Alternative Family Care
Alternative family care programme largely deals with the facilitation and provision of alternative families for children in need of special care and protection. Adoption, Foster care and guardianships are the core components in the Alternative Family Care Services. It is divided into two sub-programmes:-
Places of safety and children’s homes
CWSK has 25 branches and ten children’s homes countrywide. In its branches and children’s homes, CWSK offers shelter and safe houses to children. These are the children who for one reason or another have not found alternative families and have to be placed in the children homes temporarily as reintegration back to homes or another alternative is sought.
Adoption, Foster Care & Guardianship
- CWSK is a gazetted and registered adoption society in Kenya since 1969. Adoption is a way of providing a child with new legal parents who provides caring and loving homes for orphaned, offered and abandoned children. It ends the legal relationship between the child and his/her natural mother. CWSK has done adoptions on behalf of the Kenya Government for decades. It has a well qualified and a professional team of Social Workers. CWSK has facilitated over 8000 children into legal adoption.
- CWSK also provides foster care which is the temporary shelter for children who for one reason or another cannot remain in their home environment and by assisting parents appoint guardians. A Guardian means a person appointed by will or deed by a parent of the child or by order of the court to assume parental responsibility for the child upon the death of the parent of the child either alone on in conjunction with the surviving parent of the child or father of a child born out of wedlock who has acquired parental responsibility for the child.
Crisis Pregnancy Support Programme
- CWSK gives pregnant crisis counselling for abandoned and unwanted babies which addresses itself mainly to adolescence mothers and other desperate mothers by helping the parents sort out the current crisis. CWSK receives children that have been offered /given up by their parent (s) for adoption. This service is especially beneficial to adolescents, students and domestic workers who form most of our clientele. The main focus in this programme is to retain children in their original families. Out of the services that we provide mainly counselling and reference, we end up remaining with only 40% offered babies while the rest of the mothers find solutions and settle for alternatives. Those who offer their children for adoption are procedurally taken through professional counselling preparing them for the implications of their adoption which includes trauma, regret, a feeling of childlessness, guilt and lack of confidence. This program also handles the fathers of the children, the families and women. We also take on cases of culturally unwanted children e.g. those born out of rape, incest and taboo children. CWSK has been the only adoption society in the country for decades before any other adoption agency was registered to conduct adoptions in Kenya.
Child Trafficking
- Through this programme, CWSK counters all forms of child trafficking to reduce the prevalence of the vice and its effects to the victims locally and internationally. To counter these, CWSK has set up a programme to raise the awareness of the public to the characteristics of child trafficking and its effects on the OVCs who are the likely targets and victims. CWSK has also established a working relationship with the leading newspaper(NATION) to publish pictures of lost and found children to protect them from the possibility of being trafficked. CWSK aims to scale up this programme with other media houses. In addition to that, CWSK builds the capacity of stakeholders and duty bearers through workshops, trainings and the print media in the form of production of manuals for reference, with the object of improving the care and protection given to OVCs and abandoned children.
Family Tracing and Reunification
- Within the Republic of Kenya, CWSK undertakes to trace and families/relatives of individuals who may be seeking the service as well as providing places of safety for the lost children as the search of their families continues. This is made efficient by the use of the 25-branch network across the country. Internationally, we have been involved in provision of the same service through the International Social Services (ISS) General Secretariat and its affiliate branches located in different countries of the world. Over the years individuals and families have come to appreciate the role that this particular Programme has been playing. Recognizing the importance of a family to its members, we will continue to facilitate unification of family members as well as helping in the tracing of roots of interested parties who cannot do it on their own because of one reason or the other.
HIV/AIDS
- The Programme aims to reduce the HIV/AIDS prevalence and enhance support mechanisms for affected and infected orphans and other vulnerable children through increasing levels of awareness on HIV/AIDS and advocating for behaviour change among adolescents and OVCs; enhancing the quality of psychosocial support, counselling and referral services for HIV/AIDS affected children and improving the quality care for HIV/AIDS affected children. CWSK works with families, communities and government departments to accomplish this.
OVC Protection
- In this programme, CWSK targets duty bearers and local community members who handle and come across OVCs in their day to day work. The duty bearers who include chiefs, teachers, police officers, hospital staff, and the opinion leaders at the locational level are trained practically. During the training, the duty bearers are sensitized on the rights of children and how to ensure protection for OVCs at their various levels and whenever they meet them. We also train them on legal guardianship to ensure if they provide alternative family care to OVCs they do so within the legal framework. This is an ongoing programme that has already recorded great success.
