In February this year, I was a co-organiser and facilitator of the conference: Immersive Simulation Lab for Family-Based Care (you can read about the event HERE)in Pune, India. In April, I mentioned the delays in bringing out the conference report, due to the increased and shifted workload due to the pandemic and the lockdown that accompanied it, and I gave a sneak peek at the contents (you can find it HERE). As it turned out, the delays ended up being even longer than expected. However, the moment has finally arrived and the conference report is finally completed.
Continue reading “The Simulation Lab Conference Report”Category: Awareness
Deinstitutionalisation During the Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has had an enormous effect on the efforts to deinstitutionalise alternative care in many countries. The interesting thing is that there have been two main effects, pulling in opposite directions. There does not seem to be a lot of middle ground at the moment.
Continue reading “Deinstitutionalisation During the Pandemic”Eurochild’s DataCare Project
In November, I mentioned my excitement at learning that Eurochild was planning to start a research project to see whether it would be possible to come to definitions of alternative care provisions that would make data comparable across Europe. The reason why this got me so excited, is that when I was doing the research for Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe (which you can download HERE), the main problems I ran into were lack of data gathered on vulnerable children and data not being comparable between – and sometimes even within – countries.
Continue reading “Eurochild’s DataCare Project”Listening to Children
I have written before, on various occasions about child participation (in this blog you can read what that is exactly, HERE). Like many other things the pandemic crisis has brought this topic to the forefront. Overall, there seemed to be a gradual improvement in governments and decision-makers being more willing to ask children for their insights and perspective and actually taking them into account. Then the crisis hit and all the hatches are down again.
Continue reading “Listening to Children”No Post-Pandemic Volunteering in Orphanages
Volunteering in ‘orphanages’ has come to a standstill during the pandemic. With lockdowns and travel restrictions in place, non-essential global travel has come to a halt. Volunteering in ‘orphanages’ is definitely non-essential. However, there is a concern that once the restrictions are lifted and daily life goes back to something approaching normal, people who are able to still afford it may rush out to ‘help’ the ‘poor orphans’ by volunteering in institutions again in great numbers. Just like with the preparation for recovery in child protection that needs to start now, the same is true for raising awareness that volunteering in ‘orphanages’ is not as beneficial as many people think.
Continue reading “No Post-Pandemic Volunteering in Orphanages”Making Pandemic Solutions Permanent Solutions
During the pandemic crisis, solutions need to be found fast and implemented straight away. Suddenly, what usually took months or years, or what was said to be impossible, is decided on within days and implemented. In some cases, this provides a risk factor. There is not the same scrutiny and due diligence, and some of the solutions that are acceptable for a temporary crisis situation are not at all desirable as a permanent solution. This is something we need to be alert to and to make sure is dealt with appropriately when the recovery phase arrives. However, there are also cases where the crisis has allowed the red tape to be swept aside and the measures that have been advocated for years are suddenly implemented without delay. These should be kept in place.
Continue reading “Making Pandemic Solutions Permanent Solutions”Children in Institutions During the Pandemic
Over the past week, there have been blogs about the issues faced during the Covid-19 pandemic by families facing poverty (HERE), by children in foster care (HERE), and by children who have suddenly be pushed out of institutions as part of the protection measures against the virus (HERE). What we have not looked at yet, are children who are still living in institutions, and it is high time that we did.
Continue reading “Children in Institutions During the Pandemic”Post-Pandemic Child Poverty
It is known that the current Covid-19 pandemic – in combination with the measures taken to mitigate the dangers – has very serious economic consequences, all across the world. We are expected to emerge from the pandemic into an economic recession that is worse than anything seen since the Second World War and that may even rival the situation in the 1930s. There will be widespread job losses, as well as loss of income in other ways. This situation is predicted to push millions more people – including families with children – below the poverty line. And many of those already living below the poverty line below the extreme poverty line.
Continue reading “Post-Pandemic Child Poverty”Children in Foster Care and Lockdown
An interesting topic came up at a webinar on Children in Alternative Care I attended during the Eurochild Member Days in June: the effects of lockdown on children in foster care. In various countries, surveys have been held to find out how children in foster care were coping with the lockdown. Some of the results were expected, some less so.
Continue reading “Children in Foster Care and Lockdown”Good News on Child Protection Measures
Over the previous month, I have posted blogs raising awareness about the risks and dangers ahead for vulnerable children, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the recession that will follow it. However, I do not just want to focus on the gloomy side. It is important to acknowledge the various plans, measures and campaigns that are being prepared and implemented. So, that is what I would like to do in this blog.
Continue reading “Good News on Child Protection Measures”