to meet the essential needs of the family to be removed.
“Early in the morning I feel very bad because you haven’t done any work yet, but you think about it. You feel the weight. Yes, you wish it was not there. Even when I am in bed I cannot sleep because of thinking of all the work. Sometimes I am sleepless because of thinking.” (Boys and girls, Angola)
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN

10. Support systems OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Support systems
Few people knew that children were caring
Churches most common form of institutional support
Friends are the greatest form of support.
“They feel sorry for us. Some of the time if there are functions at school they pay for us. They also give us advice. They say,‘Don’t worry too much. One day you will rest, like other children.’ Yes, they understand if they too are caring.” (Boys and girls, Zimbabwe)
High stigma and discrimination:
“I feel angry when someone insults me.”
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN

11. Some recommendations OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Some recommendations
Need for interventions to reduce the heavy burden of economic responsibility that child carers carry.
Need (for governments, NGOs and community partners) to address the barriers to accessing schooling, health, protection services
Child carers need skills, information and support relating to how to care for older people, younger siblings and people who are living with HIV.
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN

12. Read more about this study:
The 16th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Addis Ababa
Read more about this study:
Child Carers.
Child-led research with children who are carers.
Four case studies ; Angola, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Save the Children 2010
OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN