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In this issue, we challenge readers with the salient question of whether charity always begins at home, particularly as the world witnessed a surge in armed conflicts around the globe in 2023, with devastating consequences for millions of people. As children are among the most vulnerable members of societies, the first three articles of this issue focus on them as a target group. Thereafter, attention is turned to women, older persons, and people dealing with mental health issues, as vulnerable groups. Recognising that social work, especially in a forensic context, increases the likelihood of secondary traumatic stress among social workers, we have also addressed this topic in the issue. In conclusion, a disaster-specific approach to the social work curriculum in an undergraduate social work course is presented. We also offer a book review covering the challenges arising from the interplay of culture and human rights through the lenses of emancipatory social work and Afrocentricity in a globalised world.

Prospective adoptive parents require a considerable amount of support from social workers as well as from other support systems during the adoption process. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe adoptive families’ experiences of formal and informal support during the pre-adoption phase. There is a dearth of empirical research in the South African context on prospective adoptive parents' experiences of support from social workers, family and friends, and the adoption community, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal. Using a qualitative research methodology, this study sought to explore the experiences of sixteen adoptive parents in the eThekwini region with regards to the support they received from social workers and other support systems during the adoption process. Non-probability sampling, more specifically, snowball sampling, was used to recruit the participants through the Durban Adoptive Families group. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Several sub-themes emerged from the data analysis. The study found that the participants had varied experiences of support offered by social workers and organisations along with more positive experiences of informal support from family and friends and the adoption community.

Family preservation services are considered essential and allow children to be with their families, which by implication, avoids their placement outside family care. This article presents the views of family heads on the effects of family preservation services, such as time spent together and connectedness. The findings of the study emerged from the qualitative approach, which entailed conducting semi-structured interviews with 20 family heads. Adverse circumstances such as travelling distances, lack of communication from professionals and fear of communal judgement faced by families during family preservation services are also addressed. The study nevertheless concludes that family preservation services are a mechanism to rebuild families.

This study reports on an assessment of the well-being of street children in Harare Metropolitan Province in Zimbabwe using the ecological systems approach. This study was underpinned by a quantitative approach which employed a semi-structured questionnaire as an instrument of data collection. Based on survey data of 202 street children who were purposively sampled, the findings revealed that street children lack access to food, education, accommodation, health care and proper sanitation. Therefore, street children require multi-component psychosocial and developmental interventions to enhance their well-being. The recommendations drawn from the findings were submitted to the Department of Social Development in Zimbabwe.

Female-headed households often benefit from engaging in sustainable livelihoods and value chain development approaches to enhance income security. In this article, the researcher employs a qualitative methodology to study how women entrepreneurs (N=20) selected from The Clothing Bank solve poverty-related problems. This article discusses three strategies relevant to value chain development: access to assets, dealing with risks when reinvesting capital, and enabling multiple stakeholder support. The article concludes with some considerations to bridge the gap between social work and social entrepreneurship to advance developmental social work research.

he literature on the biopsychosocial effects of COVID-19 on older persons has originated predominately from the Global North, with a dearth of studies focusing on the loneliness of older persons in the developing world, such as South Africa. This cross-sectional study explored the loneliness of South African older persons (N = 118) before and during COVID-19 to inform gerontological social work. The survey incorporated a standardised scale of loneliness and items to assess the type and quantity of contact with others, physical health, mental health and socio-demographic variables. Bivariate and multivariate analyses explored the factors that contributed to overall loneliness, emotional loneliness and social loneliness. Results indicated a statistically significant increase in social, emotional and overall loneliness from pre- to during COVID-19. Considered from a socio-ecological resilience perspective, gerontological social work services are recommended for alleviating loneliness amongst South African older persons during a pandemic, such as COVID-19.

South Africa presents a high prevalence of mental health problems, with one in six South Africans being diagnosed with anxiety, depression and substance-use problems (excluding more severe conditions such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia). The incidence of mental health problems is ranked third after HIV and other infectious diseases in determining the disease burden. Social workers are key professionals in rendering interventions and services aimed at treating persons with mental health problems. In this qualitative study, ten purposively sampled social workers providing mental health services at a mental health facility in Tshwane, South Africa were interviewed. The thematic analysis generated seven themes, four of which are discussed. The findings reveal that social workers are adequately capacitated to provide mental health services and are one of the key mental health service providers. Recommendations for practice are provided.

