Orphans Crisis: What are the issues

1
THE ORPHAN CRISIS WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?

• Hilda Tadria
• ECA

2
Orphan Crisis What are the Issues?

• Key Issues
• Susceptibility of Women and Girls
• Factors Increasing the Vulnerability of Women and
  Children
• Gender Inequalities Increase Vulnerability for
  Girl Orphans
• Disintegration of Traditional Safety Nets
• Examples of Good Practice
• Lessons learned from Good Practice
• Most common challenges
• Suggestion for recommendations

3
Key Issues

• Escalating number of orphans
• High speed of creation of orphans
• Disintegration of traditional safety net systems
• Homelessness and child-headed households
• Increased number of street children
• Growing trend in the exploitation abuse of the
  girl child
•  

4
KEY ISSUES(contd.)

• Disproportionate number of orphans involved in
  child labour
• Exclusion of orphans from formal education system
  and mainstream society
• Stigmatisation and exclusion of HIV Orphans
• Negative impacts of gender inequality on lives of
  HIV/AIDS orphans

5
Susceptibility of Women and GirlsResult of
Exposure to Risky BehaviourExample

• Marriage and womens monogamy do not protect
  women from HIV
• Adolescent, married 15-19 year old females have
  higher HIV infection than non-married sexually
  active females of the same age
• In some countries, one in five women experience
  sexual violence from an intimate partner, while
  up to 33 per cent of girls have reported forced
  sexual initiation.  

Source UNAIDS report of July 2004
6
Factors Increasing the Vulnerability of Women and
Children

• Patriarchal ideologies of succession and
  inheritance
• High social tolerance for violence against women

7
Gender Inequalities Increase Vulnerability for
Girl Orphans

• Girl Orphans are
• Overworked and sexually exploited as sex workers
• More likely to drop out of school earlier
• Experience high sexual and physical abuse within
  their extended and foster families

8
Disintegration of Traditional Safety Nets More
questions surface

• Interventions
• What monitoring mechanisms and institutional
  interventions should be put in place?
• Protective Legislative Frameworks
• Legal and law enforcement systems enforcement
  capacity for protection of women and children
  rights  

9
EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRACTICE CASES Two support
systems - Four cases

• Institutionalised support
• SOS Childrens Village in Tlokweng, Botswana
• Nyumbani Childrens Home in Kenya
• Community based support
• Isibindi model of the National Association of
  Child Care Workers in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
• Uganda Womens Efforts to Save Orphan, Masaka,
  Uganda

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GOOD PRACTICE CASESYardsticks

• Does the Intervention
• Strengthen the protection and care of orphans and
  other vulnerable children within their families
  and communities?
• Strengthen the economic coping capacities of
  families and communities?
• Enhance the capacity of families and communities
  to respond to the psychosocial needs of orphans
  and vulnerable children?

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GOOD PRACTICE CASES Yardsticks (contd.)

• Does the Intervention
• Link HIV/AIDS prevention activities, care and
  support for PLWHA with efforts to support orphans
  and other vulnerable children?
• Focus on the most vulnerable children in general
  and not only those orphaned by AIDS?
• Give particular attention to addressing gender
  discrimination?
• Ensure the full involvement of young people as
  part of the solution?

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GOOD PRACTICE CASES Yardsticks (contd.)

• Does the Intervention
• Strengthen and ensure access to education?
• Reduce stigma and discrimination?
• Strengthen partners and partnerships at all
  levels and build coalitions among key
  stakeholders?
• Ensure that external support strengthens and does
  not undermine community initiative and
  motivation?

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THE SOS CHILDRENS VILLAGE IN TLOKWENG,
BOTSWANAWhy is it a good example of good
Practice?

• SOS Villages provide a real haven for orphans and
  other vulnerable children
• It is a carefully planned village, modelled after
  a traditional African homestead
• Siblings are kept together in one house, and each
  house has a mother who is the head of the
  household and provides the children with the
  security of family
• HIV children and orphans are given proper
  medical care
•  
•        

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THE SOS CHILDRENS VILLAGE IN TLOKWENG,
BOTSWANAWhy is it a good example of good
Practice?

