You are on page 1of 11

Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Geoforum
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum

AIDS-affected children, family collectives and the social dynamics of care in Ethiopia
Tatek Abebe
Norwegian Centre for Child Research, Norwegian University of Sciences and Technology (NTNU), N-7491 Trondheim, Norway

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Many programmes for AIDS-affected children pursue resource-intensive and external interventions of
Received 28 February 2010 care, and often place such children at the receiving end of the care continuum. The aim of this article
Received in revised form 30 September 2011 is to explore from a socio-spatial perspective the capacities of families and children experiencing orphan-
Available online 9 December 2011
hood and the policy signicance of empowering both to address the growing challenge of orphan care in
rural and urban Ethiopia. Drawing on participatory research (involving in-depth interviews, focus group
Keywords: discussions, story writing, photo essays, ranking, observation and household visits), the complex social
AIDS-affected children
dynamics of care and spatial diversities in the manifestations of the vulnerabilities, capacities, strengths,
Family collectives
Geography of care
and potentials of children and their families are discussed. It is argued that rather than the lack of bio-
Orphanhood logical parents it is the combination of the absence of a carer and the presence of acute poverty and eco-
Poverty nomic marginality that explain various forms of vulnerability in orphans and non-orphans. The article
Ethiopia further argues that effective and sustainable care needs to be informed by identication and empower-
ment of family collectives as sites of interventions. In doing so, it draws analytical attention to the
importance of examining the socio-temporal processes of orphanhood and care, childrens changing cir-
cumstances, and family collectives variances in the capacity to provide support for them. Strategies for
sustainable care should recognise the specic needs of AIDS-affected children and the resourceful ways in
which they contribute to enhance the care-giving capacities of family collectives in the light of broader
socio-cultural and politicaleconomic contexts.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 2005; Evans, 2005; van Blerk and Ansell, 2007; Lund and Agyei-
Mensah, 2008; Evans and Becker, 2009).
Over the past decade, a signicant body of literature has Along with these perspectives emerged a range of approaches
emerged addressing the adverse impacts of the AIDS epidemic on under the umbrella of community based care (CBC), regarded as
childrens well-being and extended families in sub-Saharan Africa both a viable approach to taking care of orphans and as a response
(Kalipeni et al., 2004; Barnett and Whiteside, 2006), as well as out- to the wider social and economic impacts of the AIDS epidemic
lining a multitude of approaches to interventions (Guest, 2003; (Foster and Germann, 2002; Harber, 2009). CBC refers to local,
UNAIDS, 2004; Subbarao and Coury, 2004; Foster et al., 2005; community-driven care arrangements carried out with different
George et al., 2003). Much of the literature stems from the sub-dis- levels or degrees of community ownership and participation
cipline of geographies of care, focusing on the capacity and sustain- (Ansell and Young, 2004; Sanou et al., 2009). Although formal
ability of extended families for the care and protection of children and informal community networks provide care for orphans during
experiencing orphanhood (Ansell and van Blerk, 2004; Robson, periods when families are in crisis, recent years have seen a pleth-
2004; Cheney, 2005; Abebe and Aase, 2007). Although most of ora of resource-intensive strategies that have increasingly brought
the studies emphasise the social rupture thesis, in which the communities (instead of families) to the forefront. Ansell and
traditional family structure is seen as being either overstretched Young (2004) identify three variants of what is conventionally
or having collapsed (Foster and Germann, 2002; Guest, 2003; Kal- regarded as community based care for orphans and vulnerable
eeba, 2004; UNICEF, 2003); a considerable body of research draws children (OVC): care within the community (i.e. not in institu-
on the perspectives of social resilience, pointing to the complex tions); care organised at the community level, where coordination
ways in which families muster resources and continue to provide of service provision (e.g. food, education, health care) occurs
support for orphans, with positive well-being outcomes1 (Ennew, through the use of existing traditional community institutions
and also religious-based and village-based committees; and care
by the community, where resources (time, labour, money) are
E-mail address: tatek.abebe@svt.ntnu.no
mobilised from community members to support orphans.
1
For detailed discussion on competing perspectives of care for and by AIDS- However, community and community participation are highly
affected children, see Abebe (2010). contested concepts (Rifkin, 1996; Ennew, 2005). They suggest

0016-7185/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.10.010
T. Abebe / Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550 541

cooperation and cohesiveness among members and the existence tection of family and have fallen outside the traditional social
of an identiable, stable community ready for participation (Ansell safety net. Indeed, to single out AIDS orphans for support in
and Young, 2004). However, as Campbell and Murray (2004) note, impoverished communities has been observed to have intensied
residents of geographical communities do not always share com- tensions, jealousy, and inequalities (Meintjes and Giese, 2006).
mon interests, identities and values. This could leave, for example, This article contributes to the limited but growing body of liter-
some community based cash transfer programmes open for nepo- ature on the geographies of orphan care by examining the ways in
tism, especially if such approaches are expanded to address the which family collectives support AIDS-affected children and the
increasing demand for material interventions (Skovdal et al., policy relevance of empowering both parties in rural and urban
2009a). Ethiopia. By drawing on the perspective of social resilience, it dis-
In addition, CBC fails to consider that many AIDS-affected chil- cusses why family collectives (including children) are the most
dren2 experience multiple migrations often being newcomers to the important sites of interventions, and how the intersection of social,
areas in which they reside (Ansell and Young, 2004), and that for economic and emotional resources shape their differentiated
them interventions are the result of interactions of actors (interna- capacities and vulnerabilities along the continuum of care. The
tional agencies, NGOs, government departments, schools) in inter- article further documents the role and positions of AIDS-affected
meshing scales beyond the local community (Ansell, 2009). Since children within families, revealing complex patterns of reciprocity
communities lack funds, CBC programmes tend to be donor-driven and social dynamics of care. In doing so, it brings to the forefront
(Ennew, 2005), seldom taking into account the perspectives of the childrens perspectives on care, as well as a more nuanced under-
beneciary children and families who may have considerably diver- standing on how their contributions enters into the equation of
gent expectations. In Ethiopia, many CBC programmes function on care and is valued by family collectives.
the premise that the extended family structure is no longer able to The paper is structured as follows. First, I will provide a brief
cope with the care of orphans, despite available evidence to the con- theoretical framework by drawing on recent work in childrens
trary (Abebe and Aase, 2007). Almost 95% of Ethiopias 5 million or- geographies and the perspective of social resilience. Second, I de-
phans3 dened as children below 18 years of age who have lost one scribe the analytical relevance of family collectives and present
or both parents live within extended family households (MoLSA, the research settings and methods of data collection. This is fol-
2004). Despite this, current policies and programmes emphasise lowed by a discussion on the empirical ndings, analysing (a) the
the role of communities and resource intensive, external approaches implications of childrens contributions to reciprocal care, (b) the
to care such as institutions, orphanages, foster homes, and childrens social and temporal processes of orphanhood and care, and (c) four
villages. An undue emphasis on CBC detaches AIDS-affected children proles of family collectives. Finally, the article highlights the pol-
from the vital support they receive from relatives and neglects the icy signicance of empowering children and their families within
fact that responsibility for the care and well-being of such children broader socioeconomic and cultural contexts.
ultimately falls upon extended families.
Although orphanhood in Ethiopia is viewed largely in terms of
the acute poverty and economic marginality which children suffer,
welfare provisions are made available based on donor-driven def- 2. AIDS, orphan care and social resilience
initions of what constitutes an orphan (i.e. based purely on the ab-
sence of one or both parents and a threshold age of 15 or 18 years). Extended families in Africa have long been accustomed to meet-
One boy (Tesfaye,4 15 years) explained how intervention programs ing most of the basic needs of children and proving a protective so-
that draw on such narrow understanding of orphanhood has resulted cial environment in which they can grow and develop (Nyambedha
in the exclusion of poor children: Because we have parents, we dont et al., 2002; Verhoef, 2005). Voluntary and purposive fostering
qualify to have access to funds and rationing of food from NGOs . . . whereby children are sent to live with relatives, as part of family
even if we are poor and starving. They [NGOs] dont want to support and/or household socio-economic strategies in addition to solving
us, they want others [AIDS orphans]. the problem of orphanhood have always been common practices
Tesfayes view represents the marginal in between place young (Madhavan, 2004). In such arrangements, while parents may be
people occupy between local and global discourses of orphanhood the primary care providers, children develop multiple attachments
(Evans, 2010, p. 10) that discounts the social and economic circum- with non-parent gures and with the children of relatives, which
stances of disadvantaged children. It is critical of donor-driven per- serve to cement family bonds and facilitate child care, socialisation,
spectives (which commonly set the parameters for NGO and and education (Ansell and Young, 2004). Kinship systems have dic-
national policies towards OVC) in which the complexity of how tated various social, economic, and religious obligations towards
children in extreme poverty position themselves and how that po- family lineage as well as the social and material rights of the indi-
sition is constantly renegotiated and transformed is not acknowl- vidual, especially those of a child within a lineage (Hamer and Ha-
edged. Absence of carer, acute poverty and economic marginality mer, 1994). Childrens wider relations with and inclusion in family
are the most crucial factor in how communities view children as collectives are also both a response and adaptation to parental
orphans in Ethiopia (Abebe, 2008), Malawi (Chirwa, 2002), South (adult) labour migration patterns (McKerrow and Verbeek, 1995).
Africa (Meintjes and Giese, 2006) and Zambia (Smrholm, 2006). Despite the negative impacts of AIDS, studies show that care for
Orphanhood in these contexts is not only linked to parental loss, orphaned children in Africa continues to take place within the ex-
instead it refers to children who are no longer living under the pro- tended family system (Donahue, 2005; Abebe and Aase, 2007).
Drawing on the social resilience framework, it is suggested that
2
the traditional child care system has the capacity to recover from,
In this paper AIDS-affected children refers to those children who are directly and
adapt to and remain strong in the face of adversity (Boyden and
indirectly affected by the social and economic impacts of the AIDS epidemic (e.g.
parental loss, loss of asset and income, or increased responsibility due to a family Cooper, 2007, p. 1), such as the adversity prompted by the AIDS
member becoming sick or death of relative). The phrase children experiencing epidemic, and it can still support large numbers of orphans (Lund
orphanhood is used to capture the temporality of parental loss due to AIDS which is and Agyei-Mensah, 2008; Skovdal et al., 2009b). Studies in Eastern
experienced by children as a gradual process rather than a single event.
3
and Southern Africa the AIDS belt of the continent show that
While 30% of the orphans in Ethiopia are due to the AIDS epidemic, the
overwhelming majority (70%) have been orphaned as a consequence of malaria, war,
orphans are well looked after by extended families and even in the
and famine (MoLSA, 2004). context of poverty the presence of social support networks has
4
Pseudonyms are used to preserve the anonymity of the research participants. enormous impact on their well-being (Evans, 2005; Foster and
542 T. Abebe / Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550

