Kakamega Orphanage Adopts Family Care Model

Kakamega Orphanage Adopts Family Care Model.A Charitable Children Institution (CCI) in Kakamega has fully adopted the Family Care Model, in which children are cared for at home rather than in an orphanage.After completing all necessary legal steps, CCI will be renamed as United Kenya Rising (UKR) after being registered as Kakamega Orphan Care Centre.Nelson Ida Litswa, the facility’s administrator, stated that they embraced the family model in 2018 and released all children to their homes and guardians in support of Kenya’s Alternative Family Care system.According to him, the Model concentrates on making households more suitable and appealing to children.According to Litswa, the proposal was also praised by officers from the National Council for Children Services (NCCS), who visited the center on March 4th during CCI inspections.They were on a routine tour to CCIs in Nyanza and Western regions to evaluate compliance with government standards while lobbying for the Alternative Family Care System.Listwa stated that the government executives were impressed that the Kakamega Orphan Care Centre, the only one in the Western area, was quick to embrace the method and will now serve as an example to others.“The Model seeks to ensure that abandoned, orphaned, and abused children are taken care of in the community and not in-home care centers,” he noted.He stated that the Model was effective after a pilot with 17 families and that they have already touched more than 200 households.“We found out that the challenges most families faced were leaking roofs, the houses were very small and in some cases, the environment was not conducive, so we had to improve on that,” he noted.He stated that, in collaboration with partners, they began assisting families in becoming stable so that the same families could assist children in accessing education, while the organization chipped in where the family was stuck, such as the provision of uniforms, books, and scholarships for those in high school, colleges, and universities.The CCI now assists 100 students in various Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET), 197 in high school, and 56 in colleges and universities.Litswa stated that as part of house improvement, they are offering solar lighting, small tanks, and instruction to program participants on how to establish farming or small enterprises to earn a livelihood.“We are partnering with Sunking to give them solar lamps, instead of one person enjoying electricity available in an orphanage, we have to let them enjoy the sunlight while at home,” he explained.The organization’s personnel has grown from 18 to 42 after converting to a Family Care Model.“We had to recruit more staff since we needed social workers to work in those families, agriculture officers, education officers among others. In fact, we even have attracted more donors than before,” he pointed out.Currently, the CCI urges every family they serve to register with the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), where they may readily receive medicine without spending a lot of money, as part of their health improvement initiatives.ALSO READ“We have now partnered with Pharm Access in paying premiums, such that we pay Sh1,500 for each family as Pharm Access tops up the rest of the amount for every family to be covered,” he said.Kakamega Orphanage Adopts Family Care Model

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