Children’s agency in reducing poverty and environmental risk: Case study of Islamic Relief South Africa’s Orphan Sponsorship Programme.

Abstract

Children are vulnerable and need protection from harm. Children is often only perceived from this view and not recognised that they have agency to participate in matters that concern them which is also their right. Poverty and environmental risks restrict children’s ‘aspirations and hopefulness’ to ‘creat[e] a more prosperous future’ (SAHR & UNICEF, 2014:7). Children have the right to participate in matters that concern their best interest (Hall, Richter, Mokomane & Lake, 2018:47).

The goal of this study was to explore and describe how children’s agency is recognised and respected in programmes aimed at reducing poverty and environmental risks in Islamic Relief South Africa’s Orphan Sponsorship programme

A qualitative research approach was adopted for the study. The research design was an instrumental case study and data was collected by means of one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Purposeful sampling was used to select five key informants and five child participants from Islamic Relief South Africa’s Orphan Sponsorship programme. Data was analysed through theme analysis.

The findings of the study indicated that child participation is generally restricted to the planning and implementation phases of the programme which is related to how key informants perceive the child concept. Furthermore, to mitigate child poverty and environmental risks, the programme assists children with school fees, transport money, food, clothes and clean water. Furthermore, the children engage in cleaning campaigns and are educated on how to stop pollution. The study concludes that children’s agency is recognised and respected by hearing their views, but excluded from decisions about matters that affect them.

The study recommends child consultation and participation from the conception phase of the programme throughout the implementation and evaluation phases of the programme, and continuous training of caregivers on child agency and children’s right to participation.