Germann, 2002; Abebe and Skovdal, 2010). This perspective chal- and whose members may not only live apart in several households
lenges the notion of social breakdown. but also constantly change through, for example, individual migra-
Recent studies on the geographies of orphan care have ad- tion (Young and Ansell, 2003).
vanced our understanding of how young peoples care work in In Ethiopia, extended family households vary greatly in form
the context of the AIDS epidemic enables families to sustain their and size. While nuclear families commonly exist in cities, extended
resilience over space and time (Ansell and van Blerk, 2004; Robson, families (multi-generational) are predominant in most parts of the
2004; Robson et al., 2006; Evans and Becker, 2009). Such studies countryside, where 85% of the population resides (CSA, 2002). In
suggest the social and cultural signicance of care of sick family rural areas the extended family in which sons live together with
members, and also older siblings role in caring for younger their wives and children in the patrilineal compound is declining
siblings. Whereas Robson et al. (2006) highlight that care giving but still common (Hamer and Hamer, 1994). This contrasts with
allows children to learn new skills, develop close and loving rela- the situation in cities, where households based around smaller
tionships with the person cared for, and enable them to become family size are rather predominant. However, data provided by
mature and responsible persons, Evans (2010, p. 10) documents the Ethiopian Central Statistics Authority (CSA, 2002) suggest an
how such work is a reafrmation of their caring role and a increasing incidence in urban areas of what is referred to as the
strengthening of sibling ties within the social space of the house- enlarged nuclear household, a central family unit whose numbers
hold. Ansell et al. (2011) have shown that relational timespace are swelled by distant family members. Migrants may spend long
analysis of the impacts of AIDS explains the diversity of young peo- periods residing with relatives, and small-scale enterprises often
ples experiences and contextualises AIDS in relation to livelihoods, depend on labour provided by such members of extended families
care work and wider relationships during their life course. (Boyden, 1994). Enlarged nuclear households may also result from
The recognition of the social resilience of the traditional child household units temporarily joining to form one unit in a process
care system in Africa has further led some researchers to caution known as joining stoves (Lourenco-Lindell, 2005, p. 230) as a
on the need to examine the differentiated strengths of family col- way of either coping with the absence of key household members
lectives before supplanting existing structures of care (Abebe and or supporting a weaker household going through a difcult time.
Aase, 2007; Abebe, 2008; Lund and Agyei-Mensah, 2008). Although As households and families are dynamic social units that tend
the resilience framework is useful in drawing attention to how to contract and expand as members live in different places and
AIDS-affected children face problems rather than focusing on the as the nature of the relationships binding them perpetually
problems they face, and also shifts the focus away from their trou- changes, it is useful to acknowledge a third concept, the house-
bled-childhoods, there have been limited attempts to explain the hold/family nexus (Ansell and van Blerk, 2004, p. 676).
specic familial, geographical and social-cultural dynamics of care In this paper the concept family collective is used as an alterna-
that make considerable differences in such childrens lives (cf. Ole- tive analytical tool to those of households or families or the
ke et al., 2006). In addition, despite the growing body of research household/family nexus. This is not only because family collec-
on how AIDS-affected children shape the material and social tives are the central units of economic production and social repro-
worlds they inhabit (Ansell and van Blerk, 2004; Skovdal et al., duction (Abebe, 2008) but also due to the complexity of orphan
2009b; Abebe and Skovdal, 2010), studies have rarely located these care arrangements that are not fully captured by the above termi-
childrens impoverishment rmly in the broader contexts of pov- nologies. In Ethiopia family collectives incorporate kinship struc-
erty and economic marginality within which their lives unfold. tures that are connected through livelihood circumstances and
The perspective of social resilience tends to glorify the agency of mediated by interpersonal relationships, social contracts (inter-
children and families and de-contextualizes them from prevailing and intra-generational) and expectations. Arguably, three interre-
social, material, and political injustices. It does not offer a sufcient lated dimensions of social support systems constitute and are con-
analytical understanding of the causes and effects of childrens stituted by family collectives: (a) conventional families linked by
poverty and intergenerational transmissions of poverty (Boyden kinship, (b) households in which different family members and c-
and Cooper, 2007). In exploring the complex process of social tive kin reside, and (c) expanding social networks of support kith
becoming in Accra, Langevang (2008) reveals how young peoples and kin forged on the basis of friendship, religious afnity, live-
efforts to manage their lives are often circumscribed by urban lihood systems, geographical proximity, ethnicity, and social ties.
poverty, inequality and the negative consequences of structural The proles of family collectives discussed in Section 6 reveals
adjustment programmes. Research that traces the deep resonances their differentiated capacities in the provision of care for AIDS-af-
of what Pratt and Rosner (2006: 15) call the intimate and the glo- fected children.
bal in such childrens lives is limited.
This paper draws on these understandings of the eld of geog-
4. Empirical context
raphies of care to explore the familial, relational, and spatial con-
texts in which AIDS-affected children navigate their livelihoods,
The research upon which I draw is derived from 8 months of
childhoods, and webs of relationships with other members of fam-
child-focused, qualitative eldwork exploring the daily, working
ily collectives.
and spatial lives of AIDS-affected children in two contrasting geo-
graphical settings, Gedeo (rural) and Addis Ababa (urban), in Ethi-
opia. The research examines how, in the contexts of AIDS and
3. Family collectives in Ethiopia
deepening poverty, children negotiate their socio-spatial lives
through the various livelihood strategies they are involved in, both
Households and families are contentious terms largely be-
in their own right and as an integral part of extended family live-
cause households exist in uid ways and family relationships
lihoods (Abebe, 2008, 2009).
undergo constant transformations in their forms and meanings
(Ansell and van Blerk, 2004). Although households and families
are used interchangeably in academic literature, the former are 4.1. Gedeo and Addis Ababa
task-oriented residence units whereas the latter are conceived as
kinship groupings with continuing legal, genetic and/or emotional Gedeo Zone the site for the rural case study is located within
relationships (Boyden, 1994). On the other hand, extended fami- the multi-ethnic Southern Regional State of Ethiopia (see Fig. 1)
lies are those which are bonded through blood or kinship ties and has an estimated total population of 1 million people, most
T. Abebe / Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550 543

