In the past two blogs I have written about what I did for the report ‘Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe’ (which you can download HERE), in this blog I want to tell you something about what the report – or rather the working on the research project that led to the report – has done for me. It is not that often that working on a project makes you change the direction of your life and work, but in this case, it really did.
As you can imagine, I read many hundreds of reports and articles on topics to do with child protection and alternative care, in the course of the research project. I have almost 500 reports stored on my computer alone, and I read many more, some of them not useful for the purposes I was looking for and some of them only available online, not as a download.
In the course of reading these reports, I came across a lot of misery and atrocities, something that did not surprise me, because I had seen things like those described in person over the years. I found additional background information on the causes of poor outcomes and unsafe situations for children in institutions. But what surprised me most, was that I also found a lot of hope in the reports. I found a much greater movement towards family-based care than I had expected to see, worldwide. And I found that in certain countries solutions had been found for problems that had made many other countries in similar circumstances throw up their hands and say ‘what can we do?’ This made me optimistic, because if countries in similar circumstances can share their experiences, many more problems might turn out to be solvable. This is one of the things I am very happy about in the report.
But let’s get back to my life and how it changed. The first shift happened at the end of 2016. Two things happened around the same time. One was that I decided I had to write a book explaining to people who donate to ‘orphanages’ that despite their best intentions, they are not actually helping vulnerable children that way. This book became ‘How to Help, Not Harm’, which you can order HERE.
The second thing that happened, was that I suddenly started becoming consciously aware of Lumos and the work they were doing. I am not sure why this consciousness suddenly developed, I had already read several of their reports, found in different locations, and used the data in it for my research. However, suddenly I took notice of what they were doing. At this time, I was still working for Orphanage Projects. Although I had clearly realised the limitations of trying to improve care in institutions by now, I had not really come across an alternative yet. Because the major organisations that I was aware of, were all working to make sure the family strengthening and community services were put in place to prevent institutionalisation, but none of them seemed to really work to get the children currently in institutions out of them.
Then I discovered that Lumos was doing just that: making sure that the needed structures are in place and then making sure children are moved out of institutions, into family-based care, in responsible ways. Suddenly an alternative to what I was doing, in a way that spoke to me, turned out to exist.
This was a shift in mindset, but not yet really in lifestyle. I was starting to consider that it might be interesting to see if there was a way to work with or for Lumos, but in the meantime I was content to continue the work of Orphanage Projects.
I did make contact with Lumos, I got their advice on my plan to start introducing the idea of deinstitutionalisation in one of the projects I was involved in (now, two years later the DI process is under way there). And I was given the opportunity to attend one of their trainings. Occasionally I also applied for jobs at the organisation if they looked interesting, but have not gotten anywhere with that yet.
Then another shift took place last year. While still working on the research project and getting a more complete overview of the alternative care situation around the world, I gradually became aware that I was no longer happy to just continue the work of Orphanage Projects, while plodding along. The possibility for positive outcomes is too slim within the institutional care system. And I was becoming too aware of the need for family-based alternatives, to be able to be diplomatic enough to persuade people to improve care in their ‘orphanages’ anymore.
This is why last August I decided to fold Orphanage Projects and to start Why Family-Based Solutions, allowing me to fully throw my weight behind what I really believe in.
That is the change that work on the research for ‘Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe’ has brought about in my life. I am grateful for it and do not regret a moment spent on the project.
After three blogs on the background of the report, I’ll stop going on about it for a while, and will get back to the topics for which I have started Why Family-Based Solutions.
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