Mercy Shumbamhini

Narrative and Participatory Pastoral Care and Therapy with Children Mercy Shumbamhini

This research is conducted within a postmodern and social construction discourse and in context of narrative and participatory pastoral care and therapy. It has been influenced by the voices of five theologies: participatory, narrative, contextual, feminist and liberation. The participatory action research seeks to highlight how narrative and participatory pastoral care and therapy with children at Mary Ward Children?s Home, Kwekwe, Zimbabwe creates an inclusive and caring community. It argues that though residential childcare facilities are considered the last resort in the childcare system, we are witnessing not their demise but their development due to the increased numbers of AIDS-orphans in our society. The research aims were to develop inclusive narrative and participatory pastoral care and therapy practices that respect the knowledges of the children involved,to develop an eco-spirituality as participatory care and therapy practice and to co-author creative practices which will help the participants integrate into the Society. The child carers are invited into an ethical practice that has the potential to transform the lives of children in residential childcare facilities.