Child Headed Families
The concept of child headed household is not a new phenomenon in Africa today. Millions of children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS and wars that many have been forced to become heads of households at a very tender age.
According to Luzze and David (2004), a child headed family refers to a family primarily headed by a child below the age of 18. It has to be recognized by the local community as being independent and where the child head was seen to be; responsible for making major decisions, a bread winner of the family and earning for the younger siblings through adoption of parental roles (Pg 3).
As poverty, armed conflicts and AIDS become more common, the number of orphans continues to grow, it is for example estimated that more than 18% of the children in Namibia were to be orphans by the year 2010 (Foster et al 1995).
Ruiz- Casarez, (2005) notes that the numbers are even greater in countries like Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Somalia. She further asserts that few orphans are being absorbed into their extended families which are under increasing stress. As a result the number of child headed families in many countries continues to increase. She goes ahead to state that the number of relatives available to any given individual is decreasing rapidly. In many places, AIDS and armed conflicts are also over burdening the social systems, hindering health and education development any further, thus undermining social support systems.
There were fewer than one million children orphaned by AIDS in Sub- Saharan Africa by the year 1990 (UNAIDS). Today there are more than twelve million. By the end of 2010, UNICEF officials suspected that there will be more than eighteen million orphaned due to AIDS (WHO, 2008).
The conditions in Sudan, Senegal, Chad, Ethiopia and Somalia are similar due to constant wars and HIV/AIDS (UNAID 2004).
In Rwanda, the condition is not different from elsewhere. There were over sixty thousand (60,000) in 1996 households run by children and this is due to the 1994 genocide a tribal war between the Hutus and Tustsi. Many children lost their parents and had to stay on their own. Generally three quarters of all child headed households are led by girls of whom the eldest child could be eleven years old (BBC World Service News 1996, Plan international/ 2005).
A study by Foster et al (1997) reveals that the phenomenon described as “CHHs” (Child Headed Households) in Uganda was first noted in the late 1980s in Rakai district. Up to until this point, it was assumed that there is no such a thing as an orphan in Africa as children without parents would easily be naturally looked after within the households of their extended families which traditionally acted as the continents’ social security system (Plan International, 2005).
In Uganda where at least 800,000 have died of AIDS and about 1, 400,000 presently living with the disease, the number is expected to rise (UAC, 2001). By the year 2000, it was estimated that 2.35 million children were orphans in Uganda (Hunter and Williamson, 2002).According to UNICEF (2004), the number is expected to rise to 3.5 million by the year 2030. This overwhelming increase in the number of orphans at rates never witnessed before increases the vulnerability of children as the care and protection burden for households, the extended families and communities increase beyond their abilities to cope.
According to the National Orphans and Vulnerable Children’s Policy, 14% of the child population had been orphaned by AIDS by the year 2003 (Ministry of Gender 2003). The first case in Uganda was noted in the late 1980s in Rakai district (WHO, 1990; Alden Salole and Williamson 1991). The occurrence of this epidemic left many parents claimed, leaving children to live on their own with an adult in the household being 17 years old (UNICEF 1994, Nalugoba et al 1997).
The growing number of orphans and the high number of orphans and the high number of adult deaths have caused a shock to traditional child protection mechanism in many areas. Moreover, social capital is weakening as family and community systems disintegrate. Traditional absorption mechanisms for children have also strained. This leads to a situation where child social inequalities exist within countries, communities and within families. As a result it becomes harder to reach a larger number of critically vulnerable children with regular education, health and social protection programs (Keilland, 2003).
Some researchers have come to state that the extended family system is failing to cope and is collapsing. Evidence shows that most child headed households receive support from their extended families but this support is not enough. Support from the extended families of the children in child headed families not being enough, this calls for the contribution of NGOs as major institutions of advocacy for child welfare initiatives to which children are entitled as a right and in order to overcome the negative impacts of HIV/AIDS on children (Luzze, 2002)
In line with achieving the United Nations General Assembly special sessions (UNGASS) goals, there has been an increased interest and commitment on the part of all stakeholders especially NGOs to scale up responses aimed at mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS on children. In 2001, a situation analysis of orphans was conducted in Uganda and in the subsequent years, the drafting of the National Orphans and other vulnerable children policy has been underway by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MOGLSD). This policy aims at providing long term guidance and a framework for the development and implementation of OVC interventions through an all inclusive, well coordinated, multi sectoral approach that will improve the quality of life of children in child headed families and consequently all children in Uganda.
With the poor conditions surrounding the child headed families, there has been a response from or by some agencies like UNICEF, World vision, Plan International, ANPPCAN, OCBO, RAIN, RHSP and Save the Children Fund (UK). All these have devised special intervention programs to enable children cope with orphan life or orphan hood through providing welfare services especially in Rakai.
It is upon this background that this research therefore will aim at establishing the role of NGOs in promoting the welfare of child headed families.
The appearance of child headed families in communities affected by AIDS is a recent phenomenon with cases noted in the late 1980S in the Rakai district of Uganda. (WHO1990, Alden, Salole and Williamson 1991) and Kagera region of Tanzania (Mukoyogo and William 1991). In 1991, such households were observed for the first time in six villages in the Masaka district of Uganda where previously no such households had been noted (Naerland, 1993).
The emergence of families headed by children sometimes as young as 10-12 years old is one of the most distressing consequences of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Many children thus lack access to basic needs and social services. This makes them experience problems such as emotional, social, psychological and economic problems. This requires for the intervention of different NGOs in promoting the welfare of child headed families.
