CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
5.0.0. INTRODUCTION
The chapter was concluded by synthesizing the study's main findings, which are centred on
the subjective lived experiences of 18+ care leavers of the St Joseph’s House of Boys in
Harare. The concluding section of this chapter is devoted to making recommendations for
mitigation of challenges experienced by 18+ youths ousted of institutional care in Harare.
5.1.0. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The primary aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of care leavers from St
Joseph's House of Boys in Zimbabwe. Ten individuals took part in the qualitative research
and shared their first-hand accounts of their economic constrained after care experiences,
accompanied by additional difficulties that bred despair and dismal circumstances. According
to the findings of the research, these young men ousted off care encountered many difficulties
and challenges, and these will be summarized below.
5.1.1. CHALLENGES FACED BY 18+ YOUTHS LEAVING CARE
The findings from the interviews held with the participants indicate that youth leaving the
institution care system are confronted with numerous difficulties and barriers which ranges
from unemployment, lack of housing, neglection from parents and caregivers, poverty and
educational vulnerability, mental health challenges, lack of supervision services, and abuse of
foster child support funds. As claimed by some of the participants, youth leaving the foster
care system are unemployed, and those who are employed are in unstable jobs. Harare has the
most elevated rate of unemployed youth nationally (Nkama et al., 2020). The majority of
young people in Harare are unemployed and using drugs, which is a crisis, according to
Zimbabwean President Mr. Emmerson Mnangagwa's 2020 speech to the country (Republic of
Zimbabwe, 2020). Concerns over social workers' insufficient monitoring and reunification
assistance were voiced by a few participants. As a result, some caretakers are unaware of
their biological parents or other family members. Family ties or involvement are frequently
severed when children are placed in alternative care, and social workers frequently provide
insufficient reunification services (Van Breda, 2019).
It was observed that the majority of care leavers in Harare had poverty and a lack of housing
as their main worries, which had an impact on their psycho-social wellness. According to
Amendment No. 8 of the Children's Act 2023, care facilities that looked after these young
people were released from their care after they turned 18 and married off to the adult world,
assuming that their age would allow them to live successful adult lives on their own.
However, COVID-19 caused more young men to be compelled to live as squatters, primarily
in Mbare, because of the lack of access to accommodation and other support services during
the pandemic made it more difficult for care leavers to escape the wrath of covid-related
hardships with schools closed and limited access to health care and legal services. Most
young foster care leavers were left vulnerable to exploitation.
5.1.2. COPING MECHANISMS EMPLOYED BY YOUTH TRANSITIONING OUT OF THE
FOSTER CARE SYSTEM
Every person, including young people leaving the foster care system in Harare, has the
capacity to recover from any trying circumstance, according to research on coping strategies
that increased resilience in those who left the system. One of the elements that allowed young
people leaving foster care to achieve success in their lives despite their difficult upbringings,
obstacles, or misfortunes is resilience (Adley and Kina, 2019). When faced with challenges,
those with resilience enablers turned to their education, their membership with a faith or
church, their peers, their siblings and spouses, and part-time work. Some of the participants
considered graduating as the important aspect for them in finding a better job and lowering
their social vulnerabilities, such as financial difficulties and housing challenges (Van Breda,
2019).
The study's findings revealed that the foster care age limit prevented many youths leaving
care from finishing their secondary education and training as required, as the majority of
them continued with secondary school beyond the age of 21 due to various issues they had
encountered while in care, and they did so without any assistance or financial support from
the state. Despite their challenges, the majority of the youths who took part in the study
demonstrated a great deal of resilience and a desire to continue with their lives after leaving
the foster care system. It should be highlighted, too, that a large number of study participants
reported leaving the foster care system suddenly without the adult or financial support—or
any other kind of assistance—that they required to successfully make the transition to young
adulthood.
5.1.3. SUGESSTIONS FOR ADDRESSING CHALLENGES FACED BY YOUTH LEAVING
CARE
The participants made numerous suggestions for resolving Zimbabwe's foster care system's
problems with young people. These solutions include requiring institutional caregivers to
save money for foster children, providing supervision after foster care placement, forming a
panel between the case manager and the social worker working at the institution of care,
offering a preparatory program for youth leaving care between the ages of 15 and 18,
integrating government and private sector services, extending foster care placement past the
age of 21, and creating a shelter for young people leaving the foster care system or allocating
housing for youth leaving care, maintaining communication with foster children's biological
parents; encouraging confidentiality; taking foster children's or youth leaving care's opinions
into account; connecting resources for youth leaving care; matching foster children with
appropriate foster parents; providing treatment or counselling; and assisting young people
who are exiting foster care in earning their "A" Level.
5.2.0. CONCLUSIONS
Foster care services are intended to protect and provide for children and adolescents who
have experienced trauma, orphanage, or abuse of any kind (Atkinson, 2020). However, this
study found that the current foster care system in Zimbabwe is not set up to support the
successful and efficient transfer of foster adolescents to adulthood. The laws and procedures
that currently govern foster care services do not sufficiently address the critical
developmental needs of young people as they move through critical growth stages. Many
young people who are leaving the foster care system are presumably not receiving any kind
of preparation services that would provide them the knowledge and abilities they need to
function on their own once they are out of the system. It can be concluded that there is not
enough interaction between foster children and designated social workers. The majority of
foster children face increased stress and depression as they become older, and they find it
difficult to talk to their social workers about their experiences because they believe that their
social workers spend more time with their foster parents than with them.
Due to their lack of financial stability, the majority of young people who leave the foster care
system experience a number of problems, such as homelessness and unemployment. The
transition of adolescents from the foster care system to young adulthood is greatly impacted
by inadequate social work support services and a dearth of after-care programs. Although
young people who leave the foster care system have a wide range of life experiences, it can
be said that not all of their challenges have been thoroughly examined.
