Counseling for Caregivers

Welcome to this module which has been designed especially for you, a
caregiver working with and caring for orphans and other vulnerable
children and youth.
As a caregiver for vulnerable children, you are helping to make their
environment more secure and compassionate. By sharing your skills
and time, you are helping your charges to develop into happier and
healthier human beings, equipped to cope with life’s problems and
challenges.
The term “caregiver” may be new, but “giving care” as a practice has
always been a part of our culture. Since time immemorial, human
beings have lived together. Sharing emotions, including happiness as
well as sorrow, has always been a common practice. Giving assistance
in times of need, such as sickness, war, and natural disasters is an act
that comes naturally to most human beings. In traditional societies, giving care to those that needed it was a basic function of the family. The
needs—whether emotional or physical—of all family members were
met within the extended family. The older members counseled the
younger ones and the younger ones sought advice from the elders.
Sharing thoughts and activities with a large family were the accepted
norm.
In recent times, social and economic changes have brought changes in
the structure of the family. More people have left their communities to
seek employment, making extended families less common. More children than ever before are orphans, having lost one or both parents to
war, sickness, accidents, or poverty. All children are vulnerable, but
especially those that no longer have parents. In many cases, for social,
economic, and cultural reasons, the girl-child is even more vulnerable
than boys. Wherever they might call home—the streets, institutions, or
relatives’ homes—all children need somebody to care for their emotional, physical, and spiritual needs.

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