Ethiopia Addis Ababa

5 0 5 10 15 Km

Southern Nations,
Nationalities and
N
Peoples Region
Gedeo

Field sites
50 0 50 100 150 Km

Fig. 1. Map of Ethiopia and the study areas.

of whom belong to farming communities which are members of elsewhere. Its function as a centre of commerce and transportation
the Gedeo ethnic group. The Gedeo are largely patriarchal and has turned it into one of the main hot spots of HIV infection. More-
share relatively homogenous socio-cultural practices including tra- over, deep-seated poverty and failure of the cash economy of coffee
ditional religions and livelihoods (Tadesse, 2002). With a total area (Abebe, 2008) have created a situation in which commercial sex
of 1330 km2, Gedeo Zone has a population density of 618 people work is undertaken by many young women as an alternative strat-
per km2. The average rural household has 0.3 ha of land, compared egy for earning money (van Blerk, 2007), especially during the peak
to the national average of 1 ha of land and 0.89 ha for the Southern coffee harvesting season.
Region, making it one of the regions with the most chronic land Fundamental to the way family collectives function is how chil-
shortage in Ethiopia (Hamer and Hamer, 1994). As a result, large dren are gradually incorporated into the wider social system. In
numbers of rural labourers (38%) are engaged in non-farming re- Gedeo, children are seen as being born into families, and it is often
lated jobs, including migrant labour, compared to the national a (male) family member who mediates a childs access to and full
average of 25% and a regional average of 32% (CSA, 2002). membership of the clan. In turn, the clan bestows upon the child
Livelihoods in Gedeo are built on mixed subsistence farming of his or her rights regarding the utilisation of physical, social, and
enset,5 maize, and commercial crops such as coffee, khat6 (a mild cultural resources (e.g. land, dowry, inheritance, social security).
stimulant leaf) and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Coffee and khat In other words, children from Gedeo are seen less as individuals
are destined for local and international markets, but more signi- and more as members of complex family collectives to whom they
cantly, and as I will elaborate below, childrens work is very crucial owe duties and obligations in return for the securing of their rights,
in their production. Children in Gedeo are viewed as assets of house- existence, and well-being.
hold labour and large family size is not seen as an expensive venture. Levirate marriage, or widow inheritance, by which a man who
However, with increasing numbers of adults infected with HIV (8%) takes the wife of his deceased brother is considered to be acting
(UNAIDS, 2009), deepening poverty, the rise to prominence of Prot- in a socially appropriate way (Bevan and Pankhurst, 1996), has
estant Christianity, with its different family values, and also adult three pivotal functions. First, it ensures the preservation of family
(male) labour migration to secure off-farm employment, altered pat- land from being inherited by people from outside the clan, as
terns of care, gender and generational relations have been docu- inheritance rights are patrilineal (Abebe, 2008). Second, the surviv-
mented (Bevan and Pankhurst, 1996; Hamer and Hamer, 1994). ing brother assumes responsibility for taking care of the wife and
The peasant associations7 which I studied were situated close to children of his deceased brother as an heir to the deceaseds fam-
Dilla, an ethnically and religiously diverse town of approximately ily (Bevan and Pankhurst, 1996). Third, and most importantly, levi-
90,000 inhabitants and the district capital of Gedeo. Dilla serves as rate marriage ensures that the reproductive power of the widow is
a transportation hub for the far south and as a bulking point for cof- not wasted, especially if the husband dies without having had
fee, fruits, vegetables, and locally grown khat which are transported children, who are seen as both a family resource as wealth in
people and as sources of prestige and social status.
The above context resonates partly but not entirely with the sit-
5
Enset is a banana-like plant whose trunk and root is processed as food.
6
uation in Addis Ababa, the urban eld site. With a population of al-
Khat (Catha edulis) is a stimulant, and main source of cash in Gedeo.
7
A peasant association consists of households and villages that are grouped
most 4 million and an annual growth rate of 4.2% (CSA, 2002),
together according to their geographical proximity, and for administrative conve- Addis Ababa stands as blueprint for the post-socialist politico-
nience, tax collection and service delivery. economic changes that have transformed the country from a
544 T. Abebe / Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550

Table 1 allowed exploration of how and why the livelihood strategies, social
Overview of methods and data. networks of support, and relationships of families change and the
Research tools Gedeo (n)1 Addis Ababa (n) ways in which these changes affect the well-being of the children.
Interviews The meetings for interviews and in-depth group discussions took
Children 28 24 place at village football elds, in the community literacy centre,
Guardians 16 12 the childrens homes and farms as well as in shai bet local cafes
Focus group discussions one of which was owned and run by a child participant. These
Children 6 (n = 36) 6 (n = 33) places were chosen based on the desire to include sites of everyday
Guardians/community members 4 (n = 16) 4 (n = 15) life in the research, and to enhance opportunities for semi-partici-
Social workers 6 (n = 12) 5 (n = 10)
pant observations and informal conversations (Abebe, 2009).
Written compositions by children Through story writing, just over 95 AIDS-affected children re-
Story writing 80 17
Photo essays 5 (n = 15) 5 (n = 16)
ported on their experiences of care, contribution to family liveli-
hoods, persons that matter in [their] life in a school context
Participant observation
Field notes Researcher Researcher
where I worked as a volunteer. Story-writing is a method that
Observations Researcher Researcher stimulates young peoples particular talents, affording them great-
Activity-based dialogues Researcher Researcher er control over the research process than most methods (Ansell,
Household visits 24 18 2001). It is more condential and less confrontational and is best
Note: n = refers to the total number of individuals involved. suited to elicit information on sensitive topics and overcome the
power hierarchies inherent in, for example, focus group discus-
sions (Robson and Ansell, 2000). In agreement with Ennew and Pla-
teau (2004), who argue that children-centred methods do not
state-controlled command economic system into a neo-liberal,
solely rely on children by ignoring adults, I sought and took into ac-
market-oriented system of development. Despite sustained eco-
count other stakeholders views and perspectives on local con-
nomic growth over the past decade, the poorest of the poor are
structions of orphanhood, household livelihood sources and
being left behind in general, underlying real problems of inequality
capabilities, and what they perceived to be appropriate care for
and inequity (Boyden, 2009). The marginality of poor peoples lives
orphans as well as the challenges of caring for them. The inter-
is mirrored by, for instance, the displacement of slum dwellers
views and dialogues with heads of households, community mem-
(where research participants reside) to give way for the develop-
bers and social workers were therefore meant to put children in
ment of new business districts and middle-class condominium
the picture (Ennew and Plateau, 2004, pp. 3435).
housing (Yitbarek, 2008), and also the widening income gap and
In addition to semi-participant observations, 12 focus group dis-
a 12% increase of those living below the poverty line in the period
cussions with AIDS-affected children, 11 in-depth group interviews
19902000 (World Bank, 2005). Although a recent UNAIDS report
with social workers, and 8 focus group discussions (involving a rak-
(2009) indicates that adult infection with HIV in the city is declin-
ing exercise) with guardians and community leaders were carried
ing, it is still very high (15%) compared to the national average of
out. The purpose of the ranking exercise was to identify what fam-
7% and the average for rural areas (5%). The proportion of children
ilies and communities consider to be the most pressing problems
orphaned by AIDS in relation to total orphans is estimated at 16%
associated with AIDS and care. I visited the families of 42 children
(MOH, 2007). However, this percentage is increasing rapidly, not
and held interviews or dialogues with 28 of the heads of house-
only because the relatively young epidemic of Ethiopia is matur-
holds. The empirical material I gathered in Amharic the medium
ing but also due to the migration of orphans from rural areas to
of eldwork and lingua franca in Ethiopia was transcribed verba-
cities as a consequence of perceived and actual livelihood opportu-
tim by a research assistant and subsequently translated into Eng-
nities (Abebe, 2008). Many children and families in the studied
lish by myself. When interpreting the data, emergent themes
kebeles8 depend largely on the urban informal economic sector. Poor
from the eld were compared and contrasted with information
women are involved in petty trading, selling food and local liquors,
from eld notes, informal dialogues, and (as I will show below)
and working as servants. In order to augment their household in-
my personal knowledge of Ethiopian studies. The following section
come, some women tend to have multiple sexual partners and more
highlights key socio-spatial and temporal dimensions of care for
than one marriage during their life course (Tekola, 2005). This not
and by AIDS-affected children, and the ways in which they manage
only increases their risk of infection with HIV but also results in
shifting roles and responsibilities within family collectives.
them having children by different fathers, which may lead to
quarrels among siblings (Bevan and Pankhurst, 1996).
5. Findings and discussions
4.2. Methods
5.1. Childrens contributions to familial livelihoods
A wide range of research methods were used to collect data
(Table 1). Multiple interviews and in-depth group discussions were A fundamental reason why orphan care continues to be less of a
held in three separate phases of eldwork (JanuaryApril 2005, burden than often assumed is the immensely valuable contribution
FebruaryApril 2006, and OctoberNovember 2007) with 52 chil- which boys and girls provide nancially, and in the form of labour
dren aged 917 years,9 identied through purposive and snowball- for agricultural and domestic activities. Childrens role in the
ing techniques. Of these children, 27 were interviewed during both livelihood strategies of family collectives is central. Analysis of
the rst and second eldwork periods. A total of 15 of the children interviews and focus group discussions on why families look after
were interviewed during the second eldwork period, and the orphans suggest that childrens work enters into the equation of
remaining 10 during the third eldwork period. Repeated interviews care in many ways. Childrens work is central in the rural subsis-
tence economy of Gedeo as well as in the income generating activ-
8
ities of many poor families in Addis Ababa. Childrens productive
A kebele (locality) is the lowest level of administrative units in urban Ethiopian
contexts.
work in the former entails what is known as agricultural entrepre-
9
As the participant children do not know their exact age, in this paper, neurship (Hamer and Hamer, 1994) skills and knowledge of
approximate ages as reported by them are used. tapping resources from the physical environment, along with
T. Abebe / Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550 545