Editors: Vishanthie Sewpaul, Linda Kreitzer and Tanusha Raniga (2021). The tensions between culture and human rights: Emancipatory social work and Afrocentricity in a global world. ISSN 1703-1826. Pages 312Although this collection foregrounds an interplay between Afrocentrism and emancipatory social work, virtually all the chapters unequivocally challenge social workers to fight the harmful cultural processes that pose serious human rights violations. These inter alia include female genital mutilation, female ritual bondage, etc. All the chapters have cogently addressed the tensions between cultural practices and human rights. But it needs to be pointed out that the human rights context used is hegemonically Western-centric rather than Afrocentric. This presents a glaring lacuna that may impede the process of indigenisation and decoloniality in Africa.

Forensic social work in South Africa is challenging, increasing the likelihood of secondary traumatic stress among its practitioners. Proactive coping strategies are necessary to reduce the impact of secondary traumatic stress on forensic social workers. The aim of this study was to describe the association between the frequency of different coping strategies and the frequency of secondary traumatic stress symptoms in forensic social workers. The study applied a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional descriptive design. An all-inclusive willing participation sampling method was used, focusing on all qualified forensic social workers who graduated from a South African university. The study found that avoidant and emotion-focused coping strategies were linked to an increase in secondary traumatic stress symptoms. Employers and therapists can support forensic social workers by offering techniques that encourage the use of problem-focused coping strategies, aiming to alleviate symptoms of perceived secondary traumatic stress.

This article adopts collaborative autoethnography in order to critically reflect on the experiences of social work academics who integrated disaster-specific approaches to the social work curriculum of two undergraduate courses in a South African university. This curriculum adaptation was in response to the KwaZulu-Natal floods of 2022. The integration of topics such as green social work and disaster-specific trauma responses at an undergraduate level of social work is advocated. These collaborative autoethnographic accounts contribute important lessons for social work education, practice and research in the era of natural disasters exacerbated by climate change.

The third edition of 2023 presents a collection of eight articles that delve into four central themes: role players in social work, the interface of Covid-19, gender-based violence, and child rights. The articles engage with diverse challenges and dynamics within the social work landscape, contributing to the advancement of theory and practice in both local and global contexts. In this editorial, we provide an overview of the themes and the contributions each article makes to the broader discourse.

The article explores child rights violations emanating from harmful cultural practices in Zimbabwe. A qualitative case study research design was used. The targeted population included people considered custodians of the Ndebele culture in the Nkayi district of Zimbabwe. Social workers familiar with Ndebele culture and working in the child protection field within the Nkayi district also participated in the study. In-depth interviews were used to collect data. The data were analysed using Creswell’s thematic analysis. Whilst culture undoubtedly provides some ecological resources for the realisation of child rights, findings highlight harmful cultural practices which violate children’s rights, and these are the focus of this article.

The study employed a qualitative research approach and emancipatory framework to explore students’ experiences with blended learning and emergency remote online learning (EROL). Two data sets were collected from two projects using focus group discussions and semi-structured individual interviews. The findings highlighted that although technological advancement in universities increased access to information, the needs of the disadvantaged students remain overlooked. EROL and/or blended learning adopted by the universities did not address the fundamentals of access to teaching and learning for the disadvantaged, but focused on institutional needs and saving the academic year. The utilisation of blended learning prior to COVID-19 was excluding some students, and it was unclear how EROL was transformed to ensure that all students accessed education during COVID-19 induced lockdowns. There is thus a need for research to focus on opportunities for student technological advancement not only for ensuring access to education but also for meaningful service delivery during practice.

Resilience has been identified as a protective factor that improves the ability to manage stress, promotes wellbeing and enables individuals to thrive in adverse circumstances. Many social auxiliary workers function independently with sporadic and brief supervision. Considering the stressful work environment that social auxiliary workers must face, it is essential that they be equipped to effectively manage the stressors of social work practice. The study identified how individual, social and environmental factors contribute to the participants’ resilience and their ability to thrive in these challenging circumstances. The participants use their interpersonal, intrapersonal and organisational strengths and coping strategies to manage both their positive and challenging work experiences to remain both productive and resilient.

