Risks, Protection Factors and Resilience among Orphan and Vulnerable Children in Ethiopia: Implications for Intervention

The purpose of this study is to investigate risk, protective factors and resilience among orphan and vulnerable children. Two hundred eighty two orphans and vulnerable children were randomly selected from Chilga Woreda. Data were collected by using self-report questionnaire. Most orphans and vulnerable children in Chilga Woreda were facing family, school and community related risks factors. Some of them faced social problems like negative pressure, social isolation from the society, social or cultural discrimination and rejection. Sizeable number of them did not use protective factors to cope up with risks. Consequently, some OVC who scored below half were not resilient which implies low resilience ability. There was no statistically significant difference in resilience between male and female respondents. Similarly, there was no significant difference in the resilience ability across educational level of respondents. However, there was statistically significant difference in resilience ability across age of respondents.