• Children are integrated into mainstream society
• SOS children are integrated into the local school
  system, and in turn the SOS school is open to
  children from the communities
• Opportunities are provided for the children to go
  on learning excursions in and outside the country
• All the children are registered and in most cases
  have a national passport
• SOS provides financial and material support for
  the integration of orphans into mainstream
  society
• There is active partnership between the SOS and
  the local private sector and institutions

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NYUMBANI CHILDREN OF GOD RELIEF INSTITUTE,
Nairobi, KENYA Why is it a good example of good
Practice?

• Nyumbani is an example of good practice
  especially in the care of very vulnerable
  children
• It has built institutional capacity to prolong
  the lives of HIV children
• Siblings are kept together in one home and the
  home-based concept gives the children a sense of
  belonging and ownership
• Children in the home are integration into
  mainstream activities
•     
•  

16
NYUMBANI CHILDREN OF GOD RELIEF INSTITUTE,
Nairobi, KENYA Why is it a good example of good
Practice? (contd.)

• Nyumbani is an example of good practice
  especially in the care of very vulnerable
  children
• Nyumbani extends its medical and social services
  to the host community, but focuses support on the
  children within the community
• Child headed households, foster homes, and carers
  of children with HIV/AIDS are given material and
  social support
• The community-based programme focuses on capacity
  building for holistic home-based care of
  vulnerable children

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Indicators of Nyumbanis success

• The death rate of children has been reduced,
  which means that children are emerging and
  growing to adulthood
• Nyumbani strives to keep the children in the
  mainstream
• There has been attitude change within the
  community and employees of Nyumbani
• The programme has expanded from a residential
  focus for orphans, to a community based approach
  and measures to reduce creation of orphans
• There is a strong network of support

18
THE UGANDA WOMENS EFFORT TO SAVE ORPHANS Masaka,
Uganda Why it adopts community based support
instead of the institutionalized care support?

• The numbers of orphans are too high for
  sustainable institutionalised care
• Institutionalisation of orphans is a process of
  displacement of people from their society and
  environment
• It encourages and legitimises a process of
  dispossession, especially from land

19
THE UGANDA WOMENS EFFORT TO SAVE ORPHANS Masaka,
Uganda Why it adopts community based support
instead of the institutionalized care support?

• Institutional care is full of abuses by those who
  manage the institution
• It is a process of disempowerment as it
  emphasises doing things for people, rather than
  doing things with them
• Institutionalisation is not motivating enough and
  therefore does not sharpen survival skills of
  orphans

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THE UGANDA WOMENS EFFORT TO SAVE ORPHANS Masaka,
Uganda Why is it a good example of good Practice?

• Micro-Credit is used as a major tool, combined
  with other social empowerment interventions, to
  support HIV/AIDS orphans and widows within their
  communities
• In particular, UWESO provides care and support to
  child-headed families, and emphasises the
  importance of a positive social and physical
  environment for the development of orphans
• Communities are empowered to identify solutions
  within their environment

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THE UGANDA WOMENS EFFORT TO SAVE ORPHANS Masaka,
Uganda Support provided child headed households
illustrate UWESOs strength

• Intergeneration skills transfer as well as
  monitoring and mentorship of child-headed
  households
• Ensuring social and economic empowerment of
  orphans, through training and provision of micro
  credit
• Strengthening processes and linkages for
  intergeneration skills transfer.

22
THE UGANDA WOMENS EFFORT TO SAVE ORPHANS Masaka,
Uganda Support provided child headed households
illustrate UWESOs strength

• Improving access to basic food, through
  agricultural training
• Provision of decent shelter, and protecting
  orphans rights to inherit their parents
  property
• Protection of orphans in their own home was also
  described as the best strategy for ensuring that
  the children do not suffer abuse at the hands of
  foster or extended families

23
ASSOCIATION OF CHILD CARE WORKERS, KwaZulu Natal
SOUTH AFRICA The Isibindi Model of Care for
Vulnerable Children and Youth

• The goal is to create safe and caring
  communities for vulnerable children, and youth at
  risk
• The model, commonly known as Isibindi Circles of
  Care, builds on principles of family
  preservation
• Focuses support on orphans in child headed homes
  and vulnerable children in single headed families
  affected by HIV/AIDS
•  

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ASSOCIATION OF CHILD CARE WORKERS, KwaZulu Natal
SOUTH AFRICA The Isibindi Model of Care for
Vulnerable Children and Youth

• The programme focuses on facilitating a safe and
  caring community for children at risk, especially
  child headed households
• The constant presence of childcare workers in
  child-headed homes provides a level of security
  for the home and the children
• The principle of providing support to orphans
  within their environment guarantees the security
  of the family property
• Activities are carried out with the active
  participation of communities

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ASSOCIATION OF CHILD CARE WORKERS, KwaZulu Natal
SOUTH AFRICA The Isibindi Model of Care for
Vulnerable Children and Youth

• The community leaders, members and community
  resources are effectively networked into the
  project.
• The Association emphasizes the importance of
  professionalism in childcare and the training
  provided to child and youth care workers is
  geared at childcare and protection skills as well
  as community facilitation skills.
• The Isibindi model encourages child-care workers
  to build and provide an integrated support
  system.