Social workers are among key professionals rendering empowerment services to people affected by gender-based violence in South Africa. These services are rendered within the developmental and empowerment approaches that were introduced in the post-apartheid era. Although the introduction of democracy brought a paradigm shift towards a developmental approach, social welfare and social work, there is paucity of research that investigates the utilisation of the concept of “victim” within the empowerment services rendered to people harmed by gender-based violence. The concept of “victim” has not been extensively researched theoretically and empirically. This article critically analyses the usage of the concept of “victim” in the empowerment social work services and posits a deconstruction of the pervasive notion of victimhood in discourses around programmes dealing with gender-based violence. It is hoped that this article will stimulate debates and research focused on the labels adopted in the empowerment services, as well as in developmental and social work in different societal contexts.

The aim of the study was to explore the roles of social workers at a university of technology in KwaZulu-Natal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, the study confirms the pivotal role of social workers in dealing with the psychological distress caused by illness, the loss of loved ones, economic insecurity and violence. While participants expressed a lack of preparedness for the significant mental health burden caused by the pandemic, existing expertise allowed them to offer counselling and support to offset the isolation and anxiety that many students were facing. Participants also noted the importance of social work involvement in educational initiatives.

Asset-based community-driven development (ABCD) has gained momentum in social work education over the last ten years. This mix-method study presents students’ perceptions of the relevance and application of ABCD in social work education at two universities in South Africa. The students perceived ABCD as a relevant approach that shifts community members from a deficit orientation focused on lack and needs to one in which people utilise their assets and take ownership of their own future. However, students experienced challenges in facilitating community members’ movement from being passive recipients of services and benefits to seeing themselves as change agents driving their own development. The results are intended to contribute to curricular and pedagogical improvements.

This article explores the challenges of child and youth care workers (CYCWs) working with children. Children and young people exhibiting attachment and behavioural difficulties present a significant challenge for parents, child and youth care workers, and society. This article reports on qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with 16 CYCWs and the data were subjected to thematical analysis. The findings indicate that CYCWs involved in child welfare experience not only a lack of recognition but also conflict, overwork and other negative job characteristics that affect their caring responsibilities, given the complexity and demanding roles of working with children. The study addresses issues not discussed in the literature that affect CYCWs, including organisational and profession-related challenges. A lack of detailed information sharing with other human service professionals threatens the viability and sustainability of the professional care service and remains a challenge.

The sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted various sectors, including social work services to persons with physical disabilities. This qualitative study focused on the experiences of adults with an acquired physical disability who needed social work support. To understand these experiences, an ecological perspective was utilised as a theoretical basis. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown experienced internationally, including in South Africa. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was found to be challenging for persons with disabilities, specifically in terms of isolation, lack of resources and economic distress. Recommendations for future interventions to address the social needs of adults with a physical disability in disaster situations such as COVID-19 are also presented.

Maintaining therapeutic care of learners during and after COVID-19 in South Africa has required significant changes to the way that counselling is provided in schools. While some of these changes are well documented, there are critical gaps regarding the experiences of school counsellors during the pandemic period, globally and in South Africa. Hence this qualitative study sought to explore the experiences of school psychosocial practitioners who are rendering supportive services in private schools in KwaZulu-Natal Province. While the findings show that remote/online therapy is a valid option, all schools should ensure that therapists have adequate resources and the necessary collaboration to provide effective services to the school community. Furthermore, interpersonal, organisational, practice, policy and advocacy-oriented adaptations are required in establishing transformative interventions in all schools to address trauma.

Effective social work services in child and youth care centres (CYCCs) depend on how social workers deal with the associated experiences and challenges. This study explored social workers’ experiences and challenges in rendering services in CYCCs in the Tshwane municipal district. A qualitative research approach employing the phenomenological design was adopted, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. The findings confirmed that social workers have various positive and negative experiences and face multiple challenges in rendering services in CYCCs. Several suggestions to improve service delivery in CYCCs are made.