participation in the production and sale of commercial crops in My sister was sick and there was nobody to care for her. My
order to earn money. Agricultural entrepreneurship requires chil- mum is a trader in a tella house [store where home-made liquor
drens participation in subsistence farming involving food crops is sold]. She is busy making and selling food and drinks, that is
(maize, enset, potato, root crops) and cash crops (coffee, khat, sugar how we earn our livelihood. My mother could not do all the
cane, fruits), combined with their off-farm income generating work inside the house, so I do it instead. I am the one who takes
activities working as farmhands in the informal rural economic care of my sister. (Mulu, girl, age 13, Addis Ababa)
sector and/or nearby towns. Childrens labour in coffee production
is particularly important because selectively picking only the ma- Often AIDS-affected children can be involved in daily and gen-
ture coffee beans from the tops of trees is a tedious, labour-inten- erational reproduction so that adult members of the household
sive job, which children are considered to be more adept at than can undertake the more arduous chores or earn an income from
adults. engaging in speciality activities such as casual labour, woodwork,
Trading farm produce and retailing commodities in market or (in the case of female members) working as maids in the homes
places are other types of activity which children are engaged in of richer families. My eld notes based on observations of the chil-
the rural cash economy of Gedeo (Abebe and Kjrholt, 2009). The drens economic activities show that many boys and girls perform
life of Abebayehu, who sells areke (local whisky) in the daily mar- diverse income generating tasks, including begging, polishing
ket, shows how childrens ability to make contributions to house- shoes (i.e. as shoeshiners), fetching water for cash, providing
hold livelihoods gives them a rather unique social position. In an domestic help, selling rewood, being a taxi attendant, and selling
essay that she composed for me in school, she explains the range tissues and roasted cereals.
of tasks she performs on regular basis, to both generate income What the above analyses reveal is how childrens contributions
and maintain family livelihoods: to household livelihood strategies are valued and enter into the
equation of care by family collectives. Their involvement in work
After I return from school [morning shift], I prepare lunch. Then, not only mitigates the daily hardships of poverty but also serves
I go to the daily market to retail salt, and fruits. I chop enset for as a source of protection and resilience (Boyden, 2009). Indeed,
cash; I also fetch water, and help my sick grandma in brewing the perspective of most AIDS-affected children conrms that they
liquor because she is weak. (Abebayehu, girl, 13 years) viewed themselves and are viewed by their family collectives as
What the story of Abebayehu highlights is not only the ways in having the potential and even the responsibility to provide life sus-
which orphanhood and poverty intersect to shape childrens life taining resources.
trajectories but also how their contributions are crucial for sustain-
ing interdependent family livelihoods. Abebayehu began living 5.2. Socio-temporal dimensions of orphanhood and care
with her grandmother shortly after the death of her biological par-
ents. Although her brothers had been in charge of the rural farms Although many orphans appear to be valued for their labour,
for some time, what was produced was not sufcient for all of they are also viewed positively for social and emotional reasons.
them to live on. Subsequently, the eldest brother decided to mi- For instance, a 60-year-old woman in Addis Ababa, whose two
grate to Moyale (bordering Kenya), while the remaining two boys grandchildren were living with her, emphasised the spiritual rea-
joined a non-related household (that of a friend of their deceased sons for being a guardian and also the emotional satisfaction she
father) to work as farm helpers. Abebayehu thought it was in her gained:
best interest to live with her close relatives, who she believed were The children are a blessing for me because they are important in
her hope because they encouraged her to do well in school and the household. I turn to them for support; they get me things
complete her education. from the market, fetch water, do the work at home . . . They
Similarly, many families in Addis Ababa consider children who are my mirror . . . when they play around, I see my daughter
are orphaned to be economic assets. This is particularly the case of [the childrens mother] in them, so I care for them despite my
poorer families supporting orphans because the children contrib- old age and poverty. That way, I please her soul, and also God.
ute to the family economy through working in income generating (Guardian, age 60, Addis Ababa)
activities in the urban informal economic sectors. As many of these
households face serious economic problems especially as their The above quotation illustrates the social position of orphans
members lack steady jobs and access to social security pro- and how this position changes based on the multiple roles they ful-
grammes children directly supplement family livelihoods. Ga- l and, further, the deeply emotional ties they have with caring rel-
shaw (boy, 16 years), whose parents were bedridden at the time atives. It not only highlights how grandparents and other kin who
of the research, told me how his earnings from engaging in the are guardians of children express their responsibilities for care as
strenuous work at transport terminals of carrying goods and work- blood relatives but also the ways these relationships are embedded
ing as woyalla shouting out the names of destinations of mini- across multiple generations. However, many families affected by
buses made a vital contribution to the budget of his family. AIDS have meagre economic and emotional resources for the
Although he did not attend school himself, he explained his long-term support of orphans. As a result, some children are forced
responsibility and how his work beneted his siblings welfare: I to seek (often unavailable) care by migrating and joining non-re-
dont want my brothers and sisters to be hungry, as my father is lated kin, as Emnet (a girl) explained:
sick and cant work. Without his nancial contributions, he be- I came here after my grandmother [and parents] died. I did not
lieved the household would not be viable economically. have relatives back in my village. My aunt brought me here to
A central issue to emerge from this study is the ways in which work as a housemaid. I do the domestic chores and attend
particular sets of implicit social contracts (Kabeer, 2000) existing school in the evening. (Emnet, 14 years, Addis Ababa)
between and within different generations are reworked as a result
of AIDS. Due to families vulnerability to poverty, intra-household Moreover, care for AIDS-affected children is shaped by the
social contracts involving both immediate and distant members interplay between the economic capacity of families and their
have changed, implying increased responsibilities falling upon willingness to share their available resources. As Emnet pointed
children. As is explained by Mulu in the following quotation, chil- out later on in an interview, despite their immense contribution
dren take on extra caring duties that result in the temporal inten- to family livelihoods, some children may not receive sufcient care
sication of their active days: in return. Boys also migrate to live in with non-related kin to seek
546 T. Abebe / Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550

