Another year is about to end, and with it we leave the teens of the 21st century behind us. So, some more musings from me on time passing, things developing and life in general. This time last year, I wrote a blog about the increasing momentum of deinstitutionalisation all across the work (you can find it HERE). Over the past year, other promising movements have gathered pace.
One of the big overall developments that I am very grateful for, is the powerful surge made by the movement against volunteering in ‘orphanages’ this past year. With more governments advising against it in their official travel advice, more volunteering and tourism organisations announcing that they will not be providing opportunities for volunteering in ‘orphanages’ anymore and awareness of the harm caused by volunteering in institutions spreading among the public.
Though the crest of this surge only appeared towards the end of the year, it is powerful nontheless. It also makes me hopeful that the book, of which I have finished the first draft already, that I am writing to explain to people the various negative effects of volunteering in institutions on children, will find more people willing to learn more, rather than just no one aware enough to be remotely interested.
As Mahatma Ghandi said: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win.” I am getting the feeling that the past year has allowed me to move into the latter two stages, on a number of issues.
It has been a turbulent, but very worthwhile, year for me. Early in the year I put the finishing touches on the report Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe (you can download it HERE), and it was made public in April. I am proud to say that the report got a very positive reception. It was featured on the Better Care Network Netherlands website and given a mention on the Stahili news clippings email. It also led to Better Care Network Netherlands and SOS Children’s Villages Netherlands approaching me about partnering, and I got to do a poster presentation about it at the Deinstitutionalisation of Childcare: Investing in Change conference in Sofia, in November. I will also be presenting a poster about the report and research at the IFCO 2020 conference in Montreal, in June.
In February and March, I visited India again and made progress on the two projects there. One of them is the guiding of the deinstitutionalisation of a large-scale institution and creating a replicable model for deinstitutionalisation for India. Even when I am not in India, I am still heavily involved in this process, through email, Skype, commenting on reports and through Leadership meetings. Although we have not yet reached the stage of moving children out, as I predicted we would by now a year ago, due to some bureaucratic delays, we are progressing steadily in preparing the ground and making sure the process is handled responsibly. I am very proud of the people I am working with over there, for not giving into the temptation to just get it done quickly, but rather making sure that it is done well and that the children will not be harmed in the process.
One of the things to look forward to, is that I am involved in a small conference that is being organised to help raise awareness and knowledge levels on what is involved in deinstitutionalisation among relevant government representatives in the state. This will take place in February.
As you will have noticed, I continue to post regular blogs, to help raise awareness on a wide variety of issues that are connected to deinstitutionalisation and setting up family-based care, community services and family strengthening services. And I have started a forum on this website, where I am trying to create a community of people involved in alternative care and child protection from all around the world, to allow for an exchange of experiences, questions and ideas. The group of registered members is slowly growing, though the activity on the forum has yet to really get going. It is always hard to get the first person to step forward.
Aside from the book about volunteering in ‘orphanages’, I am also working on a book to help families (whether birth families that are reintegrated, foster families or adoptive families) who are taking in a child who was previously institutionalised understand what impact this experience has had on that child. There is also a third book in the works, but that is still in a vague planning stage, so I will not say more about that just yet.
After finishing the work on Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe, I started to think about exactly what I wanted to do and accomplish with Why Family-Based Solutions, and gradually this became clearer to me over the summer. After the summer, I have been working to profile myself as a paid consultant – essentially doing much the same work as I have been doing for over a decade, but making more of an effort to offer it to people and organisations that are able to pay for it. This way I am hoping to be able to make a living doing what I like doing best – without having to take time out every year to earn money separately – and I am hoping that it will give me the opportunity to help more organisations improve the quality of the work they are doing for vulnerable children and to provide guidance on approaches that are most effective and beneficial to children.
Although this is still in the early stages, it has already led to my membership of Eurochild and IFCO; to making some interesting contacts at conferences; to getting some very interesting proposals – though it still remains to be seen whether they will lead to concrete cooperations; and to my first paid job in this field. All in all, not half bad for just a few months of effort.
So, as I said, I am very pleased about the developments and opportunities that 2019 have brought me and I look forward to finding out what 2020 will have to offer.
I wish everyone an insightful, motivating, and caring New Year!
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