Decades of research have highlighted the challenges facing child protection services in a developmental approach. The aim of the article is to explore whether the developmental social welfare approach contributes to an improvement of child protection services. A descriptive case study design was applied in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. The findings revealed limited knowledge among social work practitioners about the implementation of the developmental social welfare approach. The findings also revealed an overwhelmed child protection system that lacks coordinated and integrated services. It is recommended that child protection services be divided into prevention, early intervention and statutory services.

Children are often left orphaned and without adult supervision when the parent or caregiver dies from HIV and AIDS-related illnesses. There is very little information available in South Africa on the type of interventions to reinforce the care and support provided to children affected by HIV and AIDS (CABHA). This study aimed to explore existing interventions provided to CABHA and the experiences of social workers in implementing interventions. Findings indicate that interventions are a continuous and collaborative process between social workers and stakeholders. A proper needs assessment should be done before implementing interventions to ensure that they benefit the children identified as needing intervention. Community-based interventions should not be underestimated as a significant source of support for CABHA.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) has become a priority area of social work, in both developed and developing countries. In this article, the term ECD supervisors refers to the social workers working with ECD centres in the capacity of supervisor. These social workers can provide valuable insight into the unique management tasks and associated professional development areas uniquely required when working in the ECD sector. The goal of this conceptual article is to identify these professional development areas of management tasks required from social workers who supervise ECD centres. Ultimately, these management tasks are synthesised into three categories, namely tasks which require technical, relational and administrative skills respectively. This is an attempt to preserve the institutional memory of South African social workers, given the current shift of ECD governance functions from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education.

The blurring of the boundaries and interconnectedness between learning and work are features worth exploring in the contemporary supervision landscape. Grounded on transition-experiential learning theories, the study analysed a social service organisation as a context for learning and examined how this context facilitated or inhibited supervision learning experiences for first-time supervisors. It draws on the qualitative findings of thirteen in-depth interviews whose data were analysed using the thematic analysis. This study found that the transitioning of first-time supervisors into the new role took place through their active participation in an organisational context. It concludes with the notion that workplace learning is a context-specific and interactive process. The social service organisation, with its unique features, serves the purpose of providing an environment for learning, with first-time supervisors afforded the opportunity to learn within the context and through interaction with other role-players. In summary, the study recommends a need for fostering of communities of practice, designing and management of workplace learning programmes, and ensuring the creation of sustainable and healthy workplaces.

National data indicate that young adults are increasingly vulnerable to the harmful use of nyaope –an illicit drug. Consequently, there is a need for appropriate treatment services. This study aimedto explore and describe the experiences of nyaope users regarding therapeutic services at privatein-patient treatment centres in Gauteng, South Africa. A qualitative study operationalised througha case study design, specifically an instrumental case study, involved 11 cases/participants whowere recruited through a three-phase non-probability sampling process at treatment centres in twoGauteng metropoles. Following a method of reflexive thematic analysis, four themes withassociated sub-themes, are reported. Recommendations focus on tailored service delivery attreatment centres and addressing limitations in policies.

This first edition in 2023 of Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk offers themes that centre on social work with persons affected by substance use disorders, on environmental social work and social work with children. The latter theme focuses on specialist areas concerning parents of children suffering from hearing loss, social assistance to orphaned children, foster care, ethical guidelines for adoption, grandparent-grandchildren care and child participation.

Substance abuse is a global problem that has generated considerable concern among patients, families, clinicians and researchers. Existing research has not explored the views of social workers as treatment professionals but has focused on the service users and their significant others. A qualitative study was conducted to explore the factors influencing relapse in individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) from a social work perspective. The findings revealed that various factors play a role in relapse at the different levels described from the ecological perspective. The study contributes towards the development of strategies to combat relapse and help in formulating relapse prevention programmes.

Research highlights the complex needs of parents of children with hearing loss. These complex needs include the need for parents to have access to information, be connected with social support networks, consider communication options and have collaborative partnerships with professionals. A mixed-methods approach with a sequential explanatory design using a two-phased approach was implemented in the study. This article reports on the last phase of the study, the consensus workshop. The consensus workshop approach allowed for greater participation, interaction and discussion in the decision-making process in the co-development of a framework to support parents. This phase consisted of two workshops where experts, stakeholders and parents reached consensus on four topics and fifteen sub-topics. Each topic with its sub-topics offers insights into the kind of professional support parents require. The consensus workshop can be considered a valuable tool for multidisciplinary engagement to support parents of children with hearing loss.

