An assessment of factors that influence the management of quality care to orphans and vulnerable children

Abstract

The rise in the number of orphans and vulnerable children is emerging at a time when the capacity of families to respond to the crisis is increasingly compromised by the breakdown and or weakening of the social system that traditionally offered social protection to these children. Therefore, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) become a major concern internationally, regionally and nationally. To address this problem, community-based organizations (CBO) have been formed to deal with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) at the grass root level. This study was to find out whether leadership of this community based organizations possessed the required management skills to offer quality care to the orphans and vulnerable children. The objectives of this study were: to find out the extent to which planning influenced the management of quality care to orphans and vulnerable children by community based organizations in Imenti North District, to establish whether the organization within a community based organization affected the management of quality care to orphans and vulnerable children, to find out whether leadership within a community based organization contributed to the management of quality care to orphans and vulnerable children, and to identify how coordination and control of community based organizations influenced the management of quality care to orphans and vulnerable children. This study used a descriptive research design by use of survey method. Questionnaires were used to collect data. This data was analyzed by employing descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies and presented in tables and descriptive analysis. The findings showed that the leadership of these community based organizations possessed the required management skills to offer quality care to the orphans and vulnerable children. However, many of them were not offering quality care because of other challenges like lack of funding and support from the government and the scarcity of donors. The study concluded that the community initiative was the way to go, but they required more support especially from the government in areas like capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, sustainability and management training. Therefore, these grass root organizations need to be more empowered as they are undertaking a noble initiative.