Awareness – Page 20

Increasing Momentum of Deinstitutionalisation

Posted on December 31, 2018December 8, 2019 by Florence

As the year draws to a close, it seems almost inevitable to look back and to look forward. Because my work and life are completely entangled with children in institutions and the quest to get them out of there, this features heavily in these ponderings, even on a personal level, for me.

I invite you along with me, as I look back and look ahead. I feel the past year has been a good one, for moving children towards family-based solutions.

Becoming Aware and Becoming Involved

Posted on December 27, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

Last summer, I was having dinner with some people and one of them told me that a friend of his was running a children’s home, somewhere in Africa. He said that there was a real need for that kind of thing, to keep the children safe and well. I told him that I understood his admiration and his friend’s good intentions, but that unfortunately this was not in the best interest of the children. In about five minutes, I outlined the consequences of institutionalisation and the orphanage industry that is blooming around it and the alternatives that give children far better chances in life and are more cost-effective.

The man sat there pretty gobsmacked, as he was processing the information. Later he told me that that conversation had turned his life upside down. If you have been reading the blogs of the past four months without any prior knowledge about the effects of institutionalisation, it is likely that you are feeling much the same.

The Meaning of Child Protection

Posted on December 21, 2018December 21, 2018 by Florence

With just a few days to go until Christmas, many people ask if we still really understand the meaning of Christmas. And with reason. However, apart from struggling to recall the Christian sense behind Christmas, most people struggle on a much larger scale to see or care about what is happening to vulnerable children.

The combination of Christmas coming up and the work that I do regularly points my mind towards a song that has always had a great significance to me. I would like to share it with you here.

Where Are the Refugee Children?

Posted on December 18, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

Why, you may ask, am I suddenly looking at a blog about refugee children? That is rather a different subject than institutional childcare or alternative care, isn’t it? Well, yes and no. It is its own, vast and complicated subject. But it is definitely tied in with institutional childcare and alternative care as well.

As part of research data that I have gathered, I have statistics on refugee flows for 2015. This is information on how many people left a particular country as refugees, how many refugees were being hosted by the country and how many people were internally displaced, and for some countries I also have information one what percentage of this group consists of children.

Illegal Adoption

Posted on December 14, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

On hearing that Guatemala had put a moratorium on inter-country adoptions – meaning they would not allow any until further notice – a lady, who is herself a mother of adopted children, asked me in shock how the country could do such a thing: how could they leave all those poor children stuck there when there were families eager to adopt them? Like voluntourism, inter-country (or international) adoption is something that people tend to get involved in with the very best of intentions, but that has an unexpectedly large capacity for causing grief and trauma, and for damaging children.

Much like voluntourism, inter-country adoption started out as something done by a few people with a genuine wish to give a better life to children with no prospects, then turning into something that became popular, leading to the opening up of a market.

State-Run vs Private-Run Institutions

Posted on December 11, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

In previous blogs a lot of mention is made of the orphanage industry: private individuals opening an ‘orphanage’, recruiting children and pocketing the money given by donors. This is a heinous practice and it must be stopped. However, the focus on this may have given the impression that privately-run institutions are the worst form of institutions around. If only that were true…

Children with Parents in ‘Orphanages’

Posted on December 7, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

Outrage is growing, as more people become aware of the fact that over 80% of children living in so-called orphanages have at least one – and often two – living parent. Even more so when they learn that many of these children were removed from their parents and put in an institution not to protect them, but to make money from their ‘orphan’ status.

The orphanage industry, which causes this situation, is a relatively recent phenomenon. But placing children who have parent willing and able to care for them in institutions is not at all a new thing. It reaches way back in history.

Children with Disabilities

Posted on December 3, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

A five-year-old girl, who weighs 6kg and spend 20-22 hours a day in a baby crib that is a bit too small for her, at an adoption centre where she has lived for over 4 years now. All because she has cerebral palsy.

Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. A good time to take a moment to look at the situation of children with disabilities in institutions. Unfortunately, it is not a pretty one.

Additional Risks of Institutionalisation

Posted on November 30, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

In previous blogs, we have looked at children being pulled out of their families to fill ‘orphanages’ to cater to the voluntourism industry and the orphanage industry (HERE and HERE). We have looked at ways children are exploited both knowingly and unknowingly in institutions (HERE). And we have looked at how their growth, health and brain development, as well as their chances of successful independent adult lives is put on the line by not having their essential basic needs met for many years (HERE). That seems like too much to handle already, and it really is.

Unfortunately, there is more. When children live in institutions, they are much, much more vulnerable to abuse than children are in general.

The Real Cost of Institutionalisation

Posted on November 27, 2018November 30, 2018 by Florence

When you start talking about the need to move away from institutional childcare, towards family-based care, you are often confronted with the argument: ‘it is too expensive, we cannot afford to move way from institutions’. It is a very persistent myth that institutional childcare is the most efficient, cost-effective way to care for children without parental care.

Since these days the best way to convince anyone of your point of view is to come with a financial argument, let’s have a look at the real cost of institutionalisation, not just in the moment, but in the long run.