One of the activities we did with the children was to show them two children
and say that they lived with a granny. How did people know they lived with
granny? The most consistent answer was that people knew because they did
not have good clothes, had no soap to wash and went from house to house
begging for food. The way the children saw it – children living with
grandparents were poorer than other children.
- What happens if there is no soap in the house?
- We have to go to the neighbours.
- Who has to go and ask for soap from the neighbours? (9 of the 12
children in a 9-12 year old group put up their hands.)
The children in the study often made references to having too little food.
They also said that they did not eat dagga (small dried fish – the most
common source of protein) or beans regularly.
They also talked about often running out of soap. This impacted on their
acceptance in the community and on school-going (see below). The children
also talked about the other impacts of deep poverty, no blankets and houses
that were falling down.
The house is broken and I cannot get money for repair.
We are always sad because the rain is coming in the house.
There are no bed sheets (blankets). Mosquitoes can attack you and it
is very cold at night.
Again the fact that the children did not blame their grannies but accepted their
lot with a quiet pragmatism emerged. They often said that they just had to
accept things. In fact the extent to which they had accepted never being
satisfied after eating became apparent when we asked the children if they
ever went to other houses to ask for food. The younger children said they did
but the older children said that they would never do this as it was humiliating.
The way they described their acceptance of being hungry suggests a deep
acceptance of deprivation. Though this attitude is admirable one can only
wonder at the impact this has not only on health and development but also on
self-concept.
- For us because we are a bit older we see the situation at home and
we see that there is no food and then we must be patient. We cope
with the situation, but for a young child it is difficult for him or her to say
that the situation I am living in is a result of our problem. So the small
ones even after we have got something at home still have a chance to
go around and get more food. The small ones – we wouldn’t go.
- How many of you wish you were younger and could go and ask for
more food from neighbours?
(they nod their heads, one child says me – the others look down – very
sad).
One interesting issue emerged about why children living in elderly-headed
households have less food to eat. The children-researchers made the
observation that grannies often did not have enough land to farm effectively,
nor did they have the labour to do so. This meant they produced less food for
sale and to eat. They pointed out that these households did not have
economically active members in them so the food from the farm was even
more important to them than in other households.
- Children living with granny mostly eat from the shamba (small
household farm). If they are planting and they are waiting for the
harvest they just starve because they have no food.
- That is true about the hardship. In the one house (where they
interviewed the children) There is not enough food because the mother
is dead and the father is missing. And worse still he sold all the
shambas and just left a small piece of shamba with the granny. So they
sometimes have to work but it is just children working.
- Sometimes in these houses you will see they cut the bananas before
they are ripe to eat because they are so hungry.
This issue of land ownership was also raised by children when they talked
about their futures and also in relation to the power to make decisions about
their lives (see xx below)
4. Children who live with granny often miss or drop out of school
Late for school
The children reported that they were often late for school mostly because they
had work to do before school.
- Who is sometimes late for school? (All the children in a 9-12 year age
group put up their hands.)
- What are you doing?
- I have to prepare food for the baby before I go to school.
- To peel bananas before school.
- I cook food.
Again the same acceptance that this was just part of life was apparent.
There is nothing else to do because we always have to help our
grannies before we go to school. We just accept that we should do the
work at home before we go to school, then even if they cane us, they
punish us it is okay.
Some grannies did not see school as important
Some children also said that granny saw work as more important than school
work.
Some grand mothers do not like us to study at home. She sees you
taking out the book maybe to look over an exercise from school and
she says stop and do other work.