Malezi Bora na Maisha Mazuri: “Good Parenting for a Good Life” in Kenya

Context

Family violence is both a cause and consequence of street life for tens of millions of individuals in street situations globally, including in Kenya.

One effective strategy for preventing family violence is through parenting support programmes that engagmale and female caregivers. Engaging fathers in parenting can protect against child maltreatment, strengthen co-parental relationships, and challenge harmful gender norms that create and uphold gender inequities and underpin family violence.

Furthermore, pilot study results from the Malezi Bora na Maisha Mazuri programme (adapted with and for mothers in street situations in Eldoret from Parenting for Lifelong Health for Young Children) suggested that the programme could be improved by including fathers.

Objectives

Responding to a community-identified need, the purpose of this study was to understand the challenges, opportunities, and strategies for engaging fathers in street situations in Malezi Bora, to support families and prevent family violence.

With the meaningful, active, and ongoing participation of the street-community in Eldoret, we undertook interviews, focus group discussions, and participatory analysis workshops with parents in street situations and community service providers to explore:

Gendered parenting practices, experiences, and aspirations among fathers and mothers in street situations;
Drivers of family violence against women and children in this context; and
Key content and delivery considerations for engaging male caregivers in the Malezi Bora programme, to make it more gender responsive and transformative.

Key findings

Structural violence (roundups by law enforcement, exclusion from essential services, lack of housing etc.) and patriarchal norms contributed to family violence, and family violence reinforced street life.
Interpersonal drivers of family violence included men’s expectation to provide financially for their families yet inability to do so amidst extreme poverty, men’s expression of dominance over women while experiencing social and economic vulnerability, relationship insecurities, parenting disagreements, the normalcy of harsh child discipline, and substance use.
Parenthood was viewed as a pathway to a ‘better life’. Parents wanted to provide a good life for their children, one free from the streets, and desired parenting support to strengthen their relationships and parenting skills.
Factors influencing men’s programme engagement included (a) their expectation to provide financially for their families, (b) their aspirations to be good, engaged fathers, and (c) structural barriers to doing either (e.g., housing-, income-, and food insecurity, police and community violence, etc.).

Programme and policy implications

Parenting support programmes co-developed with and for parents in street situations may help break the cycle of family violence, and the cycle of street involvement. Specifically, a refined Malezi Bora programme should incorporate parenting and relationship skills; the deconstruction of harmful gender norms, identities, and practices; economic strengthening; and mental health support.

Importantly, Malezi Bora and other parenting programmes with and for families in street situations will likely be most effective if accompanied by structural changes such as supportive policies and human rights protections (end to police violence, access to rehabilitation, health and legal services, and housing and employment supports).