Social Rehabilitation program focusing on Orphans: Vulnerable Children and Families

Introduction

The Ethiopian Catholic church Social Rehabilitation program has two components; on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) family focused socio-pastoral and development approach. The Catholic Church is involved in OVC care and support from the very beginning of its presence in the country. The type of care and support that the Church has been offering is shifting from orphanage to community based OVC care and support programs. 

Work with orphans and vulnerable children are being carried out by different Church projects handled by diocesan offices, congregations and parishes.  The social rehabilitation program assists the Diocesan Catholic Secretariats, religious congregations and parishes working on vulnerable children all over the country.  In fact, currently the Church supports more that 36,000 orphans and vulnerable children in Ethiopia.     

The family focused development approach is a new concept regarding socio-pastoral development. The aim of the family focused development approach is to increase the household economy of vulnerable families and thus minimize the number of children that leave their home due to economic and social difficulties. In so doing, it aims to promote and strengthen family values and thereby reduce the number of children living on the street. This approach promotes protecting children from various forms of child neglect and child abuse.

Achievements so far

Capacity Building

Orphans and Vulnerable Children

In view of the need to capacitate those working with children and get a realistic picture of the children’s situation, situation analyses on street children, child labour, HIV/AIDS infected and affected children orphans have been conducted. The findings of these studies have been shared with the groups concerned with the various problems children now face in our context to be used for proposal writing for the sake of uplifting children with problem. Workshops on the findings were organized and the way forward for implementation of the findings was discussed both with the Church and government personnel

Workshops on:

·         the problems of street children,

·         guidance and counseling in schools,

·         children under difficult circumstances and

·         trainings on child rights programming,

·         leadership skills,

·         communication and facilitation skills,

·         peer education, and psychosocial support for OVCs  has been given.

The knowledge gained from the trainings and workshops has been utilized by the participants to improve the situation of orphans and vulnerable children that can be reached by the different diocesan, congregational and parish projects. 

The assessment on the importance of the trainings shows that participants gained personal knowledge and used the knowledge gained to help children in difficult circumstances. However, the situations needing help are not always addressed though the knowledge gained through the workshops and training.

The economic and other difficulties faced by families and the financial limitations of the project holders to assist needy children remain great constraints.

Family focused Approach

The purpose of promoting the concept of Family Focused Approach was to create awareness and to enhance the approach in all the areas of development, and to help individuals to help each other develop a comprehensive approach to development.

The family-focused development approach is being piloted through parishes. Three parishes in Addis Ababa were contacted to discuss the possibility of having volunteers who will be helping at the community level in creating awareness concerning the issues of children. Fifteen volunteers registered, and out of these, nine took orientation workshop on combating child abuse and child neglect. The volunteers have taken an active part in sensitizing and conducting awareness sessions in their respective parishes on issues of children especially those neglected and abused in their neighborhoods and surroundings.   Energy saving through using sustainable/solar cooking and water pasteurization as means of solving environmental problems providing  alternative energy for the households

 will be among the methods used to implement the family focused development approach.

Coordination/Collaboration

In order to know the different social rehabilitation development activities in the various dioceses and to assess the technical support the diocesan and Congregations working with OVC need, various vicariates were visited. The visits helped to get a clearer picture of their activities and strengthened the relationship between the Unit and the Diocesan offices.

Experience sharing visits organized by the unit have the positive impact on the attitude of the participants, and have   resulted in shift from the institutional child care concept to one that is community based.  Diocesan need assessment was also done with the aim of giving technical and material support. As a result of this   UNCRC materials and other UNICEF research materials were shred to widen the information exchange.

The translation of the five year Social Rehabilitation Unit Strategy document into three local languages and the familiarization workshops on the strategies were two of the achievements of the Unit. The document has been distributed to the various congregational and diocesan child focused projects for implementation.

Networking

As part of the networking effort, government offices such as The Ministry of Women’s Affair, (as the children’s issues are under them) The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, and pertinent NGO’s were visited in order to strengthen collaboration and cooperation. In all places, discussions were held as to how to exchange experiences and continue to network in the future.

Advocacy

Monthly, articles for the Fikrena Selam Church newspaper are produced and given to the Communication Department. The articles produced are focused on society, family and children’s issues. They touch on both the social and spiritual aspects of the above mentioned categories of concern.

Child Focused Directory

The first draft a child focused directory has been completed and redistributed to the diocesan offices to be given to the respective projects in their dioceses. The directory includes addresses of projects for orphans and vulnerable children and kindergartens in all the dioceses. The directory helps to connect the staff in child focused projects and gives one a realistic picture of the Church’s activities along the lines of child support.

Representation

As part of its representation mandate, the Unit took part in various meetings organized by both NGO’s and government offices. Views on the issues presented were shared and learned from. The presence of the Catholic Church was visible in both the national and regional meetings that are concerned with children.

The Way Forward

It is necessary to create a greater awareness on child neglect and abuse at all levels of the society as this is a timely issue. 

Collaborating with concerned bodies such as the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affaires, the United Nations office, police and the judiciary authorities, school teacher and religious organizations to stop or minimize child abuse and neglect in the future.

Strengthen Families socially and economically and family values by creating neighborhood groups at parish level.

Address: 

                        Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat
                        P.O.Box 2454
                        Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
                        Tel:  (251) 111 55 03 00
                        Fax: (251) 111 55 31 13
                        e-mail: ecs@ethionet.et

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This page was last updated on 10/10/2009