Organizational Constraints and Supports for Psychosocial Care of Ethiopian Children at Risk: The Case of Services in Addis Ababa
The dissertation describes from an institutional perspective psychosocial support services being provided to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. Despite the presence of sufficient but fragmented legal, policy and strategic framework, Ethiopia's social protection landscape has suffered from a historic dearth of interventions that address psychosocial risks and vulnerabilities. Over the past decade and half, however, psychosocial support services to OVC have been slowly defused into the Ethiopian society as elements of programming for care and support to the population. Consequently, there currently exists diversity in the types of psychosocial risks and vulnerabilities that interventions prioritize and the approaches they employ to address them. This dissertation describes some of the most institutionalized organizational forms adopted by child focused organizations and interventions in Ethiopia to addressed prioritized psychosocial risks and vulnerabilities. The dissertation particularly focuses on psychosocial support interventions in community setting, family and school settings as well as psychosocial supports to marginalized children, abused children and to children in contact with the Law. Several implications of the description to social work policy and direct practice are finally discussed.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations