An orphan is generally defined as a child who  has no surviving parent caring for him or her. An orphan is in legal terms pertaining to provision of section of the child Care Act, a child with no parent or guardian in African  Context. The definition to the great extent holds to the universal meaning of an orphan. The definition above, is not essential on deviance to the understanding of the meaning of an orphan in relation to UNICEF.

 

 

 

From various causes of death of a parent or both parents, makes a child an orphan. There is therefore single parent orphan and double orphan (in case death of both parents). Of importance is the fact that there must be an element of care and support if parent(s) are alive.

 

 

 

There are a host of reasons attributed to the death of parents or guardians.The while scope of the causes of death will be as far as possible, explored in this profile , In simple terms, the death of parent (s) are caused by factors which cannot be captured in number easily. It is therefore wise to mention the most common ones among which is HIV/AIDs related deaths in our times, have catastrophic effect globally. These deaths are mostly occuring in the developing world, largely characterized by poverty. That is, the parents do not have resources medically and otherwise to prolong life. In the end, the parents die survived by orphaned children. It then become distressful for the children to fend for themselves. There is pattern as reflected from research, that in most cases the eldest child in parentless families is the breadwinner for the siblings. These type of families are called child-headed families. Such families are faced with multitudes of problems which will be discussed later under rehabilitation and recommendation.

 

 

Throughout history, accidents of different blinds caused deaths ranging from lower numbers to high numbers, some accidents were and are out of negligence and others are natural. In modern times car accidents are higher than in the past for various reasons. The resulting from accidents would have been more higher without safety measures in place. In the deaths resulting from accidents, are parents in some resulting in orphan-hood.

 

 

From various quarters, it is acknowledged that socio-economic conditions impact negatively to people, leading them to broken lives, diseases and death. Lack of resources like sanitation, water, electricity, recreational facilities, schools, health centers, religious centers, food, money, etc, cause migration of adults to affluent places and poor quality of lives of members of community and finally death. The orphans become vulnerable given poor socio-economic conditions from where they arise, resulting in child-headed families. Poor socio-economic conditions depend on the societal structure, from political influence interact.

Political polices of different governments determine economic state of the nations. The more stability politically of a nation, the better the economic conditions of the nation will be, in such communities, the degree of orphan-hood is low. Low salaries of parents and lack of skilled labour, contributes to financial and social difficulties and crises, resulting in split of families from various factors. In socio-economic crises,children are robbed of their care and support. In such conditions, parents tend to a dictate their responsibilities, leaving the children vulnerable and at risk. The children who are living financially in a deprived family, lack in most cases food, shelter and are exposed to various kinds of abuse. Some children run away from home and to the streets to fend for themselves. It then becomes difficult to trace their parents, which often makes them orphans. HIV/AIDS has great negative impact economically. Then more spread the disease, the greater the poverty and the greater the poverty, the more spread of the HIV infection, which becomes a vicious cycle. Orphans educational performance lowers.

 

 

For various reasons, people addicted themselves to alchol and drugs throughout history of humankind. The after effects of abuse of alcohol and narcotics, impact negatively to the abuser’s, their families and the rest of society. It has been shown from studies that parents who are alcoholics or drug abusers or both,worsen the quality of lives of family members and create broken homes. Adding from researches, it is shown that alcohol and drugs affect normal functioning of the brain and the body and reduces the chances of long life. Parents who prone to death and there are records of such deaths, which leave children end up as orphnas. Abuse of alcohol and drugs leads to broken homes,which drives children to the streets and ‘orphaned’. In the streets, some children cannot trace their parents and lead lives without guardianship and parenthood.

 

Abuse of alcohol and drugs by parents, weakens the feeling of security in Children, lower their performance at school and leave the children vulnerable and at risk. The parents who abuse substances are in most cases, if not all, victims of societal pressures from various angles and in other cases, fall victims to substance abuse are a result of curiosity.

 

 

From the distant past,it is in historical records of the wars waged hitherto. The wars have resulted in many deaths among which are deaths of parents. Children who were and are parentless became orphans. Historically among other things, homes and other kinds of shelters were established in response to the alarming rate of orphan-hood caused by wars. The wars created traumatic experiences in children resulting in learning barriers for the children. The wars  link to other factors like socio-economic conditions of communites and the quest of power, etc. Wars result in scarcity of wide range of resources, which limits educational progress and less care and support of orphans and vulnerable children. The children whose parents are assigned military tasks away from home for a long time, find themselves in similar circumstances to that of the orphans.

 

 

Throughout history of creation there had been calamities or disasters from natural causes. In all disasters, people of different age die which includes deaths of parents leaving orphaned children behind. Natural disasters range from floods, strong winds, earthquakes, drought, etc survived children if not given enough or no support and care they become vulnerable and lack proper focus on there schoolwork. Death of parents itself weakens the children psychologically and thus create barriers of learning for the orphans. In the absence of physical facilities and other resources resulting from natural disasters, education gets hampered or difficult for the children and more so with orphans.