"Guidelines of the United Nations in relation to the Alternative Types of Childcare. Strategies for its application" Training in Guatemala.

In light of the second Sub-Regional Consultation of the Study of the Situation of Institutionalised Childhood realised in Guatemala, RELAF and UNICEF-TACRO were in charge of a training day about the Guidelines, in which friendly versions for operators, children and adolescents prepared by RELAF were presented, based on an agreement of cooperation between both organisations. 40 key actors of the system of the protection of rights of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Cuba and Costa Rica participated.
The workshop was opened by Nadine Perrault (UNICEF) and Matilde Luna who presented the Guideline document, its origins and political and practical orientation.
Sara Gonzalez, Communications Director of the RELAF Project, presented the friendly version for operators, which is a guide of standards which helps them to orient their practice with children and adolescents and their families, and the different moments and situations in which they should intervene. She developed the process of elaboration, validation and the contents of the guide of standards and also presented three experiences of the training of operators realised up until that moment (two in Argentina and one in Brazil).
Similarly, Mara Tissera Luna, Assistant of the RELAF Project, presented the process of elaboration, validation and contents of the friendly version for children and adolescents and the two experiences of application.
The two presentation were complemented with debates and group activities, in which decision-makers, experts and authorities of civil society and the government connected with the material and analysed it.
In the conclusions of this group exchange and of the presentation of the friendly versions made by the RELAF team, an evaluation of the standards and the versions made by the participants arose, as they already considered these tools as an advance to be applied in all countries. Some of the comments included: “This tool saves us time and effort...”; “This work has made us change the agenda...” (Dr. Lolis Marias Salas Montes, authority of the Secretariat of Justice of Human Rights of Honduras).
In regard to the presentation of the friendly versions for children, it was of great impact to hear the voices of the children who participated in the validation of the friendly version and in the workshop of application through the audio-visual registers. Extremely positive comments were received about the activities with children, among them “it is clear to the children what they need”; “we would save them a lot of pain if we would just listen more closely” (Wilmer Vásquez from COIPRODEN, Network of Childhood Human Rights of Honduras).
The friendly versions as well as the guides to their application are available at www.relaf.org/aplicacion.html.

 

 

Technical Cooperation in Guatemala

 

The activities realised in Guatemala, follow on from the Technical Cooperation that RELAF realises in Guatemala.

Meeting with Silvia Palomo, Secretary of Social Wellbeing..

In the frame of an agenda of activities in Guatemala, Matilde Luna met with Silvia Palomo, Secretariat of Social Wellbeing. During the meeting, the national functionary explained to the project leader the important advances made in childhood policies under her direction: a greater level of economic help for families, a widening of the coverage of the Secretariat into the interior of the country and areas which were not previously included, among others.
However, in respect to the provision of alternative care in the country, the Hogar Solidario (see note “Visit to the Hogar Solidario”) continues to hold a huge quantity of children and adolescents from all over the country, a situation which is particularly worrying to RELAF, given that this state initiative goes against what we are working for in our region: deinstitutionalisation and the closure of macro institutions. We at RELAF we have expressed our concern to the authorities and we trust that the work articulated by all local Guatemalan actors can make the organisation of another system possible, in which the prevention of separation of children from their families can be achieved and appropriate alternative care can be provided to those who need it.

 

Visit to the Hogar Solidario

RELAF visited the “Hogar Solidario”, a state-run macro institution which depends on the Secretariat of Wellbeing, whose characteristics are those of a true institution: isolation, ‘shutting in’, the deprivation of freedom. This, while keeping in mind that the children and adolescents there have no type of community insertion (their lives take place “inside doors”: access to services such as healthcare, education, recreation etc. all takes place inside the Home) means the panorama comes to be truly worrying. 
The Home currently has a total of 774 children and adolescents living there between the ages of 0 and 18 years. Of particular concern is the admission of babies (there are 17 babies up to the age of 6 months) and children under the age of 6 (there are 204 children younger than 6 and 55 younger than 3) due to the special types of care and stimulation that these groups require for their integral development.
RELAF values the effort and the dedication of the professionals working there, but we must express once again, as we have done in other circumstances, our unhappiness in finding programmes in our region which work in contrast to what RELAF is promoting in the region: deinstitutionalisation and the provision of alternative care which guarantees the right of Latin American children to live in a family and community.

