I am very excited that in the quest to raise awareness about various topics surrounding alternative care and institutionalisation, this website has expanded by adding a podcast series. You can find the first podcast HERE.
Continue reading “Introducing the Podcasts”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.
Introduction Podcast
Check out the podcasts to hear real life stories that bring the theoretical information from the blogs to life. A reminder that we are not talking about statistics but about children.
The first podcast ‘Introduction’ will give background information about how this podcast series came to be and what you can expect from it. After that every podcast will feature one or more stories surrounding the theme that is announced by its title.
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What Is a Residential Childcare Institution?
It is often called an ‘orphanage’, even though most of the children living in it are not orphans. Or it is called a children’s home, while it cannot really be called a true home to the children, when their essential basic needs are not met. The most accurate word to use is residential childcare institution, but this is quite a mouthful. And as it turns out, even when you use the most accurate description, there is still a lot of room for confusion, because this term is used for a large variety of things.
Continue reading “What Is a Residential Childcare Institution?”I Have a Birthday, Therefore I Am
Today is my birthday. When you are in your fifth decade, this does not hold all that much significance anymore. It is nice to get friendly wishes, but other than that it is just another day, one filled with work and the drive to get more done for the children.
The situation is very different for children who live in institutions. Generally speaking, birthdays and becoming older are more important to children than they are to adults. But for children who live in institutions there is more to a birthday than that. Their birthday and the absence of any celebration have an important impact on their sense of worth and their identity.
Continue reading “I Have a Birthday, Therefore I Am”“Intellectual Disability Among Children Everywhere”
This week the latest manual, the fourth in the series ‘Children Everywhere’, has come out. Originally, it was written for the NGO Orphanage Projects, giving advice to people running institutions on how to provide better care to children with intellectual disabilities. The writing and publishing of a manual do not happen in the space of a day or a week, so it was written well before any plans of folding Orphanage Projects and starting Why Family-Based Solutions occurred to me.
This does not mean that the book is no longer relevant, however. First of all, there are still many, many institutions caring for children with intellectual disabilities, without necessarily being quite aware of the needs of these children. But secondly, although written for institutional situations, the manual can play an important role in family-based care too.
Continue reading ““Intellectual Disability Among Children Everywhere””How Did Orphanages Spread?
A lot of people think that residential childcare institutions, or ‘orphanages’, are an unavoidable part of life. They think that it is the only way to provide care for children without parents and for children whose parents are unable to care for them. So, it follows, that all countries must have them and that they have been around for as long as settled community living, as we know it, has been in existence. This kind of thinking is illustrated by the headline: “Rwanda Wants to Become Africa’s First Orphanage-Free Country: Here’s How”. While Rwanda’s aim to be orphanage-free is laudable, they will not be the first country.
Residential childcare institutions are not universal, and they certainly are not the only or the best way to provide care to children without parental care. So let’s have a look at how ‘orphanages’ became so widespread and how widespread they are.
Continue reading “How Did Orphanages Spread?”Who Ends Up in Institutions?
In the course of my research work for the ‘world list’ it has become clear to me that the reasons why children end up in alternative care, and particularly in institutions, are surprisingly similar across many countries. It also became apparent that there is a big difference between why children in high income countries are in alternative care and why children in other countries are in alternative care.
Earlier this month I promised a blog on the reasons why children end up in institutions, why they are abandoned. Here is that blog.
Continue reading “Who Ends Up in Institutions?”How Child Trafficking Is Related to ‘Orphanages’
Today, on 16 October 2018, NGOs across the world are joining forces in a global trafficking campaign to raise awareness of the scale, the roots and the consequences of human and child trafficking. Unfortunately, child trafficking is a subject that is extremely relevant to anyone involved in institutional residential childcare. So, in this blog, I will describe some of the ways in which the two are connected.
Continue reading “How Child Trafficking Is Related to ‘Orphanages’”Don’t Take My Word for It
Recently, Lumos has held a major event in the US. Lumos is a London-based organisation that for the past 13 years has worked very hard and gained increasing momentum to achieve global deinstitutionalisation. And now they have released a video that was taken at that event.
In the summer of 2017, I had the privilege of attending Lumos’ ‘Introduction to Deinstitutionalisation’. For four days I was able to exchange experiences and have discussions with a variety of representatives of major international organisations involved in child protection and of several government bodies from across the world. As well as increasing my knowledge and understanding of various details of how to make sure deinstitutionalisation is done responsibly.
Continue reading “Don’t Take My Word for It”Reasons for Abandonment
In a later blog I will share with you more information about why children end up being abandoned and/or placed in institutions. While the reasons can be many, the bottom line is almost invariably that a mother is trying to give a child a better life or even is trying to save his or her life.
Before I find the opportunity to write that blog, however, I want to share this article with you, which gives some insight into one of these reasons: