Effectiveness of pastoral counsellors in helping south Sudanese dysfunctional families living as refugees in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to establish the effectiveness of pastoral counsellors in helping South Sudanese dysfunctional families living as refugees in Nairobi County, Kenya. Violent conflicts throughout the world have left millions of people compulsorily displaced in their own homes; others to neighbouring countries.Over18.4 million were living in Sub-Saharan Africa where over 6.6 million of that population were refugees. South Sudan has the highest crisis in Africa and the third largest in the world. Families are regarded as dysfunctional for been witnessed of violent acts and abuse, or unhealthy function family etc. The study based on the assumption that South Sudanese pastors/pastoral counsellors used both their psychological and theological resources to give hope and bring about positive change to these families. The counsellors themselves were influenced by different factors that determined their effectiveness. The objectives were to assess the level of professional counselling training that the pastoral counsellors have, to establish the cultural influence on the pastoral counsellors, to determine the support that the church provides for pastoral counsellors to carry out their role, and to identify the best practices used by pastoral counsellors in solving the issues of these families living in distress and psychological trauma as covered in the scope of the study. The study was guided by the social analysis theory as proposed by Holland and Henriot 1980, using a descriptive research design and both qualitative and quantitative method. The target population, were South Sudanese dysfunctional families living as refugees in Nairobi County, in Kibera, Kasarani, and the Baptist Church along Kibera Road. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select a number of 60 participants of different age groups, with different occupational and educational backgrounds. Both primary and secondary data was obtained through the use of questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions. The study used content analysis to analyse the data collected. The study findings found out that the pastoral counsellors’ were unsuccessful in helping the dysfunctional families, most of the participants suggesting that more should be done to help ease the troubles of these families. The findings also revealed that pastoral counsellors would have been effective if they had the required professional skills to help them carry out their duties confidently. The study further showed pastoral counsellors need to be supported by the church and other institutions through creating awareness and training of those interested in the profession. The study also affirmed that the best practice to solve the issues of these dysfunctional families, pastors/pastoral counsellors has to look at the needs holistically in the sense that they need to meet both psychological and physical needs of the persons. The findings recommended that this study should be given a keen consideration in order to rescue the dysfunctional families of South Sudanese living in Nairobi County. It concludes that the insights and suggestions offered to pastoral counsellors and researchers could be adopted by the church or other party interested in the implementation of pastoral counselling programmes among the dysfunctional families of South Sudanese or similar groups around the world.