Communitycentered Orphan Care Institutions

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Community-centered Orphan Care
Institutions

• Diana Aubourg
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Pan African Childrens Fund (PACF)

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Overview

• Approaches to Orphan Care
• Community Vs. Institutions
• Case Study Findings
• Lessons Learned
• Moving Forward

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Approaches to Care for Orphans

• Three Approaches
• Community-based Orphan Care
• Orphan Care Institutions
• Community-Centered Orphan Care Institutions

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Emerging Consensus

• Families are the First Line of Defense
• Increase Capacity of Community to Care for
  Orphans
• Scale-up Existing Community-based Responses
• Institutional Care as a Last Resort

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Why Institutions as a Last Resort?

• fail to meet the emotional, psychological and
  developmental needs of children
• cultural import to sub-Saharan Africa of western
  missionaries and foreign charity groups.

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Why Institutions as a Last Resort?

• orphanages are likely to be used as a refuge from
  poverty (Subbarao, Mattimore, Plangemann, World
  Bank 2001)
• an expensive way to increase the problem John
  Williamson, Senior Technical Advisor,USAID

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• Reconceptualizing Orphan-care Institutions

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Community-centered Orphan Care InstitutionsDefi
nition organizations with temporary or
permanent residential programs for orphans and
other vulnerable children that incorporate in
their overall objectives both a commitment
todeveloping the child as well as
supportingorphans and their families in
communities.
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An Emerging Model Community Based Child Care
Institutions

• Community Mobilization Institutional Care

Community-centered Orphan Care Institutions
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• Community-centered Orphan Care Institutions
• active in community mobilization, relief support
  and reintegration of children with families
• residential care programs include comprehensive
  self-development and life skills training
  programs for orphans
• collaboration with government, child-centered
  NGOs, faith institutions, schools and major
  donors
• evolving from street outreach and other
  community-based initiatives
• working towards sustainability - agricultural
  food production and other income generating
  activities

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3 Case Studies from Zambia

• Anglican Childrens Project active
  community-based orphan program
• Lazarus Project - outreach to street children
  and sex workers (and family model of care of
  residential care)
• DAPP - Childrens Town active community-based
  orphan program

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Emerging Model Community Centered Orphan Care
Institutions

• Explored the Following
• What makes them community-centered?
• How did they evolve?
• What is their institutional base?
• What is their overall philosophy?
• What do they offer children in residence?
• What is their relationship to government?
• From which networks and donors do they draw
  support?

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Anglican Childrens Project
COMMUNITY-BASED ORPHAN PROGRAM
RESIDENTIAL PROGRAM (50 Children- ages 6 to 19)
Care and Prevention Teams (CPTs) organized in
Garden Compound
CANAAN CENTER
Children attend government schools

• Home visits to vulnerable households
• Emergency relief services
• Sponsorship of orphans in government schools
• Fundraising and income generating projects
• Bible Clubs

The Anglican Church
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
REINTEGRATION

• Canaan Bakery
• Agriculture Training
• Tailoring
• Computer Skills

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Lessons Learned

• Community-based Emerging Model
• Orphan Care Community-centered
• orphan institutions

-families and communities care for orphans
-residential care for orphans and street
children

• community based support for orphans and families
• reliance on local volunteers
• -IGAs skills training
• -family/community-centered outlook

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Limitations/Research Gaps

• Sustainability and Scaling-up
• Quality of Care for Children in Residence
• Government Regulation of Institutions
• Economic Coping Mechanism for Poor How to
  identify most needy children

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MOVING FORWARD

• Research should target sustainable and replicable
  practices of community-centered orphan care
  institutions
• Move away from Community vs. Institutions Polemic
  - Engage, dont Isolate!
• Encourage existing institutions to reintegrate
  children and (re)connect and (re) engage with
  community

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The Orphan Crisis
Diana Aubourg daubourg_at_onebox.com