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

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTLIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTCopyright Universityof Reading
Putting the ‘social’ back into young people’s psychosocial wellbeing,
care and support, ODI, 22 Nov 2016
Ruth Evans
r.evans@reading.ac.uk @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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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)
4

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
5

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:
•
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’.
8

• 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)
•
9

• 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)
10

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 r.evans@reading.ac.uk

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

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