The current crisis in foster care was precipitated by using the child protection system to meet the social assistance needs of orphaned children. The new parallel system in the form of an extended child support grant system would enable children in the care of relatives to access an appropriate grant without having to go through a time-consuming and resource-intensive statutory process. This article outlines the challenges in the South African foster care system, discusses the reasons for introducing the extended child support grant system and explains how it will be implemented. The paper seeks to contribute to the knowledge base on social work policy changes. The policy shift towards an extended child support grant could ensure that the majority of orphans have access to adequate social protection and free up the formal child protection system, enabling a quicker social work response to cases of child abuse, maltreatment and neglect.

Decisions made by social workers play a crucial role in foster care. Despite the challenging conditions under which social workers work in South Africa, they continue to make decisions to place children in foster care. There is a lack of research on the decision-making processes of social workers rendering foster care services. A need to understand what decisions are made and how these decisions are made prompted this study. A qualitative approach was applied using the multiple case study design, with explorative, descriptive and contextual designs. Most social workers make decisions using a mix of intuition and empirical evidence, justifying the child's best interest as the basis for their decisions. This study contributes to the knowledge of the decision-making processes of social workers rendering foster care services. This knowledge can enable social workers to be consciously aware of their own decision-making processes during all the phases of rendering foster care services, facilitating transparent decision-making, with the best outcome for the foster child and his/her biological and foster family.

In South Africa, there appears to be a paradigm shift where the majority of the country’s children are taken care of by their grandparents. This article explores the states of reciprocity existing in grandparent-grandchildren care in Mdlankomo location, Libode of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The study utilised a qualitative approach to explore the perceptions of grandparents on reciprocity between them and their grandchildren. Nine grandparents were interviewed. The findings revealed that grandparents manifested love for their grandchildren, who also reciprocated the gesture; delinquent behaviours of grandchildren exasperated their grandparents; the conflict between grandparents and grandchildren ensued when children suspected the abuse of their children’s welfare grant by their grandparents. The researchers urge the Department of Social Development and NGOs working in the children’s domain to strengthen the programmes for the well-being of older persons and children.

Adoption involves dealing with legal and ethical complexities, competing rights and addressing the long-term implications for those involved. The principle of the best interests of children and protecting their rights must guide the process. Currently, no ethical guidelines are in place to address South African adoption practices. This article focuses on the findings of a rapid review of relevant national and international ethics documents and adoption guidelines. The Delphi method was used to identify the challenges in adoption-related practices, as well as to develop and refine ethical guidelines for South African adoption social workers, to be included in the South African Council for Social Service Professions Policy Guidelines for Course of Conduct, Code of Ethics, and the Rules for Social Workers.

It is well known that the effects of climate change and especially environmental inequality are amplified for people who live in poverty or who are marginalised. Social workers internationally and nationally are therefore becoming duty-bound to engage with the issue of environmental social work. This qualitative study used a descriptive design to explore and describe the perceptions of social work educators of the importance and relevance of environmental social work in South Africa. Purposive sampling was used to sample six social work educators from different universities. Semi-structured interviews were incorporated to obtain the data, which was thematically analysed. The results indicated that social work educators perceived ESW as important and relevant, and indicated that ways of integrating it into the social work curriculum should be explored further.

Worldwide, children in the care of the state constitute one of the most vulnerable groups in society. They are often not heard, or their views not respected in matters concerning them. This is incongruent with the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989). Guided by a conceptual framework of child participation theory, this article analyses South African legislation and policies to determine how and when child participation is being promoted. Findings indicate that providing information to children on how to participate meaningfully is the key for effective child participation and that practical guidelines should be developed.

