The Methodist Church in Kenya’s Sponsorship Programme on Orphans: A Re-Examination of the Effectiveness of its Material and Spiritual Needs, with Reference to the Day Secondary School in Imenti North, Meru County

Abstract

Numerous societal problems for example HIV and AIDS challenges, accidents, diseases, cancer, and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) have led to the deaths of parents, leaving behind orphaned children. Usually, orphans are left in the care of grandparents or other relatives. This study has therefore sought to establish the effectiveness of the Methodist Church in Kenya’s sponsorship programmes on the material and spiritual needs of orphans in day secondary schools in Imenti North subcounty. The study was led by the following specific objectives: to assess the M.C.K. awareness of the material and spiritual needs of orphans; to analyze M.C.K. sponsoring programmes for orphans; to examine the effectiveness of M.C.K pastoral programmes in meeting the needs of orphans; and examine the academic performance of orphans in church-sponsored secondary schools in Imenti-North subcounty. This study was informed and led by Erickson's model of psychosocial development theory and the A Theory of Human Motivation, developed by Abraham H. Maslow in 1943, that discusses hierarchy needs. However, the research adopted a descriptive survey. The population of the study included the church education committee, church superintendent, principals, and orphan students. A sample size of 207 respondents was picked, and a questionnaire was used as the data collection tool. The reliability of the data was measured by Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha, while the content and construct validity ensured that the intended data was collected adequately and effectively. The collected data was analyzed using a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 26. Descriptive statistics, frequencies, means, and inferential statistics, Pearson correlation, were used to analyze data that was presented in different thematic. The findings of this study were that material needs in the form of food, shelter, clothing, and pocket money were identified as the most important needs followed by spiritual needs. Therefore, this study recommends that the church should engage in full provision of the same on a timely basis to the orphans to cure the risky behaviour they may find themselves in. However, the study suggests more research be done on not only MCK Church sponsorship projects like this but other churches' funded initiatives in the schools to find out the sustainability of the same based on materials and spiritual needs and looking at broader issues and challenges of such projects