work opportunities. Alemu explained how temporary work away and cultural factors constitute what Oleke et al. (2006, p. 269) al-
from rural villages is often used as a means of expanding childrens lude to as being differences that make a difference, both in the
families survival strategies as well as lessening the burden of care: quality of care children receive and their varying vulnerability to
poverty and ill-being in the context of AIDS.
I work in Dilla [nearby town] when school is closed. I do all sorts
An important feature of orphanhood that explains the differing
of work to get money, but because I dont pay house rent it is
vulnerability that children experience is dynamism, that is, the tem-
good I live in my friends house. (Alemu, boy, 13 years, Gedeo)
porary and changing nature of households they live in. For instance,
my repeated eldwork with what are conventionally known as or-
Due to poverty and AIDS, orphaned children may also have a
phan-headed households at different time intervals revealed that
heightened risk of separation from siblings. The quotation from
they were in fact sibling-headed households and relative-headed
Alemu exemplies what Kabeer (2000, p. 463) calls a stylised frac-
households rather than just child-headed households:
ture in intergenerational bargaining over care and reciprocity.
Such fracturing not only makes children producers, carers, home- After our father died we rst went to live in Bule [a locality in
makers, and decision makers in the absence of adults, but also Gedeo] along with our aunt, but since she was poor herself, I
makes them responsible for family welfare. Although lack of mate- and two of my brothers returned home. Our mother remarried
rial resources and the absence of external support are the utmost [and moved away] and kept two of the children, who assisted
of challenges facing AIDS-affected children, ruptures in social rela- her with the farm work, but she then separated and went to
tionships are also observed to result in exploitation and bad treat- work elsewhere [before she became terminally ill]. Our eldest
ment. Mamush told me what it was like to grow up with his aunt in brother use to work on the farm [and was the head of the fam-
Gedeo before he abandoned her to live with a distant relative in ily]. I do most of the housework and sell goods in the daily mar-
Dilla: ket. (Kelemua, girl, aged 15, Gedeo)
She is not kind to me. I lived with her many times [intermit-
tently, because of repeated quarrels and ghts which caused Kelemuas case represents the living arrangements of many AIDS-
him to leave]. Her character towards me is not good. Although affected children, highlighting how child-headed households are in
I work a lot, she always tells me about my poverty, my depen- rapid ux. Many sibling headed households experience transforma-
dence. When I studied, she used to say to me why dont you go tion due to, for example, an older child who initially took on respon-
out and nd money [work] instead of simply sitting? You are sibility as head of household being replaced by a younger sibling
not eating that book for supper. (Mamush, boy, 14 years) when the former is either married off, establishes their own house-
hold or migrates elsewhere to seek alternative means of livelihood.
In the absence of a supportive environment, children may nei- Although adult co-residents may be absent periodically, the material
ther t in easily nor receive fair treatment from their host house- support and the sense of moral and psychological security that such
holds. Instead, they seem to have inferior positions whereby they children gain from the prevalence of an adult relative is immense:
are allocated, for example, more household tasks, receive less food, Our uncle helps us with many things. When our mother died,
are bought second-hand clothing, and/or are sent to different people from the kebele came and told us to leave the house
schools than other children in the same household. In the focus [because there was no adult], but he helped us. He went to
group discussions many fostered children mentioned different lay- the court and contested the case, and won. (Melat, girl, 14 years,
ers of bias they had to live with from their guardians and biological Addis Ababa)
children in the same household. According to Berhanu (boy,
15 years, Addis Ababa), such differential treatments reminded Transience in household headship can result from the dissolu-
him that he was not a core member of the family. Other children tion of a previous household and the formation of a new one.
also reported subtle ways of exclusion (e.g. lack of appreciation for The following extract from an interview held with two boys (Bed-
the chores they perform while biological children are well-praised) aso and Getu) in Gedeo reveals a situation where they formed their
which reect the differing social position that orphans hold within own household in the compound of their grandparent, who pro-
particular families. These ndings conrm previous research about vided them with a plot on which to build a hut:
orphans discrimination and the difculties they face in tting into
foster households (Nyambedha et al., 2002; van Blerk and Ansell, We had land [inherited from their deceased parents], but it is
2007). far out in the countryside. When our parents died we became
The gender and age of children seem to inuence who families scared to live there alone, so we decided to rent it out on
wish to provide care for in Gedeo and Addis Ababa. Older boys share-cropping contract basis and came here to live with our
(approximately 14 years or above) who carry out labour-intensive grandpa. (Bedaso, aged 15)
agricultural work in rural areas and younger girls who help with
domestic chores in urban households generally tend to be favoured This reveals how orphan-headed households are not xed enti-
by potential guardinas because of the nature of the work they per- ties and, further, as Meintjes and Giese (2006) argue, how close rel-
form. Older boys tend to be viewed as sources of trouble, espe- atives and/or an adult co-resident step up as head(s) of household.
cially in Addis Ababa, making them less favoured for care Such change in the social space of household over time is also doc-
compared to younger boys or girls in general. In Gedeo, although umented by Evans (2010) where responsibility for sibling care was
girls are responsible for most household domestic chores, they passed onto the next eldest sibling. Although orphans may not al-
may not receive an inheritance and will tend to have less invested ways nd themselves excluded from close relatives, some showed
in their education compared to boys. This is because, given that a preference for continuing to live in their parental home even if
clan exogamy is the rule, they are treated as part of family collec- they were provided with alternative care options. This choice is ex-
tives only until adolescence and are considered as acquiring new plained not only by the unknown that is implicit in moving from
citizenship after marriage. In addition, material resources (or the one place to another but also the desire not to compromise the rel-
lack of them), household livelihood trajectories, the number of ative freedom that children enjoy from living alone and the wish to
children in the receiving families, and the nature of children to minimise the challenge of adjusting to the different lifestyles and
be fostered (temperament, sociability) all determine the type and expectations of rural life (see Ansell and van Blerk, 2004; Evans,
temporality of care. These complex social, economic, geographical, 2010):
T. Abebe / Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550 547

