In the summer of 2015, I was starting to get a clearer insight into the diverse backgrounds and problems that were the main cause of the institutionalisation of children in a few specific countries. This insight led me to speculate that actually to be able to really tackle the issue of children institutions – and to get an idea of what is needed to keep them out of them – it would be useful to have information about a few specific subjects for each country, to gain an understanding of what is already in place, what are major obstacles and how alternative care and institutional care are handled.
These musings motivated me to take on a hare-brained project: the research project with the working title of ‘The World List’ (don’t worry, I’ll come up with something better for the title of report). I knew it would be an enormous undertaking that would take years, but I felt it was too essential to just leave. I was sure that this would not just be useful to me, but also to other organisations involved in helping vulnerable children.
It is desk-based research. Meaning that I have been scouring the internet for reports, articles, documents, websites and lists of statistics on the subjects that I was looking for. I have read many hundreds of these, coming from many different backgrounds. I have read reports and documents made or commissioned by major organisations like UNICEF, Save the Children, Terre des Hommes, Lumos, SOS Children’s Villages International, and Disability Rights International. I have read reports commissioned by the African Union and the European Union. I have combed through newspaper articles and websites from many different countries – in a variety of different languages. And I have gone through many, many reports submitted by countries to the Commission on the Rights of the Child.
This week, 37 months since I started the project, I completed the collection of raw data for this project. Of course, I have not worked on this for 37 months non-stop. In that time, I have also spent a lot of time visiting projects in different countries, I have written four books – three of which are available and one about to come out – and I have had to take a few months out every year to earn the money needed to stay alive and to fund my work. However, I can assure you that many, many weeks and hours have been devoted to the world list. Although there are definite limitations to the material I have to work with now, I have by and large found information on all the main questions I set out to answer for all the countries on the list.
I now have around 750 pages of notes and references, separated country by country, but otherwise mostly just plunked on a pile. So, although I feel like I have reached a major milestone in this project, in many ways, I have only gotten as far as gathering the material I need to work with. Now the real work can start: analysing the data and putting it into a report that makes sense and is of use to people.
Wish me luck!
Good Luck!! <3 <3