Equipping Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) With Life Skills Education

Abstract

Globally, children are experiencing instability, poverty, anxiety, and mental stress through exposure to unfavourable conditions. They lack protection of their rights as human beings and yet most nations are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 1989 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) 1999. Children need protection against child labour, domestic violence, commercial sexual exploitation, early child marriage, harmful traditional practices. The nation, community, and family are the major duty bearers in child protection. Orphans and vulnerable children have remained susceptible to abuse and other harmful practices due to lack of protection by duty bearers. This chapter anchors on how such children can be empowered through life skills in order to reduce vulnerability. The chapter concludes by suggesting strategies that assist vulnerable children in facing and coping with life challenges.