APPLICATION OF MULTINOMIAL LOGISTIC REGRESSION TO IDENTIFY THE MAGNITUDE AND RISK FACTORS THAT ASSOCIATED WITH ORPHAN AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN THE ARBA MINCH TOWN (IN CASE OF NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION FOR SOCIAL SERVICE FOR AIDS), ETHIOPIA

Back ground: An orphan is a child who has lost one or both parents. Vulnerable children were children who has been orphaned by AIDS and affected by HIV/ AIDS pandemic. The increasing number of Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) is one of the most serious socio - ec onomic problem affecting developing countries. This problem was primarily caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty, conflict and longstanding poor governance. These factors contribute to the high mortality rate of parents and erode their capacity to provid e support for their children. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the magnitude and risk factors that associated with orphan and vulnerable children in Arba Minch town in case of Non Governmental Organization for Social Service for AIDS. Methods: All Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Arba Minch town Nongovernmental organization for Social Service for AIDS (OSSA) were eligible to participate. Organization based sampling frame of 300 orphan students used and 73 orphaned children sele cted using simple random sampling. The study used primary data which was collected by distributing structured questionnaire for 73 orphaned children and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Results: The cross tabulation result shows that problem of orphan after parent’s death has statistically significant association with type of orphan, number of Children for his or her family and background of family before death. The multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that significant determinants of proble ms for orphaned children were : cause of parent death, Sex of child, number of children of her/his parent and background of family before death. Conclusions and Recommendation: Based on the findings Orphans were at higher risk of psychosocial problems. I t is recommended that government and non - government associations (organization) should give great attention for orphaned children to problem face like social, economical, and psychological problems. This could be through involvement of everybody to support Orphaned children.