Young People's Experiences of a Family Death: Bereavement and Care in Urban Senegal

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT Copyright University of Reading

Putting the ‘social’ back into young people’s psychosocial wellbeing, care and support, ODI, 22 Nov 2016

Ruth Evans [email protected] @DrRuth_Evans

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YOUNG PEOPLE'S EXPERIENCES OF A FAMILY DEATH: BEREAVEMENT AND CARE IN URBAN SENEGAL

Participation Lab & Global Development

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT

DEATH IN THE FAMILY IN URBAN SENEGAL RESEARCH PROJECT

• Interviews with 59 family members, incl. 9 children (12-17yrs) and 19 youth (18-30)

• Key informant interviews: 23 local and religious leaders and professionals

• 4 focus groups , observations

• Feedback workshops

• Report available from:

blogs.reading.ac.uk/deathinthefamilyinsenegal

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http://www.blogs.reading.ac.uk/deathinthefamilyinsenegal

blogs.reading.ac.uk/ deathinthefamilyinsenegal

blogs.reading.ac.uk/ deathinthefamilyinsenegal


RESEARCH CONTEXT

• Triple heritage of African, Islamic and colonial influences

• Half of the population are aged under 18 (UNICEF, 2014)

• 48% of population live in urban areas (ANSD, 2013)

• Family death more than just an ‘economic shock’ to the household

• Young people’s reciprocal responsibilities to families and communities

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ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF FAMILY DEATH

• Significant changes in material circumstances

‘like a big baobab tree that been uprooted’ (young woman whose father had died 8 months ago, FG)

• Greater precarity and loss of care:

‘It’s my father who took care of us. And when he passed away there were

some relatives that helped us at first but after, they said they couldn’t anymore. At the moment we’re managing to eat and go to school. There was a neighbour who gave us money at the end of the month but in the meantime, he also had eye problems and stopped helping’. (Oulimata, 18)

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ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF FAMILY DEATH

• Several young people had had to start working following the death:

‘it’s changed my life a little because I wasn’t used to working. Papa was here and he gave everything; all I had to do was to study but after my father’s death, I was forced to work. One, because I have a daughter and two, because I have to help my mother. So that’s changed my life a little; more responsibilities too’. (Albertine, 19 yrs, young unmarried mother)

• Some young people had stopped studying due to poverty and the need to work

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EMOTIONAL RESPONSES AND RELIGIOSITY

• Emotional upheaval, loneliness:

‘My life was turned upside-down because I wasn’t expecting that. […] I feel alone. […] You’re there but at times you’re distressed. […] Sometimes you’re not happy either’. (Fary, young woman whose mother died, 22yrs)

• Greater adherence to religious practices:

‘I’ve changed. [..] The death of my mother pushed me to follow my religion better. After each daily prayer, I pray for her. In a way, it’s enabled me to know more things in life. That’s made me realize things’. (Mame Cor, young man 16 yrs).

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CHANGES IN FAMILY RELATIONS • Closer family relations, esp. between co-resident siblings and remaining

parent

• Young people miss their parent’s guidance, protection and care:

‘Since my father died, we hardly go out. He was our advisor. When you go out now and encounter problems, you have nobody’. (Doudou, young man, 27 yrs, fisherman)

‘My mother took care of me in every way. […] She took care of all my needs. She advised me, she was also my friend. Today I’m alone with my father who is not here, he’s in Italy’ (Fary, young woman, 22yrs, Terminale secondary school)

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CHANGES IN DOMESTIC & CARE WORK

• More responsibilities for household chores, esp. young women:

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Hawa, 16 yrs, studying in 4ième secondary school, whose older brother (main income earner, 45 yrs) died:

‘It was my brother who used to go and look for water. He would take a cart (and horse) to go and get water. And now, it’s my sister and me who do it. […] In any case, every day I go to school after having done the housework. When I finish I go and get water’.

[During vacations] I’m at home with my father and my mother but they are elderly. So I stay with them.[…] My sister-in-law was here at home, when my brother died, she went back to hers.[…] I go to the market, I prepare meals, I do the housework’.

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• Strong sense of responsibility for siblings

Following mother’s death a year ago:

‘I don’t want them to go hungry or thirsty. I want them to succeed in their life. […] I stopped my studies so they could continue theirs. […] If I want to buy something and I think of them, I no longer want to do it’. (Diami, aged 26 (married with two children, has small business, husband in Mauritania)

• Being a role model and disciplining younger siblings, esp. for young men:

‘As I’m the man of the house, I tell my sisters what my father used to say to them.[…] to pray’ (Babacar, 12, studying in CM2 primary school)

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• Emotional support for remaining parent and siblings:

‘So as papa was no longer there, being the eldest, I had to stay with maman, to console her at all times.[ …] . So it was an experience that also marked me because I had to transform into … I had to put myself in my maman’s place. So at the time it had to be me who managed the house a little. [..] I’m my maman’s eldest daughter so it was a little hard but I held on’.

(Albertine, 19 yrs, young unmarried mother)

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MIGRATION & HOUSEHOLD MOBILITY Aminata, 25 yrs, married, used to live with her mother, younger siblings

and her 3 children, moved to Aminata’s husband’s house:

‘I’m like their [her siblings’] mother, I’m responsible for them. I prefer to give them everything I have and me, I don’t have anything because that’s how our mother did things’ (Kaolack)

Feedback phase: Aminata had died, Baba (aged 15) moved to Dakar to live with an uncle

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POLICY & PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

•Economic, emotional, social dimensions of a family death shape young people's gendered transitions

•Crucial importance of engaging with extensive family and community support networks

•Need for ‘Bereavement Aware’ family-focused approach which goes beyond the individual or household

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• SDG 1: economic and social impacts of bereavement

• SDG2: bereaved families worried about paying for food

• SDG3: improving access to healthcare and reducing costs of care for sick and dying relatives; wellbeing includes emotional dimensions

• SDG4: education and training of bereaved young people

• SDG5: bereaved girls’ and women’s domestic and care work may increase and may become main income-earner

• SDG8: need to work to replace lost income

• SDG10: inequalities based on widow or orphan status

• SDG11: affordable safe housing key concern

• SDG16: violent, accidental deaths particularly difficult to come to terms with; need for legal support and access to justice.

UN, 2016


A ‘BEREAVEMENT AWARE’ APPROACH DOES NOT NEED TO BE COSTLY….

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Examples include:

• Adjusting the criteria of existing cash transfer and other social protection programmes

• Raising awareness among school staff, social workers, NGO practitioners, local and religious leaders

• Providing access to school staff for students to talk to or developing peer mentoring schemes

• Increasing the availability of school and university bursaries for students whose relative has died


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FULL REPORT AVAILABLE FROM: BLOGS.READING.AC.UK/ DEATHINTHEFAMILYINSENEGAL @DrRuth_Evans [email protected]

Young People's Experiences of a Family Death: Bereavement and Care in Urban Senegal

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