Child and youth care workers (CYCWs) are a crucial and growing component of South Africa’s national response to HIV and AIDS and other problems affecting children and families. CYCWs use the community-centred Isibindi model of care to reach the most vulnerable with key services including psychosocial, health, economic and education support. Understanding how to support retention in the CYCW workforce is vital to programme quality and sustainability.

Effective strategies for HIV prevention among adolescent orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in South Africa, particularly girls and young women, are critically needed. To date, adolescent-only educational and behavioral interventions have underpinned prevention efforts with mixed success. Addressing a broader array of adolescent risk factors may help to lower HIV prevalence in this priority population. Let’s Talk is a structured adolescent HIV prevention intervention that goes beyond standard knowledge and skills-based programming to address family dynamics and mental health.

Many children in South Africa live outside of parental care, due to orphanhood, parental labour migration, unemployment, and for other reasons. Family members and other adults thus play an important role in providing substitute care. Non-parental caregivers have been found to experience high levels of psychological distress and burden, potentially leading to poor outcomes for children. The present analysis examines whether these and other potential risk factors are associated with caregiver-perpetrated physical aggression towards adolescent girls living outside of parental care in the Free State province.

Early bereavement is common in South Africa, where almost a fifth of children have lost a parent and many more have experienced the death of another family member or friend. However, little is known about young people’s psychological responses to loss in this setting.