Impact assessment of a community-based, multi-sectoral intervention to empower OVC in rural Kenya

An estimated 41 million children in sub-Sahara Africa had lost one or both parents as of 2009, largely as a result of the HIV pandemic. Some African governments and NGOs have begun implementing cash transfer programs to families of orphans to cover educational and food expenses over the past decade. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey of 707 youth heads-of-households in a faith-based program operating in Kenya that goes beyond typical direct cash transfer projects and requires participating orphan and vulnerable children (OVC) siblings to develop an income-generating activity to sustain beyond the funded period. The program duration is three years with weekly group and monthly regional meetings, offering social, economic, and health support. The mean incomes for OVCs in the third year (n=201) of the three-year program more than doubled from those in the first year (n=319). The number OVC siblings who had gone without food over the past year “often” decreased from 40% to 14% between the first year and third year cohorts. Overall earnings, food security, medical security, malaria net usage, condom usage, number of different sexual partners, literacy rates and water sanitation practices all significantly improved between the first and third cohorts. This study demonstrates that a program aimed at empowering OVC in a setting like rural Kenya can effectively provide beneficial social and health protections, and furthers the literature on best-practices related to care for AIDS-affected OVC in sub-Sahara Africa.