Shelter is inextricably linked to the improvement of health, education, psychosocial welfare and overall well-being in any community. Global NGO guidelines confirm that shelter is a core intervention in tackling the complex needs of orphans and vulnerable children and their carers.
Unhealthy housing conditions
Deplorable, unsanitary housing conditions puts families and children at risk of illness and disease. Houses made from scrap materials, mud floors and leaking roofs offer families little protection against the elements. Families often share pit latrines with several other families exposing them to life-threatening diseases such as cholera, typhoid, rabies and malaria.
Income vulnerability
When one parent dies or becomes too ill to work, the loss of income means available funds are allocated to immediate needs such as food and medication. Unable to pay rent families are often evicted ending up living on the street or forced to crowd themselves into a small room of a relative’s house.
Property grabbing
Cultural practices in many countries leave families, orphans and children vulnerable to land grabbing. In some countries, women and children may be legally entitled to own property, but customary rules, favouring male ownership, prevail, resulting in forced eviction.
Displacement
When both parents die, older children in the family often find themselves responsible for their younger siblings. Unable to cope, brothers and sisters may be split and placed in the care of different relatives.
As siblings are split and sent to different parts of the country it makes them more susceptible to psychological, physical and sexual abuse.
Orphan headed households
Some orphans live in orphan-headed households but many more have been unable to form or maintain an orphan-headed household and now live on the streets.
Given the complexity of problems affecting HIV/AIDS infected/affected families and vulnerable children Habitat is working in partnership with other community based organisations to best meet the needs of these families through holistic care, including: social welfare and emotional support, medical care, education and food security and by providing vital shelter.
Habitat is committed to keeping vulnerable children within their own community and strengthening the resources and social support networks needed by caregivers, believing this is the most effective response to ensure orphaned and vulnerable children have the opportunities and environment they need to succeed.
Permanent healthy shelter
Inadequate shelter leaves families vulnerable to disease and harsh weather. Habitat builds durable homes that include cement floors, windows, waterproof roofing, improved ventilated pit latrines and mosquito nets (in malaria-prone areas). To reach those most vulnerable Habitat provides subsidies to ensure affordability and in cases where families have no income, fully subsidised homes.
Adequate space and privacy
Overcrowding can lead to psychosocial stress and greater risk of abuse. Habitat’s response offers extended or new homes reducing the pressures of over- crowding. In some cases, extended family members are able to move into new homes and gain a sense of independence and pride.
Protection from loss of property
Habitat’s “Inheritance and Succession Planning” programmes attempt to deal with threats to land title and security of shelter for surviving family members. Families and communities are educated on their ownership rights, parents plan for the future by taking steps to select guardians and to protect the inheritance of their children.
Education and awareness-raising
Habitat offers families training and education in health and hygiene promotion and HIV and AIDS prevention, care and support.
Orphan Headed Households
Children living without guardians have special needs, some of which may be met by providing shelter in housing clusters to facilitate care by community volunteers. Orphans benefit greatly from the care, personal attention, and social connections that they can receive in family or community care.