And so another year has passed. It is hard to believe it is already four years since I started Family-Based Solutions (Why Family-Based Solutions then). So much has happened and so much keeps changing. While I have never found myself bored before, the past year has been a particularly busy one.
A year ago, we had finalised the technical report and advocacy brief for the DataCare project. But of course, that never means that the work is done. Until mid-December there was still work to do on the loose ends and the evaluation of editing and the design of the report. I announced the results HERE.
Around this time last year, I started working with UNICEF New York Headquarters to develop a toolkit for assessing administrative data systems on children in alternative care and adoption/kafalah. The trial use of the toolkit will be starting soon, and there is a possibility that I will be engaged to be a part of that and of the finalisation of the documents over the next period.
Not long after, I also started a consultancy with UNICEF Kenya, to develop technical guidance for the government on how to ensure that children with disabilities are included in the National Care Reform Strategy for Children in Kenya that was adopted in August 2021 and launched in June 2022. This was a really interesting, collaborative project. And it led to my first overseas work trip since the start of the pandemic. In January and February, I spent some time in Kenya for consultations and to visit pilot projects. The consultancy concluded at the start of this summer. I look forward to seeing how my recommendations will be implemented.
In October last year, I supported Better Care Network Netherlands, by giving some interviews to Dutch media about the harm caused by volunteering in ‘orphanages’. This coincided with BCNN’s launch of an awareness-raising campaign on this issue.
Aside from the consultancies, my own work continues. Work on “Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children. To support the child you adopt.” is progressing, we are now in the final design stages, so hopefully it will be available to the public in the next few weeks. Two and half years of work have gone into that. And the work is not yet done, because currently I am working to turn the text written for adoptive families into a training manual for social workers who place children from institutions with their own family or in kinship or foster care. You can find a teaser of the book about to come out HERE.
I am also working on a series of booklets providing information about what the diagnosis of certain disabilities means for children and how to meet their additional care needs. This is done in cooperation with a paediatrician from London. The aim is to find ways to distribute these booklets widely – and if possible have them translated – to help families understand how they can care for the child at home and how to provide the care needed. This will still take some time to complete.
I continue to guide and train Snehalaya’s Family-Based Care Team to help them develop solid case management to enable the children living in the institution to be reintegrated with their families safely, or to be placed in other family settings. In August I visited India – for the first time since early 2020. I held intensive training sessions for the team, and visited the Child Welfare Committee of the district, until I was struck down by COVID and had to isolate.
During that visit to India, I also went to Bangalore to spend time at U&I to discuss how they want to further develop their work. This included the possibility of starting to focus on awareness-raising about the need to move from institutional to family-based care, using their rich experience with institutionalised children and adults with intellectual disabilities to inform the messaging.
In May, I was invited to become a trustee of Tushinde UK, and accepted the invitation. Tushinde works in Kenya to help families in crisis in order to prevent family separation and institutionalisation of children. I am delighted to be able to provide some support and guidance to this work.
If that were not enough, I have also been active in seven working groups and task-forces of Better Care Network’s Transforming Children’s Care Platform. In different groups dedicated to specific aspects or target groups of transition of care, we (experts from all over the world, with different backgrounds and including various major NGOs) try to develop international consensus and standardised practice to reduce confusion and parallel projects taking place.
And on social media – particularly LinkedIn and Twitter – I have regularly put a spotlight on issues that I feel are too often neglected or misunderstood. As I do with these blogs. However, with the increasing workload and demands on my time, I will be further decreasing the frequency of the blogs to keep things manageable. Instead of pushing myself to produce a blog every month, I will be posting them incidentally from now on. Whenever there is an issue that I wish to speak out on, you will hear from me, don’t worry.
I am looking forward very much to what the coming year will bring. And what opportunities will come my way to shape and steer the care reform efforts that are taking place all over the world.
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