The transcripts from our qualitative interviews are almost all complete. So I have plenty of bedtime reading and food for thought as we move into the survey phase of the project.
The stories of the youth and parents certainly highlight the risk among youth here. The common cycle of poverty, hopelessness, emotional distress, and risk behavior is clear throughout the interviews. Also clear, however, is the resilience of many youth and families. A few examples:
· A single father who recognizes his daughter’s probable embarrassment to ask for new underwear or sanitary pads -- and gives her pocket money without asking how she spends it.
· An adolescent girl who grows and sells her own vegetables to buy school supplies and soap (and gives the remaining amount to her grandmother who is her caregiver).
· A single mother who distracts her daughter with activities inside the house when other children are walking to school because she doesn’t want her daughter to feel sad about not being able to afford school right now.
· A pastor who is on-call 24 hours a day for a mother whose husband is often drunk and violent when he returns home from his job in a neighboring community.
Stories of resilience provide an exciting starting point for developing intervention ideas -- these families have clearly found creative solutions that work.
What encouraging instances of hope. Congratulations on finishing your interviews!
ReplyDeleteResilience and coping are evident in the stories. As I read these snippets I think of a pastor whose sleep is often interrupted because he probably on call for many mothers. A single mother with enough know-how and creativity to keep he daughter busy and perhaps with some tools, a mother who could be an at=home teacher, except she probably did not have the opportunity for school, which might be what gives her so much empathy. Thanks for sharing these stories. Almost too much food for thought. Happy Birthday a couple of days early.
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