The resilience impetus to rural livelihoods of elderly women in rural Zimbabwe: A case of Chivi District
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55016/ojs/jisd.v13i3.79614Keywords:
Resilience impetus , Elderly women , Livelihoods , Safety net , Rural ZimbabweAbstract
The study took a qualitative approach with face-to-face in-depth interview and observation as the data-generation instruments. The research design was hermeneutic phenomenology in the form of a case study. This approach was chosen to allow for the in-depth exploration of the lived experiences and resilience of elderly rural women in the Chivi District of Zimbabwe. Eighteen elderly rural women were selected using snowball sampling and were interviewed in their immediate environments, which suggest a focus on their naturalistic daily living context. This inquiry was guided by the Afrocentric ideology and the Life Course Perspectives which illuminated the inquirers’ understanding of these elderly rural women’s life experiences in Chivi District. The Life Course Perspective was a complementary framework that helped to analyse how experiences and challenges accumulate over a person's lifetime. Indigenous African Knowledge Systems (IAKS) were found to be a crucial factor in the resilience of these women as they navigated daily challenges. These elderly rural women were not passive victims but active agents in improving their living conditions. It also emerged that, the traditional extended family is no longer a "safety net" for the elderly. The government's social protection policies are neither effective nor consistently enforced in alleviating the challenges faced by the elderly in rural Zimbabwe. The study recommends the government to improve social protection policies that target the elderly women; policies should provide social, economic, and psychological support to enhance their health and living conditions. Communities are urged to strengthen family support systems, making them more vibrant and comprehensive.
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