In summary, the lack of training programs for young people leaving the foster care system
makes it more difficult for them to successfully transition from foster care to young
adulthood because many of them leave foster care placements with little to no knowledge,
training, or skills necessary to support themselves during these crucial stages of psycho-social
development.
5.3.0. RECOMMENDATIONS
[Link] THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
- Implementation of independent living services thus not yet self-sufficient care leavers will
have access to specific after care or transitional independent living services such as
employment and accommodation.
- Permanent follow-up caseworkers must be appointed for each and every child in care for as
long as they still need assistance regardless of their age.
- Establishment a standard preparatory programme for youth leaving care from 15-18 years,
thus imparting crucial life skills for a successful adult life.
- Further research on care leaving
5.3.2. STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
- The Department of Housing must chip in for the establishment of the shelter for youth
leaving the foster care system
- The Ministry of Education must chip in to ensure quality education for care leavers
considering their staggering financial situations
- A standard of operation must be established to ensure a permanent smooth relation and
communication among involved agencies and actors such as the DSD, parent Ministry of
Child Welfare and Health, Non-Governmental Organisations and other relevant actors
5.3.3. TO THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
- The Ministry of Education must address economic challenges and young care leavers in
school.
- The Ministry of Education must carry out countrywide campaigns against premature
ousting of 18+ from care, with a call to end the scourge.
- The Ministry of Education must enforce programs accompanied by special financial
assistance for providing bursaries to enable young care leavers with poor backgrounds to
access quality education
5.3.4. TO THE COMMUNITY
- The community must be accountable for keeping young men ousted from institutional care
from the streets and in school and employing the law to sanction exploiters.
- The community must be more helpful and include formerly institutionalised young man in
neighbourhood initiatives without stigmatizing them to avoid isolation and discrimination of
care leavers.
- The community must develop and adopt commitment to ending unjustifiable forced exits
from care and sensitize the community members to report such practices. More community
awareness and empowerment programs should be intensified in order to reach all corners of
the country and follow up by the government should be done to check and evaluate on the
effective implementation of such programs. This effort will change undesirable behaviours
and attitudes towards care leavers.
- The community must tap in Zimbabwe’s rich culture and Ubuntu philosophy, joining hands
to provide care and love to vulnerable care leavers upon their return into the community.
5.3.5. SUPPORTING POLICY FRAMEWORK
- Reviewing existing laws and strengthening legal and policy frameworks.
- Designing effective systems of foster care through emphasizing enlengthened lawful period
of stay until one is ready as per DSD standard.
- Reviewing customary and civil law in the light of internationally agreed human rights in
addition to standards of marriage.
5.3.6. TO THE SOCIAL WORKERS
- Social workers should aim to advocate that more organizations invest in care leavers’
programs in Harare so that there can be more income generating initiatives.
- Social workers must contribute more to awareness raising on the policies that are there to
safeguard ousted care leavers as most of this marginalized group have no knowledge on such
information.
- Social workers should also advocate for policies and laws that protect and fight against
harmful practice as stated in the 2030 sustainable development Agenda (United Nations,
2015).
- Social workers in particular must focus on achieving socio-economic empowerment of the
care leavers in the streets of Harare.
-Social workers with the help of NGOs can carry out effective campaigns to end forced
ousting of young men under care after turning 18+.
5.3.7. TO INSTITIONAL CARE ORGANIZATIONS
- Organizations must view craftsmanship, education and job development as important
because they disrupt the scholastic monopoly and give young care leavers a way to support
themselves without having to rely on government grants nor parent institutions to provide for
their fundamental necessities.
- Extending foster care placement beyond the age of 21or the rendering of supervision post
foster care placement
- Panel between the DSD case manager and the social worker employed at the institution for
smooth integrated operation.
- Mandatory for foster parents and institutional care givers to save money for foster children,
utilised later in the inevitable adulthood transitioning.
- Integration of services within all the various stakeholders will help to address the challenges
and experiences of youth leaving the foster care system in Zimbabwe.
5.3.8. TO THE PARENT GOVERNMENT
- The government should form a board that focuses on issues of youth leaving care in the
nation as a way of showing that the government is making an effort. Social workers need to
mobilize resources by writing proposals and finding donors that can support such programs.
- The government of Zimbabwe should put in place measures that motivate and encourage
care leavers to go to school. It should consider free education for primary and secondary
education and scholarships for tertiary education. Therefore, it requires the absorption of
more resources in the education sector and also works in conjunction with or seek assistance
from development partners in the area like non-governmental organizations.
- The government should provide more economic opportunities. The government and other
development agencies in Zimbabwe and Musasa Project in particular should equip also
include young vulnerable young men with employable skills that allow them to embark on
income generating activities. Young men should be allowed to attend workshops that educate
them to diversify their opportunities in life even when education cannot be attained there
should be another gap for an economic opportunity to eradicate poverty. Efforts to improve
access to economic resources for care leavers should focus on expanding employment
creation and also entrepreneurship opportunities for care leavers.
- The government with the financial help of relevant stakeholders must come up with
financially programs advocating for an end in forced exits from care on the basis of age
through policy reformation.
5.3.9. TO CARE LEAVERS
- Young men forced out of care said to have become of age but still vulnerable must learn
how to stand up for their rights so that they may make sound choices about their own lives.
- Their priority should be on capacity building and prioritizing schooling instead of relying
on harmful scapegoats such as crime and drug abuse.
5.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter summarized what the researcher found during the research of the lived
experiences of care leavers from the St Joseph’ s House of Boys. The researcher also gave
concluding remarks from the research findings and lastly gave recommendations.