means, sharing your wealth with poorer members of the community. You
are expected to do what is in your power to help a person in need. My
being a white person in an African community meant that people saw me
as a wealthy person. With some children, I became more and more
involved in their lives. Because I was working closely with counsellors from
UEF, this meant that we sometimes intervened in children’s lives. This
always happened with the children’s agreement. Examples are going to a
hospital with a sick young woman, contacting the Department of Social
Development for advice, paying school fees for two children, going to the
police station when one child was in trouble, and bringing some children in
contact with organizations or people that could help them.
Besides material support, most youngsters were in need of emotional
support. As discussed, children who wished could be involved in the coun-
selling programme at UEF. In addition, I asked the children if they wanted
to meet other children in similar situations to discuss their problems. Most
of them liked the idea, and someone from a local NGO and I established a
discussion group that met twice a month. One of my interpreters facilitated
the group and it was still running during my follow-up study. Some young-
sters indicated that my research was also helpful for them, as they felt
someone was interested in them and in their experiences. Many youngsters
did not have anyone to share their experiences with and some seemed very
lonely. Two of the young women I frequently interviewed often cried when
they saw me and my interpreter coming. It seemed as they were waiting for
us to be able to share their story with. Two other young women thanked
me at the end of the fieldwork as they said I showed them that I was inter-
ested in them and that I cared for them.
ETHICAL TURMOIL
One of the main skills needed in qualitative research is the ability to be
empathetic (Dickson-Swift et al., 2009,p. 65). But being empathetic can
endanger the research because it might lead to over involvement and going
native (ibid.). As discussed in the introduction, at first, I tried to emotion-
ally distance myself from the children. This did not really work however, I
often felt depressed by the difficult experiences of many children.
Despite the ethical precautions, I started to question the purpose of
theresearch after some months of fieldwork. I felt that the children and
young people needed immediate support rather than research about their
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