An extensive process in benchmarking the qualification for the South African Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) in accordance with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) was undertaken from 2001 to 2003 by a standards-generating body (SGB) for social work (Lombard, Grobbelaar & Pruis, 2003). The BSW was registered with the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in 2003. By 2007 all social work educational institutions were required to implement the BSW. An essential part of the scrutiny is that Social Work departments at the universities as the training institutions offering the BSW play an active role in applying and monitoring its criteria on a continuous basis. The SA Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) initiated quality-assurance benchmarks for the BSW at the training institutions in 2011. The quality-assurance process is intended to be an interactive one, with the SACSSP dependent on the experience of educators and learners in monitoring criteria. In the light of the fact that the BSW is to be revised in 2012, it is important that a rich dialogue be generated at this stage to guide its formation.

Despite several changes in the workplace, women still face unique challenges with harmful effects on their well-being. Job resources are a crucial buffer between job demands and workplace well-being. The aim of this article is to present the findings of a qualitative study on women academics’ experiences of workplace well-being in relation to job resources. An exploratory and descriptive research design was used to investigate in what ways job resources contribute to women academics’ perceptions of workplace well-being. Purposive sampling was conducted at a top-rated university in South Africa. Data were gathered through twelve semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed that women academics value a variety of job resources associated with psychological, social, physical, and organisational resources. The study also revealed the inherent job resources creating strains on women’s well-being in the workplace. It is recommended that higher education institutions focus on workplace well-being from a practice, organisational, and policy perspective.

COVID-19 has exposed the inequalities and polarisation of South African communities and institutions of higher learning on the continuum of privilege. As nine social work educators, we share our reflections on how we traversed the higher education space during the beginning of the pandemic, using an autoethnography lens, with the pedagogy of discomfort and critical social work theory as the threads in the complex tapestry of our stories. We describe our orientations as social work educators, the successes, challenges, and recommendations on reimagining and reframing learning and teaching in relation to student-institutional relationships, boundaries and support.

Supervision is a potentially effective tool for empowering social workers to perform their duties to their optimal abilities. There are, however, indications from research and practice that this potential has not always been fully realised in South Africa. This especially applies to educational supervision. The aim of the study on which this article is based was to help address this deficiency by profiling the educational supervision needs of a group of child protection social workers of a provincial department of social development. Its results could be used to address deficiencies not only in that province, but also further afield.

Research on the resilience of young people who were raised by substance-abusing caregivers is limited. This study aims to explore the internal interactional processes between nonhuman systems and young adults raised by alcohol-abusing caregivers in Lesotho. Multiple in-depth interviews were conducted and a draw-and-write technique applied with 15 university students, six of whom described having interacted with diverse nonhuman systems in their environment. A grounded theory analysis generated two themes: (1) interacting with empowering messages from non-present writers (through songs and books) and inspirational speakers (through videos) and (2) interacting with imaginary friends and inanimate objects (dolls and tattoos) in order to enhance their resilience. Van Breda’s interactional resilience approach, developed from person-in-the-environment perspective, and Margaret Archer’s theory of agency were found to be useful in interpreting the findings. The implications of the study include the need for social workers’ greater focus on young people’s interactions with nonhuman systems for resilience building.

The integration of child-friendly tools during child counselling facilitates effective communication and child participation. However, the use of child-friendly tools in generalist child counselling remains sparse. This paper presents social work students’ perceptions of using a child assessment tool (CAT). While the study adopted a mixed-method approach, this paper reports the findings drawn from the study's qualitative findings. Data collection included individual semi-structured interviews with purposively sampled fourth-level student social workers. The results indicated that using the CAT created a child-friendly environment that facilitated effective child communication and participation during assessments. Using the CAT addresses barriers to child participation during child assessment.

Social work is committed to the advancement of human rights and social justice. One strategy for promoting social justice is to inculcate a human rights-based approach to social work practice. Using ubuntu as a theorical framework, this article initially explores social exclusion and the accompanying stigma that homeless people experience; it then examines how social workers could apply the principles of ubuntu to re-inscribe homeless people’s human rights. A qualitative study was undertaken with 14 participants who were purposively selected and also identified through snowball sampling. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. Principles of credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability were judiciously adhered to in the research process. The findings indicate that homeless people are the most marginalised population of the community and they are exploited in a variety of ways.

