Amid a growing push amongst child welfare organizations to reunite families relatively than keep children in institutional homes, Kenyan authorities are set to adopt a recent national programme that may phase out traditional orphanages over the subsequent decade.
Church leaders within the country, whose denominations run a whole bunch of orphanages, have expressed support for the plan, saying kid’s homes have exposed children to abuse. Other faith leaders back private institutional operators in opposing the change.
Roman Catholic Bishop Willybard Kitogho Lagho of Malindi said the Catholic Church supports the federal government plan because lots of the institutions are not any longer secure for youngsters.
“There have been numerous abuses in these homes,” said the bishop. “Children have been sexually, physical and emotionally abused. There have also been cases of kid trafficking.” Some orphanages, he alleged, were founded by “unscrupulous individuals who want to realize from donor funding.”
The treatment of orphans in Africa has come under fire in recent times as recent studies have shown that as many as half of youngsters in six low-income countries on the continent have been abused. While some better-funded homes provide education that children couldn’t get of their home villages, many children in residential care show signs of developmental delays and neglect.
Experts also say that donations from developed countries have also skewed the priorities of some kid’s welfare agencies. Anglican Bishop Alphonse Baya Mwaro of Mombasa likened some Kenyan kid’s homes to businesses. “They don’t genuinely support children who’re orphaned or who find themselves without family support,” he said.
Faith organizations with long histories in Africa now query whether even the perfect care is more useful than finding relatives who will soak up children who’ve lost parents or have turn into homeless or destitute. Several have closed their residential homes and as an alternative support family reunification.
In Africa, uncles, aunts and other relatives have traditionally stepped as much as take care of young relations, said Lagho. “This is essentially the most natural environment for youngsters to grow up,” he said.
The system has in some cases promoted the separation of youngsters. “When you have a look at the kids within the institutions, most of them have families,” said Selastine Nthiani, a manager on the Child Welfare Society of Kenya. They are sometimes sent away from home “for education or because their families are poor. Very few of them are total orphans or children with none parents,” she said.
Nthiani said the federal government’s changing approach to kid’s care was a part of a global trend. “The world is moving away from institutional care of youngsters to family- and community-based care,” she said.
Janet Mwema, a senior officer at Kenya’s National Council for Children’s Services, said the federal government won’t shutter institutions, but transition responsibility for destitute children to family and native communities over time.
According to Mwema, some residential homes will proceed to operate as educational centres. “A baby is perhaps residing in ​a house due to education. We wish to strengthen the families and community such that the kid can get the education while living with the biological parents or community,” said Mwema.
In Kenya, 3.6 million children are orphans, some 47% of whom lost parents to HIV and AIDS. An estimated 45,000 children live in greater than 845 private institutions in Kenya, in accordance with the State Department for Social Protection. Another 1,000 to 1,200 live in 28 government-run institutions.
Mwaro said there are challenges the brand new programme has yet to resolve, akin to how one can monitor domestic violence and mistreatment of the kids by relations. Some children, said Mwaro, are safer at an orphanage.
Bishop Johnes Ole Meliyio of the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church said that while “the centres can’t be the everlasting homes for the kids,” closing church homes, which play a vital role by supporting needy children without government support, was ill-advised. “Taking the kids back to the community is a superb idea, but shutting the homes is one other issue,” he said.
Some church leaders and government officials have alleged child trafficking within the centres, but there are not any reliable statistics.
© Religion News Service
