Child Development at Liberian Orphanages
This topic was highly participatory as the discussants were all practitioners working with international nongovernmental organizations over the past eight years, involved with child / human rights issues, and with programs aimed at addressing issues of child development at orphanages in Liberia.
The relevance, accessibility and accountability of child welfare programs in Liberia remain challenged-achieving success in child development has been indeed hindered by uncoordinated programming, resulting to lack of priority setting and fragmentation of resource allocation, hence inappropriate targeting of needs/planning: over five government agencies/ministries have got their own mandate and programs in addressing child welfare issues in Liberia. These agencies include: the Ministries of Gender and Development, youths and Sports, Justice, Labor and Health and social welfare. Also, due to the lack of direct program budgetary allocation in the national budget, existing programs to address the issues of child welfare are greatly influenced by foreign perspective resulting in less relevant programming and lack of sustainability of programs.
Subsequently, due to the lack of such coordination amongst government agencies, orphanage homes have been implicitly relied upon to address the issues of child welfare in Liberia in spite of their limitations and questions of their credibility to function as professional, reliable and genuine child philanthropic entities. However, child development at Liberian orphanages remains a fallacy as over 95% of orphanages in Liberia do not have any set program nor are they accredited based on standard guidelines; personal interest by policy makers (economic/political reasons) are still major determining factors in accrediting, and safe guarding orphanage homes from closure. According to participants at the meet up, typical situation at these orphanages include: poor hygiene/sanitation, lack of proper learning environment (one teacher teaching three classes at once and in one classroom), children being made to lie that their parents are dead and false promises to destitute parents that greater opportunities exist for their child/children when at the orphanage (eg. For overseas adaption/schooling), overcrowding and teenage pregnancy are some of the social economic challenges at these orphanages.
The following recommendations by practitioners involve with child rights in Liberia currently remain cardinal in the advocacy for improving child development at Liberian orphanages:
- That a focal government entity take on the mandate entirely for developing and implementing child welfare programs; such entity should be supported by national government in terms of appropriate budgetary allocation and the independence to accredit orphanages and monitor their activities to ensure adherence to standard guidelines, regulations and performance
- That a comprehensive family welfare program be established/strengthened at the Ministry of Health and Social welfare to include development plan for every child born and training of social workers who shall work to ensure the monitoring and supervision of child welfare programs
- Government to provide subsidies to private schools in communities with no or less public schools to enable children of low income families equal access to quality education, and that rural communities be prioritized for the construction of public/community schools
Joseph G. Mehdeh
Many of the Orphanages in Liberia are established for economic gain. People use these orphan children and their destitute parents to enrich themselves.
Recommendations:
That Grass root organizations at the community level be empowered by both local and international partners to carry out earmarked child development programs activities.
That enough child protection training and empowerment activities be put in to place and submitted to all.
Regular monitoring and evaluation systems be put in place to ensure all children feel and develop properly.