Research approach
A full day participatory workshop was held with the children. The children
were divided into two different age groups (9-12 and 13-15) and into groups of
ten. An outline of the activities is given in Appendix 1. The discussion was led
by a skilled interpreter/facilitator and an experienced child-research facilitator
in the children’s home language of kiHaya. All discussion was taped and then
transcribed. The transcriptions were analysed using a thematic approach
where the themes were allowed to emerge from the data
5
. The findings
section below is organised around these themes.
Throughout, the emphasis was on capturing the children’s voices about the
issues. Thus the findings section is presented largely through the quotes of
the children.
Children as researchers
An innovative approach in which a group of children did their own research
proved to be a very useful source of information. A small group of 12 children
aged from 9 to 17 who lived with grandparents came together for a training
workshop. The idea of research was explained in a simple way to the children
who then brainstormed and decided on a set of questions that they thought
would be useful to ask children who were living with grandparents.
Working in pairs and threes the children then thought about children they
knew in their area. We discussed getting consent and basic demographic data
and then did some practise in asking questions. We talked about taking notes
and recording our observations. The children then went off to do the
interviews. They returned a week later to report back. Each of them had
interviewed someone – interestingly in most cases the most vulnerable
families in their area. (Most of the families were later contacted and became
part of the Kwa Wazee Project). The discussion with the researcher children
was recorded and transcribed and has been used in preparing this report.
Ethical principles
Ensuring that such a study meets ethical principles for child-participatory
research is important
6
. A set of ethical guidelines was applied
7
. In particular,
since the study involved working with orphans and vulnerable children, it was
5 Boyatzis, RE (1998). Transforming Qualitative Information, Thematic Analysis and Code
Development. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage publications
6
Clacherty, GE and Donald, D. (2007) Child participation in research: reflections on ethical
challenges in the southern African context. African Journal of AIDS Research, 6(2): 147–156
7
Schenk, K. & Williamson, J. (2005) Ethical Approaches to Gathering Information from Children and
Adolescents in International Settings: Guidelines and Resources. Washington, D.C.: Population
Council.
seen as vitally important to ensure that the ethical principle of “least
harm”
8
was given high priority.
In the activity-based workshops, the principle of least harm was applied
through creating an environment of trust in which children were free to
express only as much as they felt safe to tell. Activities were structured in
such a way to prevent children having to talk about issues that may make
them sad. Probing a child’s feelings or details of a painful event were explicitly
avoided unless freely offered.
Throughout the research process, the principle of anonymity and of
confidentiality was strictly applied. Apart from the obvious importance of
avoiding the identification of individual participants, confidentiality was strictly
maintained in focus group activities where the importance of children treating
each other’s contributions in confidence was stressed. In addition activities
that looked at sensitive issues such as having no soap or food were
structured in such a way that children could share their home circumstances
anonymously.
The principle of informed consent was applied in that researchers explained
what the research was about and how the results would be used in a way that
the children could understand. Continuous consent was applied through
making it clear to children that they could choose not to participate in any
activity in which they might feel uncomfortable, or to withdraw at any stage
during the research process.
It is also important to point out that the children who participated were part of
an ongoing programme of support for children living with grandparents and if
children showed signs of distress or need they were referred to the
KwaWazee Project for follow up.
Findings
1. Coming to live with granny
The importance of past experience was a contextual factor that emerged in
the discussions with the children. This theme is presented first as it was clear
that past life experience had impacted on the children’s present
understandings, relationships with their grandmothers and their sense of their
future.
Multiple deaths and orphanhood
Most of the children who participated in this study had lost both parents. This
was, even for the children whose parents had died when they were very
young, a cause of deep sadness for all them.
The death of their parents was a cause of emotional stress that was close to
the surface and quickly articulated in the activity that looked at emotional
8
Boyden J. and Ennew J. (Eds.) (1997). Children in Focus; A Manual for Participatory Research With
Children. Stockholm: Rädda Barnen