CHALLENGES AND EXPERIENCES OF CARE GIVERS / VOLUNTEERS AND ORPHANS IN THE COMMUNITY BASED APPROACH TO THE REHABILITATION OF ORPHANS IN DEKINA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA , KOGI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Caregivers/volunteers and orphans are faced with many challenges and have varied experiences in the course of community-based Rehabilitation of Orphans in Dekina Local Government Area, Kogi State, Nigeria These experiences and challenges are worth documenting The study used primary data collected with the aid of questionnaire, oral/in-depth interview and focus group discussion. The data were analyzed using simple percentages. The result revealed that the challenges faced by caregivers are inadequate funds, inadequate community support, and improper financial management, for the orphans the challenges were abject poverty, insufficient government support, inadequate community support, disease, lack of /inadequate education, disability etc, the experiences of the orphans and caregivers are worthwhile and hence worth documenting for planning and intervention The study concluded that both orphans and caregiver/ volunteers faced many challenges that require urgent intervention, it is recommende3d that communities should step up their support for orphan and rehabilitation activities, more government support is needed.