The experiences of formerly institutionalized children discharged from Village of Hope Zimbabwe · Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Author

B193642B

Title

The experiences of formerly institutionalized children discharged from Village of Hope Zimbabwe

Abstract

ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to explore the experiences formerly institutionalized children discharged from childcare institutions, a case of children discharged from childcare institutions. The researcher sought to investigate and explore the challenges faced by deinstitutionalized children after they were discharged from childcare institutions, to understand the opportunities and resources available to support formerly institutionalized children after their discharge from child care institutions and to recommend ways to insure successful reintegration of formerly institutionalized children into the community. The qualitative methods were chosen for this study because it can yield comprehensive and in-depth assessments of human experiences. A phenomenological research strategy was chosen in order to provide a deeper exploration of the research study by giving the researcher access to people's interpretations, experiences, opinions, and attitudes regarding a social phenomenon. Purposive sampling was used to choose two key informants and six formerly institutionalized children as study participants. The researcher employed key informant interviews and in-depth interviews as data gathering techniques. The data was collected through interview guidelines, voice recordings were used to record participant responses, and thematic analysis was employed to examine the results. Several tactics were employed to increase the reliability. The findings indicated that formerly institutionalized children face various challenges such as failure to adapt to new environments, difficulties in forming new relationships, social stigma and discrimination as well as failure to integrate into the community. The findings noted that there are coping mechanisms which are employed by formerly institutionalized children to overcome the challenges they face and these are peer support groups, adopting and accepting the situations they find themselves in as well as seeking comfort from religious leaders .the findings also highlighted support systems available for formerly institutionalized children which includes institutional post educational support, vocational training and skills training, half way youth homes and the care leavers network.

Date

JUNE 2024

Publisher

BUSE

Keywords

-formerly institutionalized children
-challenges faced by deinstitutionalized children
-reintegration of formerly institutionalized children into the community

Supervisor

NIL