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”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.
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”NGOs ‘Helping’ Where There Are No State-Run Institutions
In 2018 Rwanda announced that they are planning to be the first country in Africa without orphanages by 2022. A nice sentiment, and I hope they will be able to get rid of all institutions by then, but they will not get the prize. Because Comoros is way ahead of them, it does not have, and never had, any residential childcare institutions.
However, with regards to countries without childcare institutions, during my work on the report ‘Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe’ (which you can download HERE), I was struck by a troubling issue: NGOs or faith-based organisations jumping in in places where there were no residential childcare institutions run by the government, to open orphanages.
Continue reading “NGOs ‘Helping’ Where There Are No State-Run Institutions”How the Report Changed My Life
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.
Continue reading “How the Report Changed My Life”Developing the Report
A week ago the report ‘Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe’ was made available to the public (it can be downloaded HERE). In the previous blog, I wrote about how I ended up starting this enormous project in the summer of 2015. This week I would like to dive into another question that I get asked quite a lot with regards to the report: How did you find all of that information?
Continue reading “Developing the Report”The Report Is Out
This week a major milestone was reached: ‘Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe’, the report giving an overview of the child protection and alternative care situation – and circumstances that impact it – for all autonomous countries in the world, was finally finished. It is now available to the public as a free download, which you can find HERE.
Continue reading “The Report Is Out”Podcast Orphanage Industry
In today’s podcast some real-life examples of the realities of the orphanage industry. Giving an insight into the mentality of the people running ‘orphanages’ in order to get money from donors and into the impact on the children.
The next podcast will be posted in four weeks.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:56 — 18.3MB)
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Ending Poverty Is Too Much to Ask
Poverty is a major reason for children ending up in care and especially for them ending up in institutions, as we have seen in various blogs (HERE and HERE). So combating poverty is an important part of ending institutionalisation. However, this does not mean that we have to put an end to poverty world-wide in order to prevent children from ending up in institutions.
Continue reading “Ending Poverty Is Too Much to Ask”World Autism Day
Today is World Autism Awareness Day. I consider it very important that awareness is raised about autism, both as an advocate for children with autism who are often more likely to end up in an institution, and as someone who is on the spectrum herself.
Continue reading “World Autism Day”