My aunt came to take us with her . . . but we did not want to go. Degree of Unable to cope Successful coping
coping Surviving
We dont know what it is like to live in the countryside; life can
be hard there too. Besides, we have a house here and are free to
do things. (Firehiwot, girl, 14 years, Addis Ababa) Deprived Capable
Adaptive
Type of Rupturing family family
family
collective family collectives collectives
collectives
collective
The above quotations collectively demonstrate that orphanhood
is a multifaceted experience and also that household headship in
the context of AIDS is rarely static for long given the dynamic shift-
Appropriate Empowerment of
ing formation, dissolution, reformation, and changing composition form of family collectives Enhance the
Lessen the
of households. The quotations reveal that the socio-temporal pro- intervention capacity to care
burden of care
cess of becoming an orphan or orphan-headed household is
embedded in complexity rather than just in the one-dimensional, Fig. 2. Continuum of care for AIDS-affected children.
deteriorating living conditions of children whereby they fall out
of a secure home and proper childhood and have to fend for them-
selves alone. Moreover, the interviews with Mamush (Gedeo) and 6. Strategies of empowering family collectives
Berhanu (Addis Ababa) highlight that orphanhood is a relative po-
sition or/and status that reects the actual practice of care as well Fig. 2 depicts a conceptual framework that reects the proles
as processes of inclusion and exclusion of such children in the of four family collectives which have emerged from this study.11
everyday life of family collectives. They suggest that community The framework shows that support for the delivery of care should
understandings of orphanhood emphasise the provision of care recognise that family collectives sit somewhere on a continuum of
(or the lack of it) in the immediate material world. This means care (and/or of vulnerability) and thus require different forms of sup-
orphanhood is a situational or/and structural condition that can port. It highlights that rather than conceptualising coping (and cop-
be heightened and highlighted or suppressed, depending on the ing strategies) as xed or generic across households, they can be
material, and social conditions of the families, geographical con- seen as a continuum ranging from failure to cope (i.e. rupturing
texts and the wider communities in which orphans are a part family collectives) to successful coping (i.e. capable family collec-
(see Chirwa, 2002). tives). Along this line, family collectives mobilise resources corre-
The term orphan coupled with head produces powerful emo- sponding to the type and level of distress experienced, with some
tional overtones. It implicates the ambivalent position of the com- family collectives coping more successfully than others. Successful
petent child who is capable of heading a household combined with coping depends on household resilience, access to resources and so-
excessive notions of his or her dependency and vulnerability. Or- cial networks of support, and the intensity and duration of the crisis
phan-headed households may be an anathema to Western inu- being faced (Ansell and van Blerk, 2004; Evans, 2005).
enced donors and policy makers who have a one-dimensional It should be noted that the four typologies of family collectives
view of family as nuclear, and of childhood as inside such families. are not static, and their classication here is simply for analytical
However the reality of childrens lives and existence indicate that purposes. Arguably, variations in family collectives capacities re-
they are part of the economic, social, and cultural context in which ect the dynamics of resilience to, and reworking of, the disrup-
they emerge, often amplied as a consequence of disease and pov- tions caused by the combined effects of poverty and the AIDS
erty. AIDS and HIV in a family or community results in a host of epidemic. This means family collectives economic and social re-
vulnerabilities, often linked to the direct as well as the indirect ef- sources of care may change temporally, placing them at different
fects of the disease, such as poverty, separation, economic decline, points along the continuum in different times. For example, some
stigma, social isolation, and negative impact on the community family collectives may border between deprived and rupture,
(Snyder, 2006, in Sherr et al., 2008, pp. 52728). Despite this, the or may be adaptive but not necessarily coping successfully (capa-
prevailing conceptualisation of orphanhood has a narrow focus ble), thus indicating the policy relevance of viewing the overlaps
on the orphan problem rather than considering the complex and between the four coping stages. Family collectives may also be
innovative ways in which orphans cope with problems. Like Meint- emotionally and socially capable but not able to meet the material
jes and Gieses (2006) research in South Africa, most orphan- needs of AIDS-affected children (and vice versa).
headed households in the study areas are short-lived, mainly exist- Moreover, caution should be exercised not to portray a simplis-
ing after the death of biological parents and prior to making tic ruralurban divide in the capacities and potentials of family col-
arrangements for care by extended families. Although their uidity lectives in providing support for orphans. The observed differences
demonstrates a degree of vulnerability, they highlight how orphan- in the social, economic and emotional capacities of care reect per-
hood is lived in multiple contexts and realities interpersonal rela- sonal and temporal relations and processes rather than mere geo-
tionships, inter- and intra-household interdependence, migration, graphical differences.
dissolution, coming of age and formation of households all of Family collectives where relationships to and care of orphans
which considerably shape orphaned childrens social and material have signicantly diminished represent the worst case scenario.
circumstances. In the study areas, rupturing family collectives comprise households
The above discussion not only highlights the timespace of chil- and kinship systems wherein the middle generation parents died
drens social relationships but also calls for different forms of of AIDS, leaving behind orphaned children. Family collectives of
empowerment.10 In what follows, I will shed light on the implica- this type are on the verge of dissolution and cannot look after chil-
tions of the preceding discussion for enhancing the care-giving dren because their resources are depleted. Many are grandparents
capacities of families.

10 11
Empowerment is conceptualized as the process of enhancing the care giving The model is developed based on my interpretation of the case studies from the
capacities of family collectives. It involves strategizing family-based care through the research. While acknowledging the fact that the model does not fully capture the
creation of enabling environments for increasing economic and social capabilities (cf. uidity of different forms of families, it represents families and communities
Sen, 1993) so that improvement in the conditions of life and livelihoods takes place conceptualization of coping and vulnerability in the context of AIDS, and thus enables
from the perspective of the household (Friedmann, 1996, p. 36) and members within us to understand how different family collectives have different capacities and frame
it. their empowerment through a range of stakeholders (GOs, NGOs, and communities).
548 T. Abebe / Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550

who are incapacitated due to poverty and inability to work, and Although practical approaches to empowering families may be
some are unable to look after (economically or otherwise) the or- achieved in a number of ways, interventions should pay particular
phans entrusted to their care and support. The vulnerability of attention to identifying the existing structures of family collectives
these families is linked not only to old age insecurity but also to in terms of their multiple functions and diversities in resources of
additional physical work, an eroded household economy of care care. Such interventions also presuppose the provision of resources
following adults terminal illness, and the stress of coping with for meeting the specic needs and capacities of the children within
bereavement. I observed that some grandmothers started to take the families. For example, a school meals programme might target
on paid employment in order to ease the difcult transition expe- children who come from rupturing families and require additional
rienced by children in their new home and to buy food which the food, while a recreational centre might help children who need
children liked (see also Ansell and Young, 2004). Since rupturing psychosocial support rather than economic support. Both target
collectives live in chronic poverty, they need material and psycho- groups are vulnerable, but both groups have different needs and
social support that both ends the vicious cycle of poverty in which require different interventions. Thus, the task of empowering fam-
they are trapped and maintains their stability in the long-term. The ilies will have to change depending on varying mixes of ap-
data gathered through the ranking exercise with guardians on proaches. While focusing on different dimensions of care, the
what they saw as their priority problems revealed the following interventions have to be sensitive to the varied manifestations of
problems (and strategies) to be of paramount importance for inter- vulnerabilities, capacities, strengths, and potentials of families in
vention: everyday worries about securing food (e.g. nutrition pro- rural and urban contexts.
grammes for smaller children), lack of health care (e.g. provision of
malaria nets and tablets, etc.), and lack of human labour (e.g.
assisting grandparent-headed families in the building and mainte- 7. Concluding reections
nance of huts/house, and farming and harvesting of agricultural
produce such as food crops and cash crops). This article has explored how AIDS-affected children make sig-
In contrast, deprived family collectives were observed to have ac- nicant contributions to the upkeep of the families in which they
cess to diversied sources of income. These families were found to play an active part. Drawing on childrens perspectives, it high-
be living in contexts of dwindling household resources of care lighted an often overlooked interface between childrens contribu-
(emotional, social and economic) and worsening living conditions. tions to the livelihood strategies of family collectives and the ways
They were characterised by relative poverty and deteriorating in which such relationships are intertwined with socio-temporal
material conditions. They included child-headed households, fe- processes of care. It argued that since childrens contribution make
male-headed households and grandparent-headed families whose a considerable difference; they shape how children are looked
economic capacity was limited because of their difculty in com- upon positively. AIDS-affected children are neither mere problem
bining domestic work with income generating activities outside to be coped with nor passive recipients of care; they are active gen-
the home. Although many of these households were not living in erators of household income and providers of care. Indeed, very
a situation of extreme poverty and were not at risk of collapse few children in Ethiopia enjoy the luxury of being taken care of
compared to rupturing family collectives, they may be vulnerable by their parents or the state (De Boeck and Honwana, 2005, p.
to sinking into deprivation, particularly without the intervention 4). They play pivotal roles in sustaining interdependent livelihoods
of external material support. Their common features also included and nurture the spaces of social and economic reproduction (Katz,
uidity and the lack of a long-term principal adult breadwinner 2004; Robson, 2004). The views of children presented here further
who is at the same time the head of the household. The challenges reveal that they see themselves as resources and responsible for
they faced included lack of adequate access to nutritious food, dif- their families welfare, thus subverting Western normative notions
culties in paying school-related costs and their relative depriva- of childrens dependence on adults. There is a need to move beyond
tion of basic materials (such as shoes and beds) compared the orphan burden (Abebe, 2010, p. 460) to draw analytical atten-
families with adaptive capacities. tion to the ways in which AIDS-affected children are involved in
Adaptive family collectives have a range of extended family material social practices of interconnected histories and geogra-
members and social networks of support they can draw upon to phies within which their lives continue to unfold.
cope with adverse situations. They have relatively better economic The social dynamics of care for AIDS-affected children are evi-
conditions and sources of livelihoods and a general level of well- dently congured by the particular livelihood strategies of family
being that is indicative of their potential to provide social security collectives in rural and urban contexts. They reect interpersonal
for children affected by AIDS. This category comprises mainly of relations, emotional ties, reciprocal child-family care, and the
well-functioning households whose broad adaptive capacities changing social circumstances of family collectives. The empirical
were found to be generally demonstrative of the ways in which ndings from this study resonate with research on the geographies
family collectives pull resources together to develop resilience fol- of orphan care in southern Africa, where mixes of interdependent
lowing the death of an adult care giver in the household. My obser- factors such as a sense of obligation to family, household needs
vations reveal that they are typical of ordinary households through for resources, the capacities of the children themselves, and the
their possession of household resources and livelihood assets. In childrens own preferences inuence the relationships between
some instances, however, their relative economic (in-) security, orphans and their care-giving families (Ansell and van Blerk,
the presence or lack of viable sources of livelihood and general le- 2004). Due to their abilities to provide substantial amounts of in-
vel of well-being may represent less-than-average family circum- come, in the context of AIDS many children invest their economic
stances. Important areas of potential intervention include access power in ways that situate them at the centre of their familys
to short-term assistance in order to see such households through economy. This in turn not only gives them the opportunity to con-
periods of economic hardship. tribute to their familys livelihood in times of scarcity, but also to
Finally, capable family collectives have material and social re- tap into familial resources such as land, animals, and social net-
sources, and can successfully foster children, even in the absence works of support, in order to establish more interdependent liveli-
of external material support. However, it is also important to sup- hoods (Punch, 2002). In these ways, the relationships between
port these families to not only prevent them from slipping into such children and family collectives manifest an important dimen-
coping situations but also enhance their capacity to provide sus- sion of reciprocity in terms of resources of care, coping, and
tained care. resilience.
T. Abebe / Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550 549

