College of Humanities
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Browsing College of Humanities by Subject "Abandoned children."
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Item The development of evaluation strategies for intervention projects for girl street children : a participatory action approach.(2005) Reddy, Preshantha.; Sewpaul, Vishanthie.This study which was conducted in a shelter for girl street children in KwaZuluNatal explored the programmes available to the girl street child and the current evaluation strategies for such programmes. The aim of the research was to provide insight into what criteria or indices children and service providers think should be used to evaluate the effectiveness of programmes for street children. Qualitative research methodology using a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach guided the research and allowed for in-depth discussions with the children living in the shelters as well as the staff involved. The children were between 12-18 years of age. Data were obtained through separate multiple focus group sessions with children and staff at the shelter. Seven focus group sessions were held with the children and three focus group sessions were held with the staff at the shelter. The sessions were tape-recorded and then transcribed. The major findings of the study indicated that the children overall were enjoying their stay in the shelter. However, inconsistencies were identified between the experiences of the children and the work conducted by the staff members. Further, the findings of this study showed that programmes at the shelter being studied were evaluated, but the effectiveness of these evaluation strategies has been questioned. Emanating from the findings, recommendations have been made with regards to practice issues and programme evaluation.Item The images of God as perceived by abandoned children : an exploratory study into the spiritual development of children.(2006) Zengele, Patricia Bongi.; Rakoczy, Susan Francis.; Haddad, Beverley Gail.This research study explores the ways in which children from diverse family backgrounds can construct or reconstruct their God representations. These were probed by using 'object relations theory' and 'matemal deprivation theory' as means of further gaining insight into children's initial formulations of interpersonal and emotional relationships and how these were translated into the way they imagined God to be for themselves, given their age-group. Parallels were drawn between the interface of psychology and theology by using theories on faith development. There is a clear acknowledgment that there are certain steps of development that individuals go through in their growth at both psychological and spiritual levels. This confirms that there is a need for these two disciplines to draw from each other as means of creating conducive climate to allow for an integrated approach towards formulations of spiritual development among children. Through the use of questionnaires the children were given the opportunity to explore images of God and to also express these in the form of a drawing. The content analysis of this study demonstrated that there were no distinct differences on how children perceived God between abandoned children being raised in an institutional setting and those children being raised by biological parents. This finding highlighted the fact that there are other factors that impact children's spiritual development. These include care, nurture and emotional security. This study contributes to future research on developing new theologies by children, thus enabling them to play a central role in formulating contextual and relevant curriculums on religious education.