Youth Transitioning Out of Residential Care in South Africa: Toward Ubuntu and Interdependent Living

Abstract

Informed by the qualitative method and the descriptive-interpretive design, this study, which was underscored by radical humanist goals of structural social work, reflects the voices of 16 youth who had transitioned out of care. The results show that emerging adults, transitioning out of care, are vulnerable and in need of support. This article discusses three main themes derived via an inductive approach: the influence of sociocultural networks, connecting with family, and the multiple risk factors associated with getting into and out of care that compromise youth’s quest for security. The neoliberal discourse on independent living needs to shift to interdependence and Ubuntu. It is interdependence, not independence, that gives a human face to care leavers as service providers respond to their past trauma, present vulnerability, and future risks, while promoting family preservation and resourceful, caring communities.

Leaving Care in Africa

“…Several papers (Dickens & Marx, 2020; Dziro, 2020; Moodley et al, 2020; Sekibo, 2020; Takele & Kotecho, 2020) provide evidence that irrespective of the type of care, youth transitioning into emerging adulthood face multiple challenges. While some country-specific challenges exist, most care-leavers have poor outcomes in three key areas of their lives: employment, accommodation, and social integration.…”

“…qualitative data (Bond, 2020;Frimpong-Manso, 2020;Gwenzi, 2020;Moodley, Raniga, & Sewpaul, 2020;Takele & Kotecho, 2020), quantitative data (Dickens & Marx, 2020), and mixed methods data (Bukuluki, Kamya, Kasirye, & Nabulya, 2020;Dziro, 2020). Most of the evidence comes from residential care, but there is also a focus on nonformal kinship care, an area on which very little is written, despite being the major form of alternative care for OVC on the continent.…”

Developing the notion of ubuntu as African theory for social work practice

“…As a result, when they age out of care, they struggle to fit in with cultural patterns of interaction and are perceived as being "culturally immoral". Similarly, Moodley, Raniga, Sewpaul, (2019) argue that young people transitioning out of care need to be assisted, in line with ubuntu principles, to be interdependent rather than the more typical focus on independence.…”

Raising African Voices in the Global Dialogue on Care-Leaving and Emerging Adulthood

“…For African young adults, the transition out of alternative care is thus complicated by their dislocation from the clan. This is particularly challenging given the extent to which personal identity in Africa is rooted in one's clan, linking with the notion of Ubuntu (that a person is a person through interdependence with other people; Moodley, Raniga, & Sewpaul, 2020). Many aspects of life-finding work, getting married, having children-are tied to the clan.…”