Community-based initiatives in response to the OVC crisis in North Central Uganda

In response to the orphan crisis, a number of community initiatives have proliferated to enhance service delivery to OVCs (Orphans and other Vulnerable Children). Part of the literature paints a bleak and pessimistic picture: it believes that community based support interventions anchored on the family are faltering under the weight of increasing number of orphans; while others argue that communities are innovative and resilient to the extent that they have devised new coping strategies. The paper shows how OVC community responses in Northern Uganda are under severe pressure from a range of factors; but how these community initiatives are not collapsing – as the ‘social rupture’ thesis predicts. Instead, these community initiatives are dynamic and constantly evolving through various mechanisms to respond to the challenges of meeting the needs of the orphans. The paper shows how some of these initiatives are more successful than others in doing so.