The Church Response To The Situation Of Children Orphaned By Hiv/Aids In Kericho County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The global statistics for HIV/AIDs adults and children were 34 million. Sub-saharan Africa has 12 million orphans, with Kenya hosting about 1.2 million of them. Kericho County had 2262 orphans. Accessible population was 296 children orphaned by HIV/AIDs. Drawing on the theory of functionalism by Radcliff brown on the mission of the church to help the needy, this study sought to explore the needs and challenges of children orphaned by HIV/AIDs, the response of the church to these orphans and the challenges the church was facing in its endeavour to help the orphans, in Kericho County, Kenya. It was conducted in four churches with programmes geared towards assisting the orphans and five others with no such programmes. The former included, Motobo Catholic Church (MCC), the free Pentecostal fellowship of Kenya (FPFK), Christ co-workers fellowship (CHRISCO) and the seventh day Adventist church (SDA). The latter were, deliverance church (DC), African gospel church (AGC), Anglican church of Kenya (ACK), Presbyterian church of east Africa (PCEA) and Pentecostal assemblies of god (PAG). Orphanages set up by private individual Christians to assist children orphaned by HIV/AIDs were visited. They were: Kids home international (KHI) and agape orphans organization (AOO). One school which admitted children orphaned by HIV/AIDs who were brought to the school by local churches was also visited. The school was Kabokyek mixed boarding secondary school (KMBSS). These institutions have been lettered A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J and K for confidentiality purposes. The main assumption in this study was that, the church was expected to play a major role in helping children orphaned by HIV/AIDs. The study used descriptive design. Purposive and simple random sampling were used to select the participants. The target population included pastors/priests, church members, founders of private Christian homes, orphans and teachers. Data was collected using an interview schedule, questionnaires and observation. Validity of instruments was checked through expert opinion and reliability by test- retest method. The field work was done from July to September 2007 in Kericho County. Basing on Maslow's theory of the hierarchy of needs the study established that the church response to children orphaned by HIV/AIDs in Kericho County was positive. The four churches under consideration offered services to the orphans such as, food, shelter, clothing, education and health care. The church however was dogged by financial constraints, lack of concerted effort in its programmes, lack of trained personnel and disinheritance. The orphans' challenges were: lack of basic needs, disinheritance, stigma, child-headed households, among others. The challenges of the church were: lack of finance, lack of cooperation from other churches, lack of trained personnel, lack of follow up and disinheritance. It was recommended that the church should focus more on orphans by including them in the church's structure and constitution, encourage community and home-based care, among others.