Peer-reviewed article
The experiences of early childhood development home visitors in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa
Lenette Azzi-Lessing, Kim Schmidt ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5This study looks at the experiences of home visitors who deliver early childhood development services to poor families in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Researchers held a focus group with a small number of these workers to understand what they encounter on the job. The visitors described dealing with extreme family poverty, high rates of child maltreatment, and a lack of resources in the areas they serve. Despite these difficulties, they also spoke about finding the work rewarding and wanting to continue helping vulnerable families.
Key points
- Home visitors encounter the effects of extreme family poverty
- They identify high rates and multiple types of child maltreatment
- Resources are scarce in the high-need areas where they work
- Home visitors find rewards in the work and want to keep serving these communities
Limitations
The study is based on a small focus group of home visitors, so findings may not generalise, and it describes perceptions and experiences rather than measurable outcomes for children.
Abstract
Background: This article examines the development of early childhood development (ECD) home-visiting services in South Africa.Aim: To examine the factors that could support the success of home-visiting programmes as well as to explore the experiences of bachelor’s-level home visitors rendering such services.Setting: This study was conducted in the Eastern Cape, a highly impoverished area of South Africa.Methods: It begins with a discussion of the emergence of home-visiting as a strategy for the delivery of ECD services in South Africa and a review of the literature on ECD home-visiting, particularly with highly vulnerable, impoverished families. Next a focus group conducted with a small sample of home visitors as part of a multi-faceted community assessment is described. The results are examined within the context of challenges facing this particular part of South Africa and the nation as a whole.Results: Four themes emerged as most prominent: (1) encountering the effects of extreme family poverty, (2) identifying high rates and multiple aspects of child maltreatment, (3) encountering scarce resources in high-need areas and (4) finding rewards and maintaining a desire to continue serving challenging populations.Conclusion: This study provides a unique window on the challenges that ECD home visitors are likely to encounter when working with families living in extreme poverty, the resourcefulness that home visitors often demonstrate and the rewards to be found in this work.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Bachelor's-level home visitors delivering early childhood development home-visiting services to vulnerable families
- Population
- Home visitors serving highly impoverished families in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
Key finding
Visitors reported encountering extreme family poverty and high rates of child maltreatment
Azzi-Lessing et al. · Crossref · 14 Oct 2019