Resilience as a factor in youth response to poverty in GaRamokoka village, North West Province, South Africa

Abstract

This study explores resilience as a factor in youth response to poverty in GaRamokoka village, North West province. The main aim was to gain a contextual understanding of how young people from a rural community who experience poverty and its manifestations respond to and demonstrate a resilient trajectory in the Bojanala District, Ga-Ramokoka village, which is situated in the North-west province. The ultimate goal was to document the articulated and identified attributes by the youth for the empowerment of others either in similar or even in totally different situations. As part of literature review, both the protective processes that contribute to the resilient coping youth and risk factors were examined. It emerged that much as the term "youth" is often aggregated by age it remains a highly contested political term. For instance, by their very nature, young people do not constitute a homogeneous category. Their differences ought to be acknowledged, respected and celebrated. A basic interpretive qualitative research paradigm was used , employing in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with a total of 26 young people purposefully selected , divided into 10 learners from 1 high school, out of which 5 were employed in the mining sector, with the remaining 5 unemployed. From the second high school sampled , 6 learners were selected and included in one focus group discussion. Data was analysed using inductive content analysis. The findings indicate the presence of risk factors on the familial level which included: role confusion, gender division of opportunities, father absence, high death rate of siblings, overcrowding in households and poverty. It was evident that some participants thrived resiliently in the presence of the identified risk factors. For these participants, protective factors existed within five broad categories: individual influences, family influences, school influences, extra mural activities influences and community influences. In conclusion, all identified stressors, including poverty, were overshadowed by the resilient youth, dreaming of an ideal community free from stress.