Highly Vulnerable Children (HVC)
HVCs suffer from displacement, marginalization, dissolution of family protection and segregation from the community making them feel they are an economic burden thus they fall behind educationally and even socially. Female HVCs face additional challenges including commercial sexual exploitation. Child girls are actively engaged in commercial sex as a means for survival. They are victims of physical assault, rape, unwanted pregnancies, underage motherhood and lack of self-esteem trauma, rejection and death among others. According to US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief services for HVCs 6 core areas that can be used in combination with economic strengthening efforts to assist children, families and communities.
Taken together these 7+1 components define a broad continuum of care that can provide for the complex needs of children.
They are:
- Food and Nutrition Support
- Shelter and Care
- Protection
- Health Care
- Psychology Support
- Education and Vocational Training
- Economic Strengthening
HAWE to date has provided these services for more than 4,600 HVCs in the surrounding communities. HAWE has supports poor working mothers through Foster Day Care where the children of single parents, working mothers are kept in foster families during the time the parent is at work.
Foster care is an important non-institutional service for the child, whose biological family is unable to care for it, for a short or an extended period of time, due to illness, death, desertion or any other crisis situation. An alternate foster family is identified who will provide temporary or long term care for this child so as to avoid children going out to street. Foster parents are identified and approved after a detailed home study is undertaken. Foster parents may be relatives, neighbors, or friends who are from a similar socioeconomic background and it is pioneer in the field of foster care in the community.
