Community Driven Development Home Care Programs For The Physically Challenged Youths In Kibera Informal Settlement, Nairobi County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

This study sought to find out Community Driven Development (CDD) home care programs for the physically challenged youths in Kibera informal settlement. Specifically, the study aimed at finding out the extent to which the CDD home care programs were accessible to the physically challenged youths, the benefits of CDD home care programs and the challenges the physically challenged youths faced in accessing CDD home care programs in Kibera informal settlement. Social action theory was used in the study. The study employed descriptive survey research design with both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Questionnaire, interview schedule and observation methods were used for data collection. Data was collected from 357 respondents from the total of 3312 physically challenged youths in Kibera. These respondents were picked from 13 villages in Kibera through stratified and snowball sampling techniques. Data was analyzed and presented in tables, pie charts and figures, using percentages and some of it qualitatively. The study established that even though home care programs were not adequately accessible, several home care programs were carried out in Kibera. They included provision of donations and grants, guidance and counseling, hygiene promotion, making of referrals, home visits and provision of education on various beneficial programs. The physically challenged youths had benefited from the home care programs in a number of ways. These included financial, nutritional, medical and material support. Generally, the findings indicated that even if not all the physically challenged youths knew or had access to the CDD home care programs, majority of them had benefited from these programs in one way or the other. The study further established that there were several challenges that hindered the youths from accessing the home care programs. They included lack of information or ignorance, physical body handicap, fear of stigma, illiteracy among others. The study concluded that there were a good number of home care programs offered in Kibera. However, a number of physically challenged youths could not access them due to distance, lack of proper information, financial constraints, fear of stigmatization, illiteracy and misrepresentation among others. The study recommended that the government, the NGOs and all the stakeholders champion education awareness in Kibera informal settlement especially on CDD home care programs. This was to enable the physically challenged youths to be informed of the available opportunities so that they could be able to utilize them.