an Eldis Resource
Promoting and protecting the health of orphans and vulnerable children in Monkey Bay, Malawi
Addressing childhood vulnerability in Malawi
Authors:
W. Asibu; J. Chingoni; D. Majawa; CMPD; TARSC; REACH
Publisher:
EQUINET: Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa, 2009
Malawi has had a rising population of orphans and vulnerable children who are reported to lack care, food, educational opportunities and adult role models. Some of the coping strategies used by these children, such as early school dropout and child labour, combined with poor adult support, make them susceptible to risk of early onset of sex and to sexual and reproductive health problems, including HIV infection. This report presents the experiences and learning from participatory action research (PRA) focused on the coordination of support from service providers and community organisations for protection of sexual and reproductive health of orphans and vulnerable children in Monkey Bay, Malawi.
This PRA work was implemented in Monkey-Bay in Mangochi district, where HIV prevalence and risk indicators and poverty levels are amongst the highest in Malawi. Key findings include:
- all groups shared the perception that health services poorly addressed the needs of orphans and vulnerable children; and although their needs were seen to be understood by communities, services for these children were not well known to community members
- limited household and community resources and poor coverage by support
services was felt to lead children to expose themselves to health risks such as commercial sex in
trying to address these needs - filling gaps in social protection was thus identified as important - the bulk of the resources coming to the health sector were for drugs, supplies, facility maintenance, services and administration, and the focus on resourcing points of service delivery means that community level opportunities for care and support are less well resourced, while the low use by vulnerable children of sexual and reproductive health and other health services undermines their access to these resources.
