Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)

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Browsing Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters) by SDG "SDG-1: No poverty"

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    Breaking the Chains of Intergenerational Childhood Poverty: A Narrative Retrospective Study of Resilience
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Wong , Caitlyn; Jithoo, Vinitha; Besharati, Sahba
    The experience of poverty is well-documented, however, there is a notable gap in the existing research concerning the unique narratives of university students who have undergone experiences of poverty during childhood. These students have been successful in gaining admission into university despite facing major financial hardships stemming from their experiences of intergenerational childhood poverty. These university students identified with having experiences of childhood poverty as well as resilience, thus becoming an important and under-researched sample. This qualitative study aims to explore these students’ narratives of childhood impoverishment, with an emphasis on the identification and understanding of resilience within these experiences. This topic was investigated through the utilisation of the resilience theoretical framework. The study employed a Narrative Analysis (NA) to assess the experiential and retrospective narrative accounts of emerging adults within the university student demographic using semi-structured interviews. Three overarching themes were identified: (1) narratives within the living environment; (2) the nexus of poverty, education, and opportunity; and (3) participants’ constructions of resilience. The results illustrated that the narrative experience of childhood poverty contained great levels of experienced difficulties within the home and schooling environment, and with emotional implications of poverty resulting in difficulties with coping and social exclusion. However among this plethora of hardship, participants constructions of resilience related to motivation, strength, acceptance, adaptation, and rewriting the narrative towards positive meaning-making. Therefore this study provided further subjective insight into the topic of poverty and resilience by way of presenting the data as experienced by the research participants, as well as having made recommendations for future research.
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    The role of the Community Work Programme (CWP) in poverty alleviation: a case of Naledi Local Municipality in Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, North West Province
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Mongale, Ontiretse
    South Africa is of a typical example of countries which adopted development welfare services. Social development approach has been practiced since 1994 in South Africa. Evidently development policies, projects and programmes illustrate such. The Community Work Programme (CWP) was adopted in 2009 to contribute towards poverty alleviation in South Africa. CWP is a Public Employment Programme (PEP) led by government which provide regular employment and social protection to people vulnerable to poverty. Therefore, this study aimed to explore contributions of CWP in poverty alleviation in Naledi Local Municipality (NLM) in Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, North West Province. The research approach was qualitative in nature, and an instrumental case study design was applied. This research is rooted in interpretivism paradigm hence purposive sampling technique was used to select participants who could provide in-depth examination of the topic. The sample consisted of twenty research participants. These include thirteen CWP participants, four field supervisors and three participants from the office staff and implementing agent. Three different semi-structured interview guides were used to collect data. Data was collected through in-depth face to face interviews to collect data from CWP participants and field supervisor while visual platform called Zoom was used to collect data from office staff members. Covid19 protocols were adhered to during face to face interviews with respondents. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. The main conclusion derived from the study is that the CWP provides sufficient benefits to its participants and community of NLM that accelerate government efforts to alleviate poverty and reduce unemployment. The study also established that the CWP has the potential to improve provision of basic social needs and skills required to enter in the job market only if multiple stakeholder partnerships and collaborations are enhanced. The study concludes with an optimistic view that social protection directly reduces the effect of unemployment across South Africa.