The empirical materials also demonstrate that orphanhood is a Acknowledgements


mediated experience simultaneously temporally and spatially situ-
ated and embedded in both generational and lateral familial rela- Thanks are due to the children, families, and communities who
tions. Attending to the broader context of AIDS-affected actively participated in the study. The research and eldwork ex-
childrens experiences and activities reveals how becoming and penses were funded by the Globalization and Marginalization
being an orphan is anything but a singular, static, or necessarily programme of the Research Council of Norway (RCN Project
dependent experience. Indeed, orphanhood is a dynamic set of life No. 159874). I am grateful to the Faculty of Social Sciences and
circumstances that is lived and negotiated in the course of experi- Technology Management, Norwegian University of Sciences and
ences such as migration, coming of age, household change, and the Technology (NTNU) for granting me a Postdoctoral fellowship that
rise and fall of material conditions. gave me the opportunity to complete the written work. The paper
The policy implications of the preceding discussions are clear. has beneted substantially from the very helpful suggestions of Dr.
Poverty rather than childrens parental status is a major underlying Katie Willis and Dr. Nicola Ansell as well as the critical comments
factor in determining the range of vulnerabilities experienced by of three anonymous reviewers, to whom I am profoundly grateful.
orphans, non-orphans, and their families in Ethiopia. As a result,
the focus of interventions related to care should be on strengthen-
References
ing the capabilities of families resilience to poverty rather than
implementing resource-intensive approaches. The study conrms Abebe, T., 2008. Ethiopian Childhoods: A Case Study of the Lives of Orphans and
that family collectives are culturally appropriate forms of orphan Working Children. PhD Thesis No. 42. NTNU, Trondheim.
care and that together with the children themselves they are the Abebe, T., 2009. Multiple methods, complex dilemmas: negotiating socio-ethical
spaces in participatory research with disadvantaged children. Childrens
most important sites of intervention. This is not simply because Geographies 7 (4), 451465.
they do most of the care work, but also because childrens access Abebe, T., 2010. Beyond the orphan burden: understanding care for and by AIDS-
to household-based resources enhances their ability to obtain affected children. Geography Compass 4 (5), 460474.
Abebe, T., Aase, A., 2007. Children, AIDS and the politics of orphan care in Ethiopia:
long-term means for their livelihoods. In addition, although the the extended family revisited. Social Science and Medicine 64 (5), 10582069.
ndings from this research support the perspectives of social resil- Abebe, T., Kjrholt, AT., 2009. Social actors and victims of exploitation: working
ience, it is shown that there are considerable diversities in family children in the cash economy of Ethiopias south. Childhood 16 (2), 175194.
Abebe, T., Skovdal, M., 2010. Livelihoods, care and the familial relations of orphans
collectives capacity to cope with the impacts of AIDS and the spe- in East Africa. AIDS Care 22 (5), 570576.
cic contexts of reciprocity and personal ties through which child Ansell, N., 2001. Producing knowledge about Third World Women: the politics of
care is mediated. Thus, the conceptualisation of care as a contin- eldwork in Zimbabwean secondary school. Ethics, Place and Environment 4
(2), 101116.
uum as opposed to rupturing and resilience highlights not only
Ansell, N., 2009. Producing interventions for AIDS-affected young people in
the differentiated signs of resilience of family collectives but also Lesothos schools: scalar relations and power differentials. Geoforum 40, 674
how intersection of interrelated dimensions of care (social, eco- 685.
nomic and emotional) shape mutual relationships between them Ansell, N., van Blerk, L., 2004. Childrens migration as a household/family strategy:
coping with AIDS in Lesotho and Malawi. Journal of Southern African Studies 30
and AIDS-affected children. The interdependency and long-term (3), 673690.
intra-generational reciprocity that occurs within the family collec- Ansell, N., Young, L., 2004. Enabling households to support successful migration of
tive and revolves around children as vital assets stands at logger- AIDS orphans in southern Africa. AIDS Care 16 (1), 310.
Ansell, N., van Blerk, L., Hajdu, F., Robson, E., 2011. Spaces, times and critical
heads with the idea of community-based support. moments: a relational time-space analysis of the impacts of AIDS on rural youth
Strategies for empowering family collectives should support the in Malawi and Lesotho. Environment and Planning A 43, 525544.
reciprocity of fostering and care work in its socioeconomic and cul- Barnett, T., Whiteside, A., 2006. AIDS in the Twenty-rst Century: Disease and
Globalization, second ed. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
tural contexts. They need to identify the breaking points (e.g. re- Bevan, P., Pankhurst, A., (Eds.) 1996. Ethiopian Village Studies: Adado Gedeo.
sources, distance, stigma) in kinship obligations to care for these <http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/evstudies/pdfs/adado/adado-hiphotos.pdf>
children (Madhavan, 2004, p. 1444). As Evans and Becker (2009) (accessed 12.03.05).
Boyden, J., 1994. Families Celebration and Hope in the World of Change. Gaia/
argue, enhancing childrens emotional well-being, supporting fam- UNESCO, London.
ily relationships, and building life skills through vocational training Boyden, J., 2009. Risk and capability in the context of adversity: childrens
could help to promote childrens and families resilience. It is also contributions to household livelihoods in Ethiopia. Children, Youth and
Environments 19 (2), 111137.
crucial to locate childrens poverty rmly within the broader so-
Boyden, J., Cooper, E., 2007. Questioning the Power of Resilience: Are Children Up to
cio-spatial and politico-economic contexts. The latter presupposes the Task of Disrupting the Transmission of Poverty? Young Lives Working Paper
the importance of responding to differences in access to resources, 73, Chronic Poverty Research.
power relations, and structural inequalities that exist between and Campbell, C., Murray, M., 2004. Community health psychology: promoting analysis
and action for social change. Journal of Health Psychology 9 (2), 187195.
within rural and urban areas. Cheney, C., 2005. Our children have only known war: childrens experiences and
In conclusion, intervention strategies should both address the the uses of childhood in northern Uganda. Childrens Geographies 3 (1), 2345.
fundamental causes and outcomes of childhood poverty (Boyden Chirwa, W.C., 2002. Social exclusion and inclusion: challenges to orphan care in
Malawi. Nordic Journal of African Studies 11 (2), 93103.
and Cooper, 2007), and improve the resilience of families and com- CSA, 2002. Ethiopia Child Labour Survey Report 2001. Central Statistics Authority,
munities. As Boyden and Cooper (2007, p. 5) put it, the emphasis Addis Ababa.
on individual functioning and harnessing of individual resources De Boeck, F., Honwana, A. (Eds.), 2005. Makers and Breakers: Children and Youth in
Post-colonial Africa. James Currey, Oxford.
to overcome adversity depoliticises the project of poverty reduc- Donahue, J., 2005. Strengthening households and communities: the key to reducing
tion. Attention is diverted away from state and other actors with the economic impacts of HIV/AIDs on children and families. In: Foster, G.,
the power and moral responsibility to intervene and bring about Levine, C., Williamson, J. (Eds.), A Generation At-risk. The Global Impact of HIV/
AIDS on Orphans and Vulnerable Children. Cambridge University Press, New
change with populations living in poverty being charged with York, pp. 3765.
using their own resources to support themselves through crisis. Ennew, J., 2005. Prisoners of childhood: orphans and economic dependency. In:
Clearly, interventions in orphan care are inseparable from the Qvortrup, J. (Ed.), Studies of Modern Childhood: Society, Agency and Culture.
Palgrave, London, pp. 128146.
interventions related to empowerment and development. Drawing
Ennew, J., Plateau, P., 2004. How to Research the Physical and Emotional
on the resources and experiences of family collectives and situat- Punishment of Children. Save the Children, Bangkok.
ing their responses within the broader context of social justice Evans, R., 2005. Social networks, migration and care in Tanzania: caregivers and
might at rst appear to step back from addressing the immediate childrens resilience to coping with HIV/AIDS. Journal of Children and Poverty
11 (2), 111129.
welfare needs of AIDS-affected children, but in fact it is the only Evans, R., 2010. We are managing our lives. . .: Life transitions and care in sibling-
effective and sustainable response. headed households affected by AIDS in Tanzania and Uganda. Area, 113.
550 T. Abebe / Geoforum 43 (2012) 540550

