Perception and Awareness of Orphanages, Orphan Care, and Orphans' Information System in Nigeria

Abstract

From time immemorial, cities, towns, individuals and church organizations have operated children's homes  in our society for one reason or the other under the appellation, orphanages. Recently, the concept of orphanage and their mode of management in low income countries is seen as a frontier for income generation. In this light, a set of questions in the form of questionnaires was distributed to 150 respondents in eight categories covering all the concerned sectors of children care in Edo State of Nigeria. The questionnaire was designed to capture the three themes, Orphanages, Orphan-care and Orphan information management system in three mutually exclusive sections. Among the distributed questionnaires, 100  (75%) were completed and returned while 50 (25%) were not returned. The responses of the returned questionnaires were captured, presented, and analysis using descriptive statistics. The study reveals that, upon all the efforts by the government and some organizations in the face of this modernization, the conditions in these orphanages are still poor. Secondly popular opinion viewed orphanage care negatively within traditional orphanages. Finally there is need for the Government to introduce Orphans' Information management system in running the day to the day activities of the orphanages.