Pathways to Resilience IV: Global South Perspectives

Symposium Summary
What, So What and Now What? Researching, learning and practicing resilience-informed approaches to street-connected children
Presenters: Sian Wynne, Helen Veitch, Alfred Ochaya
Building with Bamboo is an international learning project led by Consortium for Street Children in partnership with Oak Foundation, exploring how NGOs might promote resilience in street-connected children exposed to sexual abuse and exploitation. This symposium shares learning from the perspective of researcher, learning manager and practitioner. 

Symposium Abstracts
“What?”  The importance of context in participatory research on resilience in street-connected child domestic workers facing sexual abuse in Nepal 
Presenter: Helen Veitch (Children Unite, UK)
Introduction: This presentation, from the perspective of a researcher, will explore the contextual realities and cultural conventions of the resilience of child domestic workers exposed to sexual abuse in Nepal and look at the value of using participatory research methods to understand resilience from the child’s perspective.  
Methods: The study used life-story interviews and focus group discussions with 117 child domestic workers to explore their resilience factors when exposed to sexual abuse and exploitation. It is an example of a participatory approach where two of the researchers were former or current child domestic workers and an advisory group of children produced their own film ‘Meena’s Story’ from the findings.   The paper will outline the implications, the value and challenges of taking this innovative approach to research on children’s resilience where the voice of children takes centre stage.
Findings: One theme arising from the study, ‘participation in festivals enables reconciliation’, links closely to Gilligan’s ‘turning points’ (2009) in the analysis of resilience, where Hindu festivals appear to have potential to be pivotal moments when children re-frame their experience as domestic workers and build support in the community.  

"So what?" From research to practice: unpacking a "resilience-informed approach" to street-connected children exposed to sexual abuse and exploitation
Presenter: Sian Wynne (Consortium for Street Children, UK)
Introduction: In this paper, from my perspective as a learning manager, I will share insights from my experience coordinating a resilience learning partnership between organisations in Ecuador, Uganda and Nepal, developing and trialing approaches informed by the operational implications arising from the Bamboo resilience research study.
Methods: I will draw on the perspectives of staff and children at partner sites, alongside reflections from Oak Foundation, Consortium for Street Children and Keep Your Shoes Dirty, the social research consultancy that designed the project’s learning framework. These perspectives, gathered from learning logs, diaries, journey maps, storytelling games, meetings and informal discussions carried out over the past 12 months and the coming 6 months leading up to this presentation, will be used to unpack the concept of a "resilience-informed approach" and explore the opportunities and limitations of using is a a basis for learning.
Findings: This presentation will address the surprises, good and bad, arising from the project's implementation over this 18 month period, and interrogate our understanding of a "resilience-informed approach" in relation to street-connected children.

"Now what?" Addressing the challenges and opportunities of developing resilience-informed practice in partnership with street-living children in Jinja, Uganda 
Presenter: Alfred Ochaya (SALVE International, UK)
Introduction: In this presentation, I will share the experiences of urban street-living children and the staff that support them at SALVE, one of the Building with Bamboo learning sites, raising some of the challenges in developing and delivering "resilience-informed approaches" in practice.
Methods: One of the children SALVE support recently told me “Togwamu suubi, embeera embi siya luberera”, which translates roughly as "No situation is permanent and we should always have hope".   I will present stories gathered from children and staff over the first 12 months of our resilience project in the form of videos and case studies, and discuss "obuvuma" - a local Luganda term with a meaning close to 'resilience'. I will use these personal stories to explore the experience of developing and delivering "resilience-informed approaches" from the point of view of street-connected children and street social workers. 
Findings: I will highlight the challenges faced by social workers hoping to implement a "resilience-informed approach", what these feel like for children and how we can ensure that service responses are culturally appropriate and situated firmly within the broader context of a child's street situation.