HISG : Ideal Orphan Care Program - Orphan Care and Community Development

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HIST and IDR

Orphan Care Model Part 4: Community Development

Before establishing an Almost Home care program, local leadership must be engaged so they can define the obstacles they face. The leadership are then encouraged to define the community's assets, which can be employed to overcome those obstacles. Understanding that 20% of the world’s population has no access to clean water, this issue is often and should be considered a top priority in establishing a program in any community. Access to safe and abundant water is the foundation upon which is built the potential for social and economic development. Community services will be employed with three major objectives:

•To preserve the cultural and social relationships with the children in residential care.

•To give the local community ownership and responsibility for long term care and development of the children.

•As a preventive approach to improve the economic and public health burden in the community to further enable the care of children.

Orphan Care Child 2 Community Health projects, including training in basic hygiene and first aid practices should be conducted by the institution to further benefit the children and the community. The unique medical needs of the HIV population which Almost Homes will serve, will occasionally require western intervention in the absence of reliable and competent local care.

Educational opportunities should be opened to the surrounding community which will further promote interaction of the institution’s children with those in the community and thereby lesson the stigma associated with being an orphan and their HIV status. Vocational training should also be offered to older children with an eye toward eventual emancipation and self reliance. Goods and services resulting from the vocational training programs, such as agriculture, school fees, construction services, etc., can be utilized as additional revenue streams to keep the program sustainable and replicable.

Eventual integration of self help groups and microenterprise projects will also serve to combat poverty, and therefore function as a primary preventive approach for orphan care in the community.

Research compiled by Brad Davidson. Sources available upon request.