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ASSOCIATION OF CHILD CARE WORKERS, KwaZulu Natal
SOUTH AFRICA The Isibindi Model of Care for
Vulnerable Children and Youth Why is it a good
example of good Practice?

• For example, support services provided by child
  care workers include
• Supervising children to ensure that they do the
  homework brought from school
• Assisting children to perform house-hold tasks
• Parenting skills training for foster parents
• Assistance with collection of information
  concerning application for documents, grants and
  pensions
• Visits to schools to monitor if a child is having
  a problem

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ASSOCIATION OF CHILD CARE WORKERS, KwaZulu Natal
SOUTH AFRICA The Isibindi Model of Care for
Vulnerable Children and Youth Why is it a good
example of good Practice? (contd.)

• The Association
• Provides Assistance in applying for documents
  such as national identity cards and parents
  pensions
• Links orphans and child-headed families with
  relatives and neighbours and when necessary,
  facilitating foster care placements in
  partnership with the Social workers
• Provides assistance in preparing the Memory
  Box
•  

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LESSONS LEARNT FROM BEST PRACTICE CASES

• Enhancing the capacity of families and
  communities to respond to the psychosocial needs
  of orphans and vulnerable children is an
  important strategy for protecting children, and
  ensuring a sustainable future for them
• Strengthening the protection and care of orphans
  and other vulnerable children within their family
  and community environment can be a viable option
  where the extended family system is no longer
  functional

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LESSONS LEARNT FROM BEST PRACTICE CASES (contd.)

• Strengthening the economic coping capacities of
  families and communities affected by HIV/AIDS,
  and integrating this with HIV/AIDS prevention
  activities and support for people living with
  HIV/AIDS is a strategic approach to reducing the
  speed at which orphans are being created
• In providing care for orphans and other
  vulnerable children, it is not a matter of
  choice. Institutional and community based care
  can both be effective if monitored carefully
•      

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LESSONS LEARNT FROM BEST PRACTICE CASES (contd.)

• Mechanisms for follow-up and monitoring the
  status of orphans are very important for ensuring
  the well being of the children, whether
  institutionalised, in foster homes, in
  child-headed households or indeed within close
  extended family

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MOST COMMON CHALLENGES

• Inadequacy of resources and policy guidelines
• Disintegration of traditional safety net and the
  extended family systems
• Sustaining livelihoods for the orphans
• Persistent gender inequalities that enhance the
  vulnerability of girl orphans
•       
• Excessive vulnerability of orphans, whether in
  child-headed households or in foster care and
  extended
• Reintegration of HIV adolescent children into
  mainstream society.  

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SUGGESTION for RECOMMENDATIONS

• Establishment of a Regional Fund to be utilised
  for the Protection and Support of Orphans
• Addressing the escalation of orphans emphasising
  investment in HIV and mother-to-child
  transmission prevention measures, and treatment,
  as well as strengthening economic base of care
  givers
• Addressing the issues of sustainability of
  livelihoods for the orphans

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SUGGESTION for RECOMMENDATIONS

•  
• Strengthening law enforcement structures to
  monitor and protect children from violence and
  abuse
• Addressing the social vulnerability of orphans by
  Providing them with social and legal protection
• Improving and enhancing access to treatment for
  HIV children
• Retention of orphans in the formal school system

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SUGGESTION for RECOMMENDATIONS

• Addressing the gender dimensions of HIVAIDS in
  particular
• Protection of womens /childrens human and
  property rights
• Eliminating/reducing violence against women and
  girls
• Supporting and reducing the excess burden of care
  in HIV/AIDS affected families, and supporting
  home-based care givers
• Enhancing prevention measures against HIV
  infection among women and girls
•  

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THE ORPHAN CRISIS WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?

• Hilda Tadria
• ECA