 

Articulation table on Foster Care

RELAF was present in the panel of the articulation of foster care, made up of the Secretariat of Social Wellbeing, Buckner Guatemala and Refugio de la Niñez. The formation of this articulation panel was one of the recommendations sent by Matilde Luna in the consultation that took place in October 2010 for UNICEF Guatemala, in which an evaluation of the Programme of Substitute Families took place. Today the panel is established and working well.
The three organisations are working in unison. Despite still having certain aims they focus on, the three programmes are being able to make important advances in the establishment and consolidation of foster care in Guatemala: these are being positioned as trustworthy and transparent pilot programmes, are doing a good job of strengthening the family unit and preventing separation and are experiencing good outcomes with foster care in extended families.

 

Meeting with Alejandra Vásquez, Director of the IPS in UNICEF

The RELAF team met with Alejandra Vásquez, Director of the IPS, and Dora Alicia Muñoz (UNICEF Guatemala). The IPS is a non-governmental organisation which works to investigate, prevent and provide juridicial help to victims of sexual violence. 
The IPS works in Huehuetenango, Sololá and Guatemala City. It is part of the Social Movement and is accompanied by CEJIL, the High Commission of Human Rights and the National Panel of Migrations, dividing the country into 3 regions.
In the meeting, Alejandra Vásquez expressed her concern about the situations in which children and adolescents in Homes find themselves. Since international adoption was banned, there has been a lack of financing in such Homes as the majority of funds came from foreign donors interested in sustaining these sectors, as from there children “exited” into the exterior. As international adoption is now closed, children’s homes have stopped being of such interest to donors and the situation in which the children there are living is, in many cases, extremely poor.
Facing the next elections in Guatemala and concerned about this and others aspects of politics, a group of NGOs has created a minimal agenda of childhood and adolescence to be submitted to the candidates and the development of alternative care based in families is one of the priorities, together with the necessity of being able to count on skilled human resources in the whole system of protection of infancy, among other aspects. RELAF shared the friendly versions of the Guidelines with Alejandra Vásquez. She positively valued the benefits these materials can bring in the prevention of the separation of children from their families and the strengthening of the extended family unit in caring for children, two aspects which today are being broadcast in a campaign to raise awareness in Quiché and Spanish.

 

 

Training activity: “UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. Strategies for their application.” in Lima, Peru.

In the framework of the Sub- Regional consultation meeting of the Study on the situation of institutionalized children in Latin America in Lima, Relaf and Unicef carried out a training activity on the Guidelines, in which the friendly version for adults and the child-friendly version that were elaborated by Relaf in the framework of a cooperation agreement with UNICEF-TACRO were presented.

 

It had the participation of key actors of the rights protection system of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The workshop, which lasted four hours, was opened by Nadine Perrault (UNICEF) and Matilde Luna, who presented the document of the Guidelines, its principles and directions in relation with policy and practice.

 

María Sánchez Brizuela, who is Relaf Benchmark for Management, presented the friendly version for the personnel of public and private institutions, which is a standard guide that suggests their practice with children and adolescents and their families in the different moments and situations in which they have to intervene. She explained the process of elaboration, validation and the contents of the standards guide. She also presented two first training experiences that were carried out with personnel of children’s homes for the application of the material. Likewise, Federico Kapustianky, who is Relaf Benchmark for cooperation, presented the process of elaboration, validation and the contents of the child-friendly version and an experience of its application with a group of adolescents. After the presentation, the participants carried out discussion activities in groups based on guidelines of work, which allowed identifying the obstacles and facilitators for the application of the Guidelines in their countries. In this framework, the friendly versions were valued by the participants as important tools for the implementation of the UN document at national and local level.

