Negociación colectiva 12

In lieu of external financial assistance or government intervention, families and communities play an integral role in identifying and providing about 90 percent of support and care through social safety nets for vulnerable households in Africa,

particularly for those affected by HIV/AIDS and orphans (D’Allesandro et al: 2006). Yet there is increasing evidence that traditional safety nets in southern Africa are beginning to fray at the edges under the weight of the ever-increasing number of orphans and

vulnerable children, compounded by rising poverty and destitution caused by HIV/AIDS (ibid). As this dissertation will also examine household ‘breaking points’ – the moment when coping strategies and social safety nets become overwhelmed by the demands placed on them – it is also important to discuss what might constitute such a pivotal development.

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The first stage of an economic crisis in communities in southern Africa is the removal of children from school so they can find piecemeal employment or just so the family can save on school fees. In addition, families cope by selling assets, reducing meals and consuming a higher proportion of wild foods.

The second stage is far more serious, and could be categorised as a breaking point because it involves much more drastic measures that are far less talked about, including prostitution, migration, the sale of children for labour, chronic depression and anger, and the early marrying off of girls. The shame of undertaking such drastic measures prevents people from admitting to taking them, but if asked most would say they “know of people” who had taken these steps (Nattrass: 2004, Barnett &Whiteside: 2002, Salaam: 2005, Richter et al: 2004).

An example of the consequences of a household breaking point in Ethiopia is the number of street children. A 1993 UNICEF study in Addis Ababa estimated that there were about 40,000 children living on the streets of the capital, 10,000 of whom received almost no support from state or traditional social safety nets. The children were sent to find work or beg on the streets because supplementary income was needed by their household, and not, in general, because their families were too ill to take care of them. Culturally, Ethiopian children are brought up to be active members of the workforce, so child labour is

common. Lesotho also enlists children in household and agricultural chores, yet very few children are ever found begging on the streets of Maseru or other urban centres. The community in the past stepped in to ensure children were protected as much as possible. Whether these protective community measures can be maintained in the future is

questionable, as is the quality of the protection.

In Zimbabwe, Mawoneke et al. (2001, cited by Gillespie:2005), noted that half of all street children in two cities were orphans, more than twice the proportion found in the general population. The main factors that led children to the street were poverty, a desire to be financially autonomous, ill treatment by parents or guardians, orphanhood, religious influence and overcrowding at home. The majority of double orphans (56 percent) and of

maternal orphans (58 percent) lived on Zimbabwe’s street most of the time, while the majority of paternal orphans (68 percent) and of non-orphans (71 percent) lived at home or with a guardian. As Zimbabwe has the fastest growing number of orphans in the world (UNICEF: 2006), currently estimated at more than 1.3 million children, it is safe to assume that a good proportion of these children are affected by HIV/AIDS. In another study cited by Gillespie (2005), in Zambia in 2002, the majority of street children in Lusaka were orphans – 22 percent double orphans, 26 percent paternal orphans, and 10 percent maternal orphans. Given Zambia’s average adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rates, estimated at between 16 and 18 percent31, it is reasonable to assume that the majority of these children have been orphaned due to AIDS. With 1.1 million orphans, Zambia has the fourth-highest number of orphans in southern Africa (UNICEF: 2006). In the cases of both Zambia and Zimbabwe, it is reasonable to assume that the large numbers of street children are a possible indication of households reaching a breaking point, coping first with chronic poverty, food insecurity and unemployment, followed by the multifaceted strain of HIV/AIDS.

Latin American countries generally have much lower rates of HIV/AIDS than those in southern Africa, yet they also have high populations of street children – again as a result of households reaching ‘breaking points’, even without the considerable added burden of a viral pandemic to further weaken state and non-state systems. After examining why Latin America’s notorious street children existed, Scanlon et al (1998) concluded that economic, social, and political factors such as land reform, unemployment and poverty all played a role in their steadily rising numbers. Their arrival was not cultural as in the case of Ethiopia, nor was it typically as a response to a particular ‘shock’ as in Lesotho with HIV/AIDS, or Zimbabwe with abuse or economic concerns. Some of the suggestions cited for this phenomenon include children being turned out of home for uncontrollable behaviour or, in other words, a divergence of attitudes between their parents and traditionally structured society.

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As the next section explains, responses to orphans and vulnerable children need to be carefully co-ordinated, planned and executed as a community’s coping ability is

intertwined with, and underpinned by, traditional and state-provided structures, such as community services, education, and the healthcare sector.