Today is the International Day of Families, an important day to celebrate. Families are at the centre of everything Why Family-Based Solutions stands for. It is in families that children are almost always provided with the various conditions they need for proper brain development, proper psychological development, proper growth and proper health, conditions that are missing in institutions. In families this happens as a matter of course, without any conscious thought put into it.
It was not by accident that the Convention on the Rights of the Child included the right to grow up in a family and that it states that the Convention places on governments ‘the responsibility to protect and assist families in fulfilling their essential role as nurturers of children.’ Providing families with support to be able to take care of children themselves is by far the most efficient, cost-effective way to make sure children are cared for, plus it comes with the best outcomes.
Families come in an enormous variety of shapes, sizes, colours and make-ups. From single parent families – whether female headed or male headed – to large extended families that live communally. From families with one skin colour or ethnic background to families who are made up of a mixture of many. From families with same sex parents to families adhering to strict religious interpretations. From families who struggle to scrape one meal a day together to families who live in opulence. From grandparent-headed households to child-headed households. These are all families. They all have very important contributions to make to the lives of all their members.
And all of these shapes and sizes of families are valid and provide benefits to the children in them. All the different forms need to be acknowledged and accepted as families. All of them need to be given the acceptance, the protection and the support of the government and of society.
For it is only with that acceptance, protection and support that these families are able to take care of their children. If taking care of their children is made difficult or even impossible because of lack of financial resources, lack of community services, lack of acceptance by the community or because of discrimination on the basis of ethnic background, minority status, sexual orientation, gender identity, health status, disability, marital status, migration status or religion, children who could have grown up in their family may end up in institutions.
We need families. They are the core of family-based solutions. So let’s make sure that families feel accepted and supported, to help them be able to continue to be a part of family-based solutions.
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