Evans, R., Becker, S., 2009. Children Caring for Parents with HIV and AIDS: Global Punch, S., 2002. Youth transitions and interdependent adultchild relations in rural
Issues and Policy Responses. Policy Press, Bristol. Bolivia. Journal of Rural Studies 18 (2), 123133.
Foster, G., Germann, S., 2002. The orphan crisis. In: Myron, E. (Ed.), AIDS in Africa. Rifkin, S., 1996. Paradigms lost: towards a new understanding of community
Kluwer Academic, New York, pp. 664675. participation in health programmes. Acta Tropica 61, 7992.
Foster, G., Levine, C., Williamson, J., 2005. A Generation at Risk: The Global Impact of Robson, E., 2004. Hidden child workers: young carers in Zimbabwe. Antipode 36,
HIV/AIDS on Orphans and Vulnerable Children. Cambridge University Press, 227248.
New York. Robson, E., Ansell, N., 2000. Young carers in Southern Africa: exploring stories from
Friedmann, J., 1996. Empowerment: The Politics of Alternative Development. Zimbabwean secondary school students. In: Holloway, S., Valentine, G. (Eds.),
Blackwell, Cambridge. Childrens Geographies: Playing, Living, Learning. Routledge, London, pp. 174
George, S., Oudenhoven, N., Wazir, R., 2003. Foster care beyond the crossroads: 193.
lessons from an international comparative analysis. Childhood 10 (3), 343361. Robson, et al., 2006. Young caregivers in the context of HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-
Guest, E., 2003. Children of AIDS: Africas Orphan Crisis. Pluto Press, Saharan Africa. Population, Space and Place 12, 93111.
Pietermaritzburg. Sanou, D., Turgeon-OBrie, H., Ouedraogo, S., Desrosiers, T., 2009. Caring for orphans
Hamer, J., Hamer, I., 1994. Impacts of a cash economy on complementary gender and vulnerable children in the contexts of poverty and cultural transition: a
relations among the Sadama of Ethiopia. Anthropological Quarterly 67 (4), 187 case study of a group foster homes program in Burkina Faso. Journal of Children
202. and Poverty 14 (2), 139155.
Harber, M., 2009. Developing a Community-based AIDS Orphan Project: A South Sen, A., 1993. Capability and well-being. In: Nussbaum, M., Sen, A. (Eds.), The
African Case Study. <http://www.cindi.org.za/Paper6> (accessed 12.09.09). Quality of Life. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 3053.
Kabeer, N., 2000. Intergenerational contracts, demographic transition and the Sherr, L., with others, 2008. A systematic review on the meaning of the concept
Quality-Quantity trade off: parents, children and investing in the future. AIDS Orphan: confusion over denitions and implications for care. AIDS Care
International Journal of Development 12, 463482. 20 (5), 527536.
Kaleeba, N., 2004. We miss you all: AIDS in the family. In: Oppong, J.R., Ghosh, J. Skovdal, N., Mwasiaji, W., Morisson, J., Tomkins, A., 2009a. Community based capital
(Eds.), HIV and AIDS in Africa: Beyond Epidemiology. Blackwell, Oxford., pp. cash transfer to support orphans in Western Kenya: a consumer perspective.
260278. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies 3 (1), 115.
Kalipeni, E., Craddock, S., Oppong, J.R., Ghosh, J. (Eds.), 2004. HIV and AIDS in Africa: Skovdal, M., Ogutu, V., Aoro, C., Campbell, C., 2009b. Young carers as social actors:
Beyond Epidemiology. Blackwell, Oxford. coping strategies of children caring for ailing or ageing guardian in Western
Katz, C., 2004. Growing up Global. Economic Restructuring and Childrens Everyday Kenya. Social Sciences and Medicine 69, 587595.
Lives. The University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. Smrholm, S., 2006. Children and Bereavement: Experiences of Orphanhood in
Langevang, T., 2008. We are managing! Uncertain paths to respectable adulthoods Contemporary Zambia, Masters Thesis in Social Anthropology. NTNU.
in Accra Ghana. Geoforum 39, 20392047. Subbarao, K., Coury, D., 2004. Reaching Out to Africas Orphans: A Framework for
Lourenco-Lindell, I., 2005. Walking the Tight Rope: Informal Livelihoods and Social Public Action. World Bank, New York.
Networks in a West African City. Stockholm Studies in Human Geography 9. Tadesse, K., 2002. Five Hundred Years of Sustainability? A Case Study of Gedeo Land
Stockholm University, Stockholm. Use (Southern Ethiopia). Treemail, Heelsum.
Lund, R., Agyei-Mensah, S., 2008. Queens as mothers: the role of the traditional Tekola, B., 2005. Poverty and Social Context of Sex Work in Addis Ababa: An
safety net of care and support for HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in Anthropological Perspective. Forum for Social Studies, Addis Ababa.
Ghana. GeoJournal 71 (23), 93106. UNAIDS, 2009. Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. UNAIDS, Geneva.
Madhavan, S., 2004. Fosterage patterns in the age of AIDS: continuity and change. UNAIDS/UNICEF/USAID, 2004. Children on the Brink 2004. A Joint Report on the
Social Science and Medicine 58 (7), 14431454. New Orphan Estimate and a Framework for Action. UNICEF, New York.
McKerrow, N.H., Verbeek, A.E., 1995. Models of Care for Children in Distress. UNICEF, 2003. Africas Orphaned Generations. UNICEF, New York.
KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg. van Blerk, L., 2007. AIDS, mobility and commercial sex work in Ethiopia:
Meintjes, H., Giese, R., 2006. Spinning the epidemic: the making of mythologies of implications for policy. AIDS Care 19 (1), 7986.
orphanhood in the context of AIDS. Childhood 13 (3), 407430. van Blerk, l., Ansell, N., 2007. Alternative care giving in the context of AIDS in
MOH, 2007. Single point HIV prevalence estimate. Ministry of Health and Federal southern Africa: complex strategies for care. Journal of International
HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Ofce (2007) Federal Democratic. Addis Development 19 (7), 865884.
Ababa, Republic of Ethiopia. Verhoef, H., 2005. A child has many mothers: views on child fostering from West
MoLSA, 2004. Ethiopias National Plan of Action for Children (20032010 and Africa. Childhood 12 (3), 369391.
beyond). Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Addis Ababa. World Bank, 2005. Ethiopia: A Country Status Report on Health and Poverty. Report
Nyambedha, E., Wandibba, S., Aagaard-Hansen, J., 2002. Changing patterns of No. 28963-ET (July 2005). Africa Region Human Development and Ministry of
orphan care due to the HIV epidemic in Western Kenya. Social Science and Health Ethiopia, World Bank.
Medicine 57 (2), 301311. Yitbarek, E., 2008. Revisiting Slums, Revealing Responses: Urban Upgrading in
Oleke, C., Blystad, A., Moland, K.M., Rekdal, O.B., Heggenhougen, C., 2006. The Tenant-dominated Inner-city Settlements in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. PhD Thesis
varying vulnerability of African orphans: the case of the Langi, northern (Published), Nr. 59. NTNU, Trondheim.
Uganda. Childhood 13 (2), 267284. Young, L., Ansell, N., 2003. Fluid households, complex families: the impacts of
Pratt, G., Rosner, V., 2006. Introduction: the global and the intimate. Womens childrens migration as a response to HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. The
Studies Quarterly 34 (12), 1324. Professional Geographer 55 (4), 464476.

You might also like