Analysis data generated the following theme and subthemes as displayed in (Table 1). Psychosocial interventions provided: Physical support, educational support, psycho-educational support, activities and socialisation, caregiver support and involvement and inter-professional referral.
3.2.1 Theme 1. Psychosocial interventions were provided.
Findings from the focus group discussions revealed that the community-based organizations are providing the following psychosocial interventions to OVC: physical support, educational support, psycho-educational support, psychological support, activities and socialisation, caregiver support and involvement, and inter-professional referral.
Table 1
THEMES | SUBTHEMES |
1. Psychosocial interventions provided | ○ 1.1 Physical support |
○ 1.2 Educational support |
○ 1.3 Psycho-educational support |
○ 1.4 Psychological support |
○ 1.5 Activities and Socialization |
○ 1.6 Caregiver support and involvement |
○ 1.7 Inter-professional referral |
Physical support
Findings from the FGD indicated that the community-based organizations are offering physical support to the OVC by making sure that they are provided with school uniforms, cooking food for them, providing them with clothes, looking for donations to cater for their needs and making sure that they have someone to talk to when necessary. In support of this view, some participants in FGD C reported that:
“Sometimes we can plan a trip but when time arrives, we find that we do not have enough money. Thus, to give the kids courage, we would invite the children and cook for them and play with them for the whole day, and everyone leaves home happy afterwards”. (female participant number 20, age 38,).
‘’Children without parents when they go home, they are given food to eat at home. We also assist children with material assistance such clothes we get from donations’’. (female participant number 22 age 33)
Educational support
Findings from the focus group revealed that the community-based organizations are giving educational support to OVC by assisting them with homework, career guidance, and assisting them with improving their reading skills. The following quotes from different focus group discussions:
“We assist the kids with career guidance from grade 10 to grade 12.”(female participant number 11, age 54).
“and we also assist the kids with their homework writing.” (female participant number 12, age 38).
“A child comes to our organization struggling to read; we teach the child to read fluently.” (Female participant number 16, age 35).
“The program that we see working includes assisting the kids with homework because we look at their quarterly academic performances, and the results show that children are improving.” (Female participant number 18, age 47).
Psycho-educational support
The results from the focus group discussions revealed that the community-based organizations are providing psycho-educational support by educating them about gender-based violence issues, health issues, and different forms of abuse, peer pressure and self-esteem. These findings were supported by the following quotes from the focus group discussions reported:
“We also have songs that were recorded by the organisation, which talk about gender-based violence, social issues, and public health issues; we can see that they are learning something because they become free, play with each other, and just enjoy being here.” (Male participant number 13, age 40).
“During educational awareness classes, we make sure that we visualise any topic we are focusing on; for example, if the topic is about GBV, we ensure that there is a projected video of a movie about GBV.” (Participant number 17, age 41, female).
“Behaviour change-through social behaviour, we organise programs on which we can identify children’s problems. We also make groups because sometimes you find that the child suffers from peer pressure, so we group them and educate them about self-esteem and awareness.” (Female participant number 18, age 47).
“so they do all things being done here, every week we have a schedule which indicates dates of educational programs, and hygiene as well in order for the kids to know themselves and also be self-confident because we are dealing with children who do not stay with their parents and do not have parents at all, so we tell them even if you are an orphan or vulnerable there is also the future with great advantages.” (female participant number 25, age 44).
“We also do awareness among these children so that they can be aware of what they might experience, this includes including teenage pregnancy, abuse, and substance abuse. We tell them the disadvantages, and we also tell them where to go in case they are being abuse are being abused; we also build the children’s self-confidence, and we teach them about the adolescence stage so that they should not be surprised when they see changes in their bodies’’. (participant number 26, age 39, female).
Psychological support
The findings from the focus group discussions show that the community-based organizations are providing support to OVC by providing psychological support through home visits, counselling, creating a memory box and grief counselling. The following quotes from the focus group discussion supported the following findings:
“We also give psychosocial assistance to these children because some come with mental health issues depending on the home background they are coming from; these children get counselling regarding their home situations, and this also makes them feel that their home situation is not different from other children’s situations”(participant number 22,age 33,female).
We also give psychosocial assistance to these children because some come with mental health issues depending on the home background they are coming from; these children get counselling regarding their home situations, and this also makes them feel that their home situation is not different from other children’s situations”(pparticipant number 22,age 33,female).
“To children who lost their parents, we do grief work where we guide them on how to accept the situation of losing their parents, we communicate with them, and we also do a memory box where they put pictures of their parents inside the box, they put things which their parents loved a lot, when the child feels like they miss the parent they open the memory box and watch the parent and then heal.”(Female participant number 24, age 48).
“To contact with children suffering from depression, we do home visits, and we find that the background of the child is not favourable.”(Participant number 5, age 41, female).
Activities and socialisation
The focus group discussions revealed that the community-based organizations are supporting OVC using different activities and socialisation, and the following quotes from the focus group discussions supported this:
“We also make sure that the kids do not grow up in the streets, where they will end up stealing or committing crimes, what we do is that we ensure that after school, there is many activities the children do, such as Tshigombela [Tshivenda dance for girls or females], shavhambevha [a game wherein someone act as a cat and another one as a rat, then the other sings while the one who is a cat running after the one who is a rat, the song is run rat, the cat bite], sports and other activities so we take these children as our very own.”(female participant number 9, age 30).
“Children when they come, they get excited when playing and dancing traditional Venda dance such as Tshigombela [Tshivenda dance for girls or females]. This really excites them, and they feel at home.”(participant 17, age 41, female).
“During holidays, we take them on trips so that they should not envy others with parents who can afford them.”(Female participant number 19, age 40).
“The activities include playing soccer with them to keep them busy from being in the streets where they can engage in substance abuse or dating, we do indigenous games traditional dances such as gumboot, Tshigombela, Malende (Tshivenda traditional dance for girls and boys/ female and males), .”(participant 27, age 33, female).