2nd National Conference on Orphans and Other ... - FHI 360

Lack of food and parental supervision.
Home-based caregivers (status). It was
noted that not enough credit is given to those
providing home-based care, who are doing
a lot but nobody seems to appreciate this.
Lack of networking and co-ordination
among stakeholders. If the stakeholders
co-operate better, home-based care would
be much more effective.
Backlog vis-à-vis grant-making – the
churches should play a bigger role.
Government has so much to do to process
a grant that children are made to wait a long
time. The churches could do a lot to expedite
matters as they know when people are born
and they furnish birth certificates, so if they
could provide the necessary documents the
process could go much faster.
Lack of resources. One remedy would be
to sensitise school teachers and principals on
fee exemptions for OVC.
Lack of education. All the children attach
great value to education but feel let down
because all were forced to leave school when
they were really very anxious to study. They
all felt, as one boy put it, that “Education is
the key to everything.” We should bear this
sentiment in mind when looking at remedies.
Lack of access to information. It was felt
that we have to make use of local structures,
headmen and media; train NGOs to act in
official capacities or take on certain roles of
government for which they would get official
recognition; and look at all other possible
channels of communication for expediting
services to OVC. The idea is to empower as
many people as possible to expedite services.
System failure – in terms of education
and caring for children. Government and
society should put in place preventative or
pre-emptive measures to help ensure that we
are prepared for all eventualities.
Intervene where principals put pressure
on a child. No school principal should ever
speak directly to children about the fact that
their school fees have not been paid. This is
devastating for a child. Principals must deal
directly with parents/guardians or whoever
is responsible for paying the fees.
Parenthood. It would be pointless to sensitise
school personnel if parents and society
at large are not sensitised about their roles
and responsibilities towards children. The
Government is already tackling the issue, e.g.
in considering a Maintenance Bill.
Necessary documents (not known).
Something has to be done to stipulate what
documents are needed for OVC to receive
different kinds of support.
Lack of human resources vs community
involvement. To make up for the lack of
human resources the community should be
involved in a big way in supporting OVC.
Economic empowerment. The NGOs, the
communities and children themselves need
to be economically empowered. Asked what
we as role-players could have done to solve
the problems they had faced, one child said,
“Make education totally free!”
Stigmatisation.
No security after parents died. What one
girl would have wanted was for her parents
to provide for her security. Parents must be
prompted to make provision in good time.
Trauma and lack of emotional support.
Breaking up of family. The children ask
that this be avoided at all costs.
School principal’s treatment of orphan
should have been different. Principals do
not understand the trauma OVC experience
and must be sensitised to this.
Strengthening social grants.
The Orphan Emergency Fund and the
Red Cross are a great help.
QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS ON GROUP 2 (GREEN GROUP) REPORT-BACK
Comment: It is all very well to offer school fee
exemptions, but what problems will this create
for the MBESC? We should look further – at the
whole support system. For example, couldn’t the
grant system make provision for paying school
fees rather than the whole burden being placed
on the MBESC?
Question: At last year’s conference we spoke
about the option of incentives for schools that
<strong>2nd</strong> <strong>National</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children – Windhoek, Namibia, 25-27 June 2002: Full Report
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