Interventions are to work through families to keep children in supportive and caring environments and to strengthen family’s abilities to meet a range of children's needs. It shall not be a stand-alone activity but part of comprehensive, integrated programming.  Ray of Hope Foundation shall builds its PSS program on community resources and links families with existing systems of community support such as early childhood development programs, school programs, kids clubs, safe spaces for girls, peer support groups and health services and also integrated it into existing programs for nutrition, HIV prevention, PMTCT, and care and treatment.  It shall ensure participation in parent education groups, community caregiver and family support groups, peer and social support activities and mentorship programs so as to help children, youth and families to strengthen coping mechanisms and build resilience. While most children are fairly resilient, when faced with extreme adversity and trauma, they and their families need extra support.  As extreme, prolonged 'toxic stress' may lead to anxiety or depression and can have long-term, harmful effects on a child's health and development.  In cases of extreme stress or adversity, children and families ROHF will offer family outreach programs such as home visits that provide counseling services.

Ray of Hope Foundation PSS core elements
Four main components of psycho-social support were identified by Ray of Hope are briefly highlighted below:



(a) Emotional needs
These include the need for love, security, encouragement, confidence, motivation, and self-esteem. It also includes a sense of affiliation or belongingness, trust and security.



(b)The physical needs
The physical needs for children are also necessary they constitute the basic needs and these include food, shelter, school uniforms, fees and basic health care.



(c) Mental needs.
Mainly refers to children’s areas of mental growth. Formal and informal educations systems are essential elements within the mental framework. Opportunities for ‘observational knowledge, adaptation skills and general life skills’ are fundamental in the development of the child. Children's social requirements are essential and they involve ‘children in a community without them feeling stigmatized or different, to develop a sense of belonging, form friendships and community ties, acceptance, identity, and acknowledgment from peers’, it also include creative needs of the child.



(d) Spiritual needs
Spiritual needs enable children to develop a hope for their future. “They also need to develop trust and security in their survival. They can even call for spiritual guidance and support from a Higher Being”.it can also implies upholding morals and societal ethics



Key Psychosocial Support Activities and Message​



1. Support Families to effectively meet Children's Psychosocial Needs and Care for Children in Their Own Communities. Families and communities that love and care for children are best placed to provide psycho social support.

 

2. Integrate Psychosocial Support Activities into Existing Community and Health Systems and foster support groups for parents, families, community caregivers and youth (peers).

3. Organize Community Caregiver Support Groups, through existing community resources and structures, to address caregivers' emotional and psychological needs, because caregivers in support groups reported 'better family functioning, more positive feelings towards children in their care and less social marginalization' than those not in support groups.

4. Support Mentorship Programs for orphans and vulnerable Children and Youth. Mentorship programs can lessen grief and positively affect psychological outcomes, especially for children without an adult caregiver.

5. Address Specific Psychosocial Support Needs of orphans and vulnerable Children, considering how children respond differently to adverse situations based on their age, gender and circumstances.

6. Provide Psychosocial Activities that Support Young Children through Early Childhood Development Programs (ECD or preschool or play centers), since toxic stress in early childhood can have lifelong,

negative effects on a child's brain development, health outcomes, learning and behaviors.

7. Strengthen Social Welfare Services and Promote Community Child Protection Policies including Inheritance Rights. Community level support needs to be backed by external efforts of policy-makers.

8. Develop an Evidence Base of Psychosocial Support Interventions that Support Child Wellbeing.