there were no child-headed households, as orphaned children were taken
care of by their relatives. The existence of child-headed households is some-
times denied by community members as well as local authorities. During
my first fieldwork period, I contacted a local NGO that I was familiar with.
This NGO, Ubuntu Education Fund (UEF), is a South African and
United States collaboration, which aims to support children in the Ibhayi
community. At UEF people who live in Ibhayi worked as counsellors for
children in need of emotional support. These counsellors were very familiar
with the area, had established contacts in primary and secondary schools,
and were highly aware of the difficult circumstances of many children in
their communities. Therefore, I asked these counsellors, if they were inter-
ested in helping me locate children living in child-headed households, and
possibly working as interpreters. I worked mainly with two interpreters.
During most visits, I was assisted by one of my interpreters. The
children spoke Xhosa, my interpreter translated it to English for me, and
my English was translated to Xhosa for the children. Most of these inter-
views lasted for about one and a half hours. Almost all of the interviews
were conducted in the homes of the children themselves. This was always in
accordance with the wish of the participant himself or herself. Children did
not want to meet at their school. In some cases, children did not have any
furniture in their home and we would sit outside on the grass or meet in my
interpreter’s house. Nearly all interviews were recorded. I conducted 77
one-to-one interviews with 23 children and young people from 20 child-
headed households.
When these households became child-headed, the oldest person was
under the age of 18 in thirteen households; in five households the oldest
person was between 18 and 21; and in two households the oldest was older
than 21. The oldest persons in the households were most involved in the
study. It proved difficult to interview the younger children. However, I was
able to observe these children when I visited the households. Although
most respondents were consequently around the age of 18, they were all
viewed and treated as ‘children’ by society, and also viewed themselves as
‘children’ (van Dijk, 2008, 2011).‘Youth’ has received far less attention in
the new social studies of childhood but is, like ‘children’ and ‘adults’, also a
social construct. Youth, young people and adolescents are generally per-
ceived as neither children nor adults, but as something ‘in between’
(Eerdenwijk, 2007, p. 64). The construction of adolescence as a transitional,
but not adult, stage greatly influences the power relations between adults
and adolescents. In this paper, I refer to the participating children and
young people as ‘children’ or ‘youngsters’.
66 DIANA VAN DIJK