Education and Skills Development
- Through this Programme CWSK focuses on achieving and promoting children and youth access to quality education and self reliance skills training through; enhancing and strengthening early childhood development (ECD) programmes; primary, secondary and university sponsorship and other education opportunities using community approach. Under this Programme we have many graduates who have benefited. CWSK also provides quality education to all children in the 10 CWSK children’s Homes and to CNSP living with their family and enhancing self reliance skills training programmes.
Child labour
- Withdrawal of Children in Need of Special Protection from situations of neglect, abuse and exploitation Child Labour Programme CWSK child labour programme aims at the identification, withdrawal and rehabilitation of boys and girls working in both formal and informal sectors in the country. More than 10,000 children have been withdrawn from economic exploitations and offered alternatives.
Street Children and Commercial Sexual Exploitation
- CWSK identifies, rescues and rehabilitates children in the streets including those involved in and at risk of entering commercial sexual exploitation. Currently we have an on going Programme targeting 8,000 children.
Family Empowerment
- CWSK has been involved in the strengthening of families through the setting up of Income Generating Activities that benefit families and contributing towards the community empowerment activities among Kenyans. We are committed and willing to continue providing family empowerment services to the people of Kenya: providing psychosocial support, Income Generating Activities, facilitating family reunification and provision of counseling services. Family empowerment is premised on the recognition that the best place that a child can ever be is in its original family. We also undertake mediation activities among parents who might be differing for reason or the other, separated, or estranged and as such the children may be suffering due to inadequate maintenance attention from either or both the parents. CWSK provides counselling to such parents with the aim of having the child’s needs adequately addressed by both parties. Each year we handle an average of 600 cases.
Family Counselling
- Realizing that a family plays a pivotal role in the determination of the well being of a society, CWSK has for a long time been providing family counselling services to families across the country. The service is geared towards enhancing coexistence and harmony within the family set-up and by so doing giving family members an opportunity to live a more fulfilling life.
Child Rescue
- CWSK runs a rapid response and rescue of children in all its active twenty-five branches. Whenever a case of child abuse or exposure to detrimental risk is reported to our offices, we respond immediately and rescue the child(ren) who may be neglected, exploited or facing the imminent danger of loss of life or serious harm. By so doing the degree of vulnerability is minimized.
Rapid Rescue Responce
- CWSK from inception is known as rapid response rescue for children in need of urgent rescue, shelter, health and other services. We work closely with the Government Departments, Social Services Department, children officers, the Police, chiefs, sub chiefs, NGOs and local courts to provide this service. We were members of the help desks that were established by the coalition on child rights and our help desks are still on going and CWSK is now a member of Childline Kenya.
Research, Advocacy and Communication
- The overall goal of this programme is to improve the legal and policy environment and practice on issues of children especially CNSP. This involves; conducting research on relevant areas in order to inform and influence the policy and legal framework for CNSP; identifying and sharing experiences and best practices on programmes and activities on CNSP and increasing levels of awareness on children rights amongst both children and the community.
Child Rights and Child Participation
- CWSK has mainstreamed child rights and child participation in all its programmes. This programme aims at providing children with the opportunity to identify their needs and solutions. This is because children are considered to be in a position to identify their own needs and come up with their own solutions. Through child participation the children are sensitised on their rights and the significance of being involved in issues affecting them. To promote child participation CWSK has facilitated formation of rights over 250 Rights of the child clubs reaching to thousands of children. The ROCs are aimed at building confidence, self-esteem and ensuring participation of the children in their issues. Among the activities carried out in the ROCs include creative art, songs, dances and debates among others.
Adolescent Reproductive Health Services.
- This Programme is aimed at reaching out to the youth through Adolescent Reproductive Health education among the youth, children, staff, volunteers and the community at large. The youth reach out to other youth through outreach, mobile theatres and peer youth educators training. The community is sensitized by the youth on HIV/Aids epidemic. They do door to door awareness campaign and impart the sick patients with community home based care skills. Their awareness creation is done through songs, role-plays puppetry; in both Kiswahili and vernacular, which the local people understand. This Programme is on going in Isiolo and Nanyuki.
Health Centres
- CWSK offers health services to children and vulnerable groups. In Nakuru, Isiolo and Nyahururu, we have dispensaries and youth friendly clinics that not only assist vulnerable children but also offer health facilities to the local community.
