Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

This contribution, which is part of a research-action carried out on different fields of investigation, proposes, in a comparative perspective, to examine the characteristics and the contribution of devices or programs of support and self-help implemented by African local communities to care for children who are victims of severe trauma, including orphaned, abuse and poverty, who are left to their own capabilities or who are vulnerable to maltreatment.
Three countries, developing or emerging, serve as support for this argument: Botswana, facing deaths from AIDS and famine and drought; Liberia, bruised by civil war and its continued violence; Morocco, finally, with - in the background - the problem of precarity and the evolution of the status of women.
Our approach, both quantitative and qualitative, is at the crossroads of social psychology and the sociology of representations and identities. The chosen methodology is based on a classical analysis in terms of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and blockages. Partnership relationships are also honored, as is the resource mobilization process, and resilience mechanisms.