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“The Luggage that isn’t Theirs is Too Heavy…”: Understandings of Orphan Disadvantage in Lesotho

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Abstract

In Southern Africa, high adult HIV prevalence has fueled concern about the welfare of children losing parents to the epidemic. A growing body of evidence indicates that parental, particularly maternal, death is negatively associated with child outcomes. However, a better understanding of the mechanisms is needed. In addition, the way orphan disadvantage and the mechanisms giving rise to it are understood on the ground is essential for the successful translation of research into policies and programs. This study employs data from 89 in-depth interviews with caregivers and key informants in Lesotho, a setting where approximately one-quarter of adults is infected with HIV, to elaborate understandings of orphan disadvantage. Our analysis focuses on two questions: (i) Do local actors perceive orphans to be disadvantaged compared to non-orphans, and if so, in what ways; and (ii) How do they explain orphans’ differential disadvantage? Analyses suggest that orphans were widely perceived to be disadvantaged; respondents described this disadvantage in material as well as affective domains. Thematic analyses reveal five broad categories of explanation: poverty, love and kin connection, caregiver character, perceptions of orphans, and community norms related to orphan care. These results underscore the need for research and policy to address (i) multiple types of disadvantage, including deficits in kindness and attention; and (ii) the social embeddedness of disadvantage, recognizing that poverty, kinship, and community interact with individual attributes to shape caregiving relationships and child experiences. The findings suggest limited success for programs and policies that do not address the emotional needs of children, or that focus on child or caregiver support to the exclusion of community outreach.

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Notes

  1. Consistent with standard practice, orphans are defined here as children who have lost one or both parents (UNAIDS et al. 2004).

  2. See Beegle and Krutikova (2008) and Timaeus and Boler (2007) for notable exceptions.

  3. See Kaggwa and Hindin (2010) and Nyamukapa et al. (2010) for studies that have begun to examine empirically mediators of the relationship between orphanhood and psychological distress using survey data.

  4. Community informants identified households with children. Key informants were identified through participant observation and discussion with community informants. Interviews were conducted over 9 months in one of the two official languages, English or Sesotho.

  5. Sixteen respondents were currently responsible for the care of one or more orphans.

  6. When a quotation derives from a caregiver interview, the kinship relationship of the respondent to the focal child is given as an identifier. When the quotation derives from a key informant interview, the respondent’s occupation is given.

  7. Some respondents did, however, speak more generally of differences between girls and boys (for example, proclivities to delinquency among boys, the dangers to girls and their families of pregnancy before marriage, and greater caregiving abilities among girls). It is, therefore, plausible that families consider gender-specific risks when deciding to take in male and female orphans (Gage 2005).

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge project research support from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (HD050469) and the National Science Foundation (SES-0218139), as well as support to the first author from an NICHD training grant (T32-HD007338) to the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University and an American Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). We thank Maletela Tuoane-Nkhasi and John Karl for their contributions to the project and the fieldwork, and Nancy Luke, Maya Judd, Abigail Harrison, Kelley Smith, Thandie Hlabana, and Erin Parker for their excellent comments on earlier versions of this paper. Finally, we express our gratitude to the many families and community members in Lesotho who participated in or otherwise supported this research.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University, P.O. Box 1836, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Rachel E. Goldberg & Susan E. Short

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  1. Rachel E. Goldberg
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Correspondence to Rachel E. Goldberg.

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Goldberg, R.E., Short, S.E. “The Luggage that isn’t Theirs is Too Heavy…”: Understandings of Orphan Disadvantage in Lesotho. Popul Res Policy Rev 31, 67–83 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-011-9223-4

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