Influence of holistic child development programmes on children’s livelihood in Siaya county, a case of compassion international

Abstract

The Government of Kenya and other key stake holders such as World Bank and NGOs have implemented various interventions aimed at reducing poverty. Poverty level is still high in Siaya County. Prevention is the key to sustainable transformational development in tackling the root causes of child poverty. A lack of basic needs during normal childhood development can lead to severe negative impacts in later lifecycle stages and some deficits have irreversible consequences. Holistic approach on child development therefore specifically defines child well-being. In response to this; CI has initiated Holistic child development programmes to develop children to be self reliant in their adulthood. This strategy has been ignored leading to children‘s deprivations not fully being addressed to meet their needs. To address this, CI has employed the strategy to provide Education, Child protection, Health and Spiritual support which is child centered to benefit children in Siaya County from a population of 1275 sponsored children in Siaya County CI projects. This study adopted a case study design with 297 respondents .The study used stratified random sampling to obtain the study sample from the study population. The data collection instruments used was closed ended questionnaires made of dichotomous scale and Likert scale for children and interview guides for the staff. The data collection instrument was ascertained for face validity by experts in project planning and management from the department of Extra Mural Studies, University of Nairobi. The data collection instrument was ascertained for reliability by conducting pilot study of 30 respondents from Siaya County using Cronbanch alpha. Raw data was collected from respondents through physical administering of Questionnaires. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and qualitative data inferential statistics such as Chi-square. The study established that there is a very strong significant relationship between the two variables with Pearson‘s r=0.079 that is health in holistic child development program and children‘s livelihood in siaya County by CI projects. The study also established that there is a very strong significant relationship between two variables with Pearson‘s r=0.081 that is education in holistic child development program and children livelihood in Siaya County by CI projects. There is a strong positive significant relationship between child protection in holistic child development and children‘s livelihood with Pearson‘s r =0.07.that is child protection in holistic child development program and children livelihood in Siaya County by CI projects. It was established that there is a weak positive significant relationship between religious interventions in holistic child development program and children‘s livelihoods with Pearson‘s r=0.04 in Siaya County by CI projects.