CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF SERVICE PROVISION ARRANGEMENTS TO ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN ADDIS ABABA: THE CASE OF ARADA SUB-CITY

Abstract

The study was conducted in Addis Ababa at Arada Sub-city with a particular focus on the challenges and prospects of service provision to orphans and vulnerable children and their parents/guardians. The study utilized qualitative research method whereby qualitative data were collected using interview and observation techniques. The interviews were administered with heads of nongovernment organizations rendering services to OVCs, Arada sub-city HAPCO head, children and guardians. The information obtained from these study subjects revealed that there are various challenges affecting the quality of services provided to OVCs and their guardians. Some of the major challenges identified include, lack of coordination between and among the service providing organizations themselves. Government sector offices which have the responsibility to facilitate the platform for the well-being of orphans and other vulnerable children, are not working to the level expected of them. The service providing organizations often encounter funding cuts and interruptions from their donors at unprecedented occasions. Besides, lack of cooperation and ownership on the part of the service recipients and the local community is identified as an Impeding factor influencing the sustainability of the programs the NGOs started. Another important factor affecting the service provision programs is lack of organized statistics which indicates the number of OVCs in the sub-city. As a result the organizations go on recruiting orphans and vulnerable children with the help of the woreda administrative where unmanageable number of needy children and parents show up when it is advertised. Consequently the organizations will be obliged to embrace as many beneficiaries as which they cannot accommodate. As a result when they run out of resources, the services they provide suddenly interrupts and the children will be forced to drop out schooling and they will be engaged in supporting their parents in daily labor for subsistence income generating activities. Some children who are in the custody of foster parents are also heading to street life when the support program interrupts. The study suggests that appropriate collaboration among nongovernment organizations as well as government organizations and social workers need to do some advocacy work to address the problems of orphans and vulnerable children in an effective and sustainable way.