Innocent child victims of aggression, unfortunately there are so many, subjected to so many different forms of aggression. And mentioning their innocence is almost superfluous… almost… if only it was not forgotten so often.
Continue reading “International Day of Innocent Child Victims of Aggression”Author: Florence
I am the founder of and consultant at Family-Based Solutions. I have started this website and this community, and I am the moderator. I have been involved in alternative care since 2007, having been involved up close in China, Brazil, India, Kenya and Myanmar.
Initially I ran another NGO dedicated to improving the chance of survival and the quality of life of children in institutions, over time getting more and more involved with family-based alternatives and community services. In 2018 I folded the previous NGO and founded Family-Based Solutions. You can find more information on what I do now on the other pages of this website.
Global Day of Parents
Tomorrow is the Global Day of Parents, a group of people who have probably the most important responsibilities imaginable, and who are least appreciated of all. Generally speaking, parents are loaded with blame if anything goes wrong, whether or not they had any influence over the situation, while little is heard when things go right.
Continue reading “Global Day of Parents”Exchanging Knowledge, Questions and Experiences
Today I am starting a six-week online course called Caring for Children Moving Alone: Protecting Unaccompanied and Separated Children, organised by Strathclyde University. The reason for taking this course, is that in order to help vulnerable children and to find suitable family-based solutions, it is essential to be aware of the needs of the children. Children from different backgrounds, in different situations, have different needs that need to be met to make sure that they are safe and that they are able to develop well and thrive.
Continue reading “Exchanging Knowledge, Questions and Experiences”What’s Ahead
A look at what you can expect over the next few months and how you can get involved in deciding what the blogs coming up should be about.
Continue reading “What’s Ahead”International Day of Families
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.
Continue reading “International Day of Families”What’s in a Word?
A few weeks ago, an interesting discussion took place on a forum I took part in. I think it is worth sharing some of what was discussed in this blog. The discussion was about the influence of the language used when talking about moving towards family-based care. This influence turned out to be greater than one might expect.
Continue reading “What’s in a Word?”Podcast Outcomes of Institutional Care
When you read statistics about what happens when children who spent their childhood and/or youth in an institution grow up and have to face life on their own, it seems quite abstract. So in today’s podcast I want to share with you something about the lives of two adults who grew up in an institutions, to give an insight into the consequences.
The next podcast will be posted in five weeks.
Please share this to help spread awareness.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:59 — 18.9MB)
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Comparing Outcomes
When you propose a move from institutionalisation to family-based care, you usually get inundated with arguments against it. The belief that institutional care is cheaper is one of the arguments (one that was already refuted HERE), but not the only one. There is usually also a fear of trusting another family, strangers, to care for a child. The feeling is that the child will be alright in the institution, because that is all organised and more or less official, but it seems dangerous to just trust ‘random strangers’ with a child, anything could happen.
Continue reading “Comparing Outcomes”Foster Care: A Foreign Concept?
When you discuss family-based care and talk about the option of foster care in a country where formal foster care is not present, the reaction you often get is: ‘Oh, but foster care is a foreign idea, it is not part of our culture and it would never work here.’ Interestingly enough this argument is used as a reason to stick to institutionalisation of children.
This is pretty ironic, because institutionalisation of children is definitely a foreign idea that was brought over by colonialists and missionaries, while when you take a closer look, foster care does not turn out to be all that foreign at all.
Continue reading “Foster Care: A Foreign Concept?”Filling the Gap with Emergency Foster Care
More and more people agree that institutional care is not good for children. However, there is still a belief that in some situations putting children in institutions is inevitable. A belief that while it is not good, it is still better than the alternative. This belief exists, because there is a lack of awareness of alternative options. The thought is that the only options are leaving the child in a dangerous situation or putting her in an institution.
The good news is that this is not true. There is a family-based alternative, also in emergency situations. In this blog we will look at what that is.
Continue reading “Filling the Gap with Emergency Foster Care”