| dc.description.abstract | The study provides an insight into the roles of children's homes in provision of care to the vulnerable children. The study was based on three objectives namely provision of basic needs to the vulnerable children, provision of security both physical and psychological and finally character development and enhancement through mentoring and provision of education. Addressing the needs of vulnerable children (VC) and mitigating negative outcomes of the growing VC population worldwide is a high priority for national governments and international stakeholders that recognize this as an issue with social, economic, and human rights dimensions. Assembling the relevant available data on VC in one place, and acknowledging the gaps that still exist in our knowledge, will assist policy makers and program implementers to make evidencebased decisions about how best to direct funding and program activities and maximize positive outcomes for children and their caretakers.
Despite the new laws designed to enhance child welfare and protect young people from neglect and abuse, a combination of economic and social factors is forcing more and more children to continue pouring into the streets throughout the country. In the study, purposive samples of 7 children's homes were studied. The study used descriptive survey research design to ascertain and make assertions on how provision of care to vulnerable children by children's homes. Data collection for the process studied included observation visits to sample of homes, questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires with open and closed ended questions were administered to the respondents who were sampled population, involved in one way or the other with the wellbeing of children's homes in Bamburi division.
The data was analyzed basing on the stated objectives with the three major hypotheses on provision of care to the vulnerable children. There were 50 respondents 21 of whom were in charge of management, 7 were committee members 17 were caretakers, 2 religious leaders, 1 district children's officer, 1childrens development officer and 1 education coordinator who were all responsible in provision of care in children's homes. The research took a period of 7 months from January 2012 to July 2012.The researcher established that provision of care was administered in different degrees. The research established the need of provision of care by the various 7 children's home was undertaken independently.
The was lack of standardized measure of quality index in of provision of basic needs. Provision of security both physical and psychological relied so much on how well the home was established. Other factors incorporated in provision of care were character development by taking education to' be a source of hope to children. The study recommends on the allowable extensions for aging out youth and advocacy for youth support in the children's home system to be prolonged until they are at least 21 years old, when they meet the minimal requirements for own dependency. The following should be considered for further studies: First reason as to why governmental institutions are weak to deal with or lenient to those who fail or do minimal provision of basic needs to vulnerable children yet they have registered themselves as organizations/institutions that caters for vulnerable children. Secondly, the government needs to work on mechanisms of developing accurate data of the vulnerable children and develop ways of ensuring all vulnerable children have access to the services provided by the government. | en_US |
