Children without parents- a Ghanaian case study

Aspects of family welfare and plannin

Taking steps: an African ageing agenda

Twenty years ago it would have been an impossible task to assemble African scientists and social welfare practitioners to discuss the subject of ageing. Very little researched information existed then and many African governments were likely to assert that ageing was no problem in their country. Even in the 1980s a great deal of scepticism existed in Africa about the need for African gerontology research. Today, and taking a cue from the deliberations of the first AGES workshop, there is no country in our region that is not confronted with the negative impacts of development and urbanization as their country charts its route towards modernization. Even though an ageing agenda still has a low profile on the economic desks of many African governments, the realisation that there are indeed difficulties to be overcome regarding the care of elderly people in Africa is widespread

Gender and intergenerational support: the case of Ghanaian women

Africa must formulate appropriate social welfare policy for the elderly as a matter of urgency. Whether policy formulation takes place without in-depth knowledge of black indigenous structures, or whether it does the contrary and builds upon this knowledge, will have consequences for the whole of Africa. This article addresses the issue of gender and intergenerational support as a policy agenda for African countries. The article focusses on Ghana and examines intergenerational support systems, in particular the intergenerational exchanges between women traders. It also considers the social welfare benefits and contributions that intergenerational support can make. A new approach to the design of social welfare policy is proposed, which recognizes that the problems of the aged are increasingly African problems

Family finance and doorstep trading: social and economic wellbeing of elderly Ghanaian female traders

Ghana's female traders frequently "gift" their working businesses to their daughters or other junior female relatives as a means of providing for their old age. This occupational gifting customarily ensures the ageing trader social and economic support in her later years as she is assured of an exchange of financial and other forms of assistance. However, the gifting of the working business to a daughter does not mean the end of the woman's trading career. As she grows older the trader scales down the level of her business activities and frequently ends up trading with little capital on the doorstep of her home. This career structure provides the ageing woman with a strong economic and social definition amongst her kin and facilitates her active integration into the household unit. Continued trading inhibits social marginalization. Fifty elderly women traders were interviewed about the practice of occupational gifting. A key finding was that although the practice is still widespread it is in decline. Alternative ways of ensuring the active integration of elderly women into the contemporary African urban household are considered

Filial factors of kwashiorkor survival in urban Ghana: Rediscovering the roles of the extended family

This paper discusses the findings of two field studies in urban Accra, Ghana that investigated the social and familial factors that were associated with survival of childhood kwashiorkor, a protein-caloric deficiency form of malnutrition that is endemic in that nation. Data was collected from qualitative interviews with family groups that included teenaged survivors of kwashiorkor, and the adults who were involved in the young person’s childhood rearing, including those who were  responsible for compliance with the Ghana Ministry of Health malnutrition  rehabilitation effort. Extensive interviews were documented in audio and video tape and field notes by a team that included the fields of social work, public health, nursing and sociology. All members of the participating families who were involved in the data collection were offered compensation for their time as well as full protection of privacy through the human subjects informed consent protocol and oversight of the University of Ghana, Eastern Michigan University and Wayne State University. The findings included reporting of a consistently critical role of the grandmothers and other senior women in the family units. The senior women either managed the economics and maintenance of the extended household, or took  principal responsibility for sustaining the malnourished children’s participation in rehabilitation efforts. In some cases, the mothers were deceased and two or more senior women in the family carried out roles of parenting as well as familial  economic support and coordination of care for the afflicted child. The findings  suggest that full compliance with rehabilitation efforts for a single mother with multiple children and no extended familial support system would be very difficult and more likely to result in non-compliance and failure of the child to survive.   Suggestions are offered for family oriented, community health education regarding the irony of this form of malnutrition being endemic in communities that do not lack appropriate food. Implications for increased recognition and support for the elderly and senior family members to enhance child survival are discussed within the  context of changing social and epidemiological profiles of urban centers in Ghana and elsewhere among developing nations of sub- Saharan Africa.Keywords: Kwashiorkor, Malnutrition, Rehabilitation compliance, Grandmothers, Endemic malnutritio