| dc.description.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 | en_US |
