Child Reintegration Program
The reintegration of children after a time of living in the children's homes has been a topic of great interests to many child focused organizations especially those that deal with the institutionalization of children. This has been a topic of interest because the process of integration back into the communities has been one plagued with many loop holes and leading to difficulty in the beneficiaries fitting in back to the society. This is because most integration is done in a nonprofessional manner without the preparations needed for both the child and family.
Previously MCO simply sent children back to their homes of origin after they completed their O' Levels or when sent away on disciplinary action. This left us with a situation where a lot of the reintegrated persons would find their way back to the children's orphanage when faced with the slightest challenge. This situation has since changed. Thorough preparation was done that included counseling the children, family assessments, economic empowerment to the guardians/parents and foods and housing support for the children and the families. There were also continuous trainings for the staff that carried out this process after the organization entered into a partnership with Samaritan Purse Kenya (SP) who have been spearheading reintegration. They also funded the process.
One of our major goals in the ended year 2012 was to reintegrate 15 children back to the communities of origin after having them in the children's home for varied periods of time. For the first time MCO successfully reintegrated 11 children back to their homes, we consider this process successful since it was done in the best way possible. It also help to de institutionalized living in children homes. During the last issue MCO newsletter (September 2012) made an appeal for support from partners towards this venture. This reintegration was made possible through the partnership with Samaritans purse that were very instrumental in directing, monitoring as well as partial funding of the programme.