This article is based on the findings of a qualitative study that explored the Vatsonga people’s perceptions of children’s rights to protection. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 community-based participants and 11child protection social workers who were familiar with the Vatsonga people's cultural heritage. Key informant and snowball sampling techniques were employed to select the community-based participants and availability sampling for selecting the social work participants. The study established that the Vatsonga people recognise the provision, protection and participation rights of children. Child participation is perceived as comprised of childhood responsibilities, not the right to be heard perse. The paper argues that some of the purported violations of child rights in Africa emanate from the universal application of a Eurocentric worldview of children’s rights. We conclude that to understand child rights in Africa, African people should be allowed to contribute to the construction of an indigenised and contextualised perspective on child rights.

An employee assistance programme (EAP) is a service provided by an employer to employees who experience personal problems. Its utilisation becomes a challenge when the targeted population prefers to use alternative services to this programme specifically earmarked for them. Such a situation motivated this quantitative research aimed to evaluate the utilisation of the employee assistance programme in the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Waterberg district of Limpopo Province. A systematic sample comprising of 189 respondents was drawn from the total population of 398 employees. The study revealed that the employees’ awareness of the programme was very low.

Foster care is an important part of the child protection system; however, it seems that some foster children are not protected – they are abused and neglected. The aims of this article are to confirm on a small scale whether children in foster care are indeed being abused and neglected and to develop an understanding of factors contributing to the abuse and neglect of these foster children. A qualitative research approach was applied. Findings confirmed the occurrence of abuse and/or neglect and provided information on factors relating to foster parents and the foster care system itself contributing to this phenomenon.

This edition of Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk offers a range of themes to the reader, with topics focusing on income-generating activities, homelessness, gangsterism, substance abuse, effective parenting, sexual orientation, community development practitioner profiling and supervision of social workers.

This paper describes a systematic review of studies on income-generating projects in poor communities. The review found that the beneficiaries experienced their participation in such activities as empowering, particularly in terms of accessing moral support. Their self-esteem was enhanced by their ability to contribute to their family’s livelihood. Yet it also emerges from the evidence that the long-term impact of income-generating projects is uncertain, because of concern about the beneficiaries’ abilities to independently sustain the gains. The paper recommends more complex and large-scale qualitative and quantitative systematic reviews to test more accurately whether systematic reviews of the data from income-generation programmes make better sense of developmental interventions.

This qualitative study explores and describes the resilience of homeless older persons in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. Eleven participants, recruited purposively, participated in photovoice activities supplemented with semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis and trustworthiness was ensured. Findings indicate that conflict, abuse, family disappointment, unemployment, mental health challenges, declining mobility, isolation and a lack of access to services are risk factors hindering resilience. Religion, support and socialisation, amongst other things, are identified as protective factors enabling resilience. Recommendations for resilience-informed biopsychosocial gerontological social services to homeless older persons are offered to navigate towards better-than-expected outcomes.

Despite the widespread prevalence of gangsterism and the predominantly male membership of gangs, some males residing and growing up in the Northern Areas of Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha), where gangsterism is so widespread, have never been involved in gangs. A qualitative study, explorative, descriptive and contextual in design, using semi-structured interviews as data-collection method, explored and described the experience-based lessons from selected males on factors that have protected them from gang involvement. Findings included family support, faith or religion, positive role models, education, participation in wholesome pursuits and involvement in sports as being amongst the factors that prevented participants against involvement in gang activities. Strategies to strengthen these protective factors and utilise them to design relevant programmes and interventions should now be investigated.

Chemical substance abuse remains a major health and social problem globally and in South Africa. Considering the drug-use-related challenges faced by South Africa’s youth, there is a need to design and implement robust interventions to mitigate the impact of chemical substance use. Social workers are not prepared enough to provide drug-dependency treatment to persons with substance abuse challenges. To address this issue, a qualitative research approach was adopted with seven participants who were selected using the non-probability technique of purposive sampling. Data were analysed using Tesch’s eight steps and verified using Guba and Lincoln’s model to test the trustworthiness of the data. Ethical considerations were adhered to throughout the study. The findings highlight that social workers need urgent intensive training and resources to execute their tasks effectively in the field of substance abuse.