Browsing by Author "Desalegn, Meskerem"

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    The Role of Childcare Institutions in Seeking Other Childcare Alternatives to the Best Interest of the Child
    (Addis Ababa University, 2015-10) Desalegn, Meskerem; Alemu, Tenagne(PhD)
    The purpose of this study is to examine the role of orphanages in seeking other child care alternative in light of the best interest of the child. The research follows the descriptive case study design to assess the practice of orphanages in relation to seeking other child care alternative. The study is conducted on the basis of the data gathered from six key informants, document review and observation made in selected orphanages. The absence of all-encompassing prior research conducted in the topic and motivation to add some additional knowledge on the practice in the child care system is the rational for selecting the topic. Open ended interview, observation and document review are used as tools for data collection. The findings in the study are analyzed thematically. The key findings emerged from this study are three. The first finding indicated orphanages have a responsibility in seeking other child care alternatives to minimize children’s stay in their institution. The second finding showed orphanage are financially dependent on adoption agencies and this is pushing them to choose intercountry adoption over other child care alternatives such as; local adoption, community based care, re-unification, reintegration, and foster care. The third finding points out the fact that financial aspect of orphanage’s practice particularly in intercountry adoption has an adverse effect on the best interest of the child. In the conclusion part, the study proves the applicability of explanation of critical theories to the practice of orphanages in seeking other child care alternatives with the context that the decision of practitioners in the child welfare system is to some extent affected by economic considerations than the best interest of the child. On the basis of these findings the recommendations forwarded are; establishing the central authority and limiting the role given for the orphanages, placing a strong system of checking and controlling mechanism in the area, avoiding the problem of orphanage’s budget dependency on adoption agencies, working on the attitudinal change and cooperation for the same agenda and adoption of Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention. Future studies should also focus on further investigation of the issue in relation to the practice of orphanages found outside Addis Ababa. Moreover, as the study’s unit of analysis is only limited to organizations, future researches can also conducted by taking individuals as a unit of analysis particularly, children those are placed under institutional care and other child care alternatives