 

TEchnical Cooperation in Lima, Perú.

 

•Foster Care program of Buckner-Inabif.

 

Relaf carried out a working meeting at the office of the foster care program of Inabif. Matilde Luna, María Sánchez Brizuela y Federico Kapustianky held a meeting with the program coordinator Graciela Azaña and its technical team. The team reviewed the advances of the program and the life stories of the children involved, as well as identifying the obstacles that are still present and exploring the new challenges of this experience together with Relaf.This pilot program in Peru is innovative, and although the number of children involved is very small, it is very noteworthy since it develops a very careful experience with the right approach of a family- based care alternative in the context of an overwhelming quantity of children living in “Homes” (see article on the Home “La Sagrada familia”).
Currently, the program provides 32 children and adolescents with family- based alternative care. Most of the children come from the residential assistance centers since it was designed to achieve their de-institutionalization, but currently the program is able to give a response to concrete cases to avoid institutionalization. The job the team carries out in order to achieve the reconnection of the children with their families of origin is relevant. Since most of them come from long stays at the residential assistance centers, in many cases the links have been weakened or broken. In this sense, it is important to highlight the achievements obtained, since there are children that have left the program when reconnecting with their families of origin or their kinship families. The context of poverty and the lack of public policies that support the families delay the re-integration in some cases and represent worrying facts for the working team, which works based on the strong conviction that poverty cannot be the cause for an unnecessary separation. Relaf made recommendations in two directions: on one side, the necessity of the program to start providing children under the age of three with family-based alternative care, which is something that it has not been done yet. This aspect is important since the only alternative currently implemented for babies that were abandoned or separated from their families in Peru is institutionalization, even though it causes serious damage, especially during early childhood.

Secondly, it was suggested to deepen the positioning of the program as the first option in cases of separation instead of institutionalization, which is the one that currently occupies that role, in order to avoid the internment of children in institutions. Relaf will continue to closely accompany the experience of this program, as it has been doing since it started. We trust that its committed team will take important steps to achieve its consolidation, its multiplication in other NGOs that are partners of the State and its growth so that more Peruvian children and adolescents will be able to grow up in a family.

 

• Participation of Relaf at the “Table for the elaboration of guidelines of the Foster Care Program” in Lima, Peru.

 

Relaf participated at the “Table for the elaboration of guidelines of the Foster Care Program”. This Table workshop was established with the general purpose of promoting the right to community- and family-based care and the specific and immediate purpose of instituting the foster care practice as a public policy of the Peruvian state. It is a multi-sectorial activity that brings cooperation from important actors involved in the protection of the Rights of the children deprived of parental care or at risk of losing it together. The working table is made up of representatives of the Programa Integral Nacional para el Bienestar Familiar-INABIF (National Integral Program for Family Well-Being); of the Dirección de Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes- DINNA (Board of Children and Adolescents); of the UGPI, of the Ministerio de la Mujer y Desarrollo Social-MIMDES (Ministry of Women and Social Development); of the Homes “Nuevo Futuro Perú”; of the Organization “Amor y Ley”; and of Bucker Peru, which is the promoter of the Table together with UNICEF. The table is currently working hard in the elaboration of a document of guidelines for the foster care program, which will be its first product.

Relaf participated at the first meeting of the working table. It contributed with its view of the need to establish an integral protection system that avoids separation of the children from their families of origin and provides them with family-based alternative care that is adequate to a human rights approach or with residential care for those children that require it due to their particular situation. In this sense, Relaf stressed the necessity of the table to set itself as a sphere of permanent work that progressively involves all the actors related to the general subject that brings them together and that goes beyond the thematic frontier of foster care in order to contribute in the strengthening of practices and public policies that guarantee the right to community- and family- based care. Relaf also provided the table with specific guidance with a human right approach in relation with the processes of intervention in foster care and its phases, which will be incorporated in the Guidelines document that the table is currently elaborating. The Network supports and encourages this initiative to move forward and sets itself as a permanent sphere of dialogue and collective, multi-sectorial and democratic construction. The situation of childhood in Peru requires it.

