Abstract
The study to investigates the livelihood activities of female-headed households in Letlhakane village. In its attempt to examine how these activities are organised, maintained and diversified, it analyses the challenges in carrying out the activities and the possible solutions to these challenges at the household level. The study concerns itself with the views of female heads on the livelihood activities done in their households. The main focus is on what these women and their household members were doing for the survival of the entire household in the remote rural village of Letlhakane between December 2004 and January 2005.
For this study a qualitative methodology was vital to gather information on the livelihood activities and composition of households and the contribution of the members to the survival of the household. In-depth, follow-up interviews were used as the research method. The informants of the study were female heads from female-headed households. This was supplemented with observation by the researcher on the activities and the physical surroundings of the village. Photos were also taken in the village.
This study reaches a number of conclusions. First, female-headed households in Letlhakane village are a diverse group in terms of the activities they embark on and the composition of their households. But they share a common aspect: their livelihood activities are not sufficient for the survival of their households. There were few or no activities for household survival, even for those households that have been female-headed for a long period of time. As compared to single household heads, female heads with partners were better off when judged by overall returns from the activities. The activities in the households studied were keeping goats, fowls and domestic animals such as dogs and subsistence agriculture in the form of growing maize, melons, cabbages, spinach, beans and fruit gardens. They also grew trees and plants for medicinal purposes such as aloes and lemons. Boyfriends were another source of income for some of the female-headed households. Most of the activities were geared towards immediate consumption, and could not stretch as far as investment. Lower returns from the activities affected children from these households in two ways. Firstly, they had to engage in activities to help provide for the household and secondly some had to drop out of school because of insufficient means to afford schooling. Women heads had the responsibilities of caring for and nurturing the family, raising children and providing food for their household in the households studied.
The absence of opportunities for survival and insecure livelihood activities pose a threat to the continued survival of these households. The main obstacles to the livelihood activities were lack of resources such as sufficient land and water, cooperation between residents, skills and financial capital. A major difficulty for women especially, is that voices are only listened to in the village if they come from an adult male figure in the household. Positive aspects for livelihoods that came out from the study were the prevalence of social capital amongst neighbours and relatives.
Carina van Rooyen