 

•Working meeting between Relaf andSave The Children Peru.

 

As part of the programmed activities for the stay of Relaf team in Lima, a working meeting was held in the seat of the organization Save the Children Peru. Matilde Luna, María Sánchez Brizuela and Federico Kapustiansky were hosted by Ana María Márquez Uriarte (Program Manager and Emergency Focal Point) and Nelly Claux (Project Coordinator). The purpose of the meeting was to allow the two organizations to share and exchange information on their initiatives in order to visualize points of convergence that lead to possible joint actions for the protection of children without parental care.

 

•Visit to the Children’s home “La Sagrada Familia

 

Even though they are almost“endangered species”, there are still some macro institutions in the region. In the territory of Peru there are several of them that care for children of all ages which, as it was proved in our Latin American Report, they come from the same social condition: poor families and communities in situation of extreme poverty. We wanted to get to know one of them and share with the whole network some of the many things we experienced during the time we spent there. The children’s home “Comunidad de Niños Sagrada Familia” is located in the sandy areas of Ventanilla, few kilometers from Lima. Actually it hosts a total of 850 children and adolescents that come from all parts of the country. The great majority of these children are not in contact with their families of origin or kinship families. Only 60 families make it to the Home to visit their children. The Home is located in an extensive area that has fourteen buildings in which these children live divided into groups according to their age and gender. Besides, it has a dining hall, a school, areas for recreational activities and workshops of music, dressmaking, carpentry, pottery, dancing and storytelling, among others.

Its director, Miguel, has succeeded in creating an atmosphere of community life. The children, pre-adolescents and adolescents talk about themselves and about their life projects with respect and hope. Thanks to the responsible collaboration of all of “the oldest” children, everyday life at the home is carried out properly. It could not have been possible in any other way, since the Home has only fourteen adult carers leaded by Miguel to look after these 850 children.

 

 

 

 

At Relaf we value all the efforts and the conviction of the leader of this initiative and the people that work there. We were able to see his quality as a human being and his missionary spirit. We also value the solidarity of all the local and international donors that support the home, which has not been accredited or supervised by the governmental body. However, we have to express our worry for the living conditions of the children and the situation of social abandonment that has led them to live there. The magnitude of the home makes the provision of personalized care for every child and adolescent based on their needs not only a difficult but an impossible task.
The children and adolescents’ family and community bonds, that is, their links with the “outside world” are very weaken since their life takes place inside the Home. The adolescents are the ones that are in a better situation in relation with this, since many of them have succeeded in their studies thanks to the aid of Miguel and the donors and currently plan to study, work and form their families.
Finally, the care of babies in these kinds of institutions is not adequate given the need of having a personalized care inside a stable bond during early childhood.
We can see a situation of emergency there, it is necessary that this group of children under the age of 3 is provided with family-based care as soon as possible. When we visited the Home, there were 36 babies. The 56 female children from 3 to 6 years old and the little boys of the same age should enter the list of urgencies, too.
As it was expressed when describing the activities carried out in Peru, we trust that the governmental authorities and the people that lead this initiative and similar initiatives in Peru will carry out the adjustment of alternative care to a human rights approach. Currently there is expectation for the change of the government administration; a commitment to change the situation might be propelled by the State with the accompaniment of the civil society and the international bodies. The whole society is responsible for the social abandonment of thousands of children, their families and their communities of origin.
Relaf commits itself to continue to work whenever it can contribute with knowledge and guidance in that direction, together with the important and sensitive local partners, who are the protagonists of big efforts. We look forward to transmit advances and results of their task soon!

 

 

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