Technical Cooperation Activities

 


 

 


 

Technical cooperation in Pigüé (Municipality of Saavedra, Buenos Aires, Argentina). March 2010.

 

The Municipality of Saavedra is committed to develop foster care: the Foster Care Program Bajo el Ala was established by the Area of Childhood from the Secretariat of Social Development, and it works along the whole territory of Saavedra based in Pigüé, where the municipal government of the District rules.
The program promotes transitory foster care in the extended family or in alien families that belong to the community, with the purpose of guaranteeing the right to community- and family- based care of children and adolescents that for different reasons are not taken care by their parents until the situation that gives birth to the separation is solved and the children are able to live with them again.


The Program Bajo el Ala is the on only foster care program of the District. Relaf was present in its launching ceremony, which consisted in an open discussion on fostering held at the Deliberating Council. It had the presence of the highest authority of the Municipality, Mayor Rubén Carlos Grenada and the Director in the Area of Childhood Lic. Alejandra Gonzales. The support of the authorities for the Program is very important, and both of them highlighted in their speeches the wide prospects opened up by the program in relation to the provision of family- based alternative care for those children and adolescents in the District that need it, an option that is not available with the formal modality. Moreover, Matilde Luna and María Sánchez Brizuela held a presentation to introduce foster care and the guarantee to community- and family- based care in the region on behalf of Relaf, after which the technical team of the program presented it, expecting that the message would reach all the presents and that future foster care families would come up from this first meeting between the program and the community.


Besides participating in the launching of the program, Relaf held a training workshop with the technical team of the Program Bajo el Ala, accompanied by all the professional staff (social workers, psychologists and lawyers) of the Secretariat of Social Development. The team responsible for the Program has elaborated and launched the first campaign to call for foster families and it is professionally trained to carry out the processes of selection, training and monitoring of foster families during the first stage of the program.


We will keep you informed on the advances of this local experience, to which we look forward to contribute for its strengthening and consolidation.

 

 

Technical cooperation in Puan, Buenos Aires, Argentina. March 2010.

 

The area of Childhood, Adolescence and Family of the Municipality Council of Puan has a Foster Care Program that has a consolidated technical team that works in the several towns of the District for the protection and restoration of the right to community- and family- based care.


The program has been elaborated to prevent the institutionalization of children and adolescents that have to be separated from their parents due to different reasons, as well as to provide the girls that are institutionalized in the Home with a family setting.


In this sense, the decision to promote processes of de-institutionalization was taken in the Municipality Council, and the foster care program is currently presented as a plausible alternative. The technical team works towards the fulfillment of this objective, by calling foster families in a sustained way to guarantee the right to live in a family.


The program was launched in November 2010 and in less than half a year of being implemented, the technical team has already called, evaluated and selected foster families that are currently in charge of the care of children and adolescents in the district.


Relaf worked in Puán carrying out technical cooperation activities that included a Day of reflection “The Practice of foster care: its scope, assets and difficulties”, delivered by Matilde Luna with the collaboration of María Sánchez Brizuela.


This meeting had the presence of the Secretary of the Municipality’s Treasury Facundo Castelli, who inaugurated the Day on behalf of the Municipality’s Mayor. Training and supervision of the technical team of the program were included in the activities that day. 

 

 

Advances in Uruguay

 

The article was written by Daniel Moreira and Judith Aude, both members of the Latin American Council.

Your browser may not support display of this image. To close the year 2010, we had the visit of Matilde Luna on behalf of RELAF in November. The business meeting with Matilde Luna was organized by the members of the Latin American Council Daniel Moreira and Judith Aude, with the support of the Board of Directors of Instituto del Niño y Adolescente del Uruguay- INAU (the Child and Adolescent Institute of Uruguay). Your browser may not support display of this image.

 

That day in the morning, a working meeting was carried out with the Board of Directors of INAU. Javier Salsamendi, the president of the body, as well as the directors Jorge Ferrando y Dardo Rodríguez were present. Daniel Moreira and Judith Aude members of the counselling teams of the Board participated in the meeting, too.

This meeting was motivated by the political and institutional context of promotion of practices of de-internment. Therefore, during the meeting in Montevideo the policies of protection laid down by the UN Guidelines were discussed. Matilde contributed with her vision of the Latin American context as well as with the advances and challenges that the region is currently facing. On the other side, we highlight the presence of Jorge Ferrando on behalf of the government in Relaf Seminar in Foz do Iguassu, where he showed great interest in making the government join the regional task of Relaf.

Uruguay faces a challenge set out by the Law 18590, which was enacted in 2009 and establishes the maximum period of time for the permanency of children in institutional care. Alternatives that take as their axis the protection of the right to community- and family- based care are being discussed. In this same line, the measures of foster care and adoption have a relevant position in the stand of the Board of Directors of the body in charge of public policies of childhood and adolescence in Uruguay. The ways of calling families are considered a subject that must be deepened.

The cultural aspects and the ones related to representations of the families, as well as the ones in relation with these measures of protection are considered as a concern by the INAU and as aspects that have to be taken into account and discussed at an institutional level and in the civil society. Matilde showed the advances in this sense with relation to the Kit to call for foster families and the friendly versions of the Guidelines, which are both of them suitable materials to be used in this process.

The meeting was very productive, and the door was left open for the possibility of new exchanges and contributions to these subjects from Relaf. Besides, the president of INAU expressed the interest of the public policy to promote a massive social mobilization through the promotion of volunteering, linking the activity of volunteering with foster caring.

In this sense, he transmitted the interest of the president of Uruguay “Pepe” Mujica himself to promote a massive call to mobilize families with the appropriate potential for foster caring.

Your browser may not support display of this image.


In the afternoon, the first meeting for the establishment of the local Network for the Right to community- and family- based care was carried out. This initiative came up based on the call of Judith Aude and Daniel Moreira as member of Relaf Latin American Consultative Council. It had the support of SOS Children’s Villages, which provided a very cozy office, as well as the necessary devices to carry out the meeting.

To have the presence of Relaf Project Leader Matilde Luna was very important for this first instance.

Organizations of the civil society that have developed innovative proposals with relation to the protection of the right to community- and family- based care were called to participate in this instance. Each one of them had the opportunity to present their proposals and discuss about them with the rest of the organizations.

Matilde was in charge of closing the meeting, where she highlighted the importance of the movements developed in Uruguay as well as the importance of the network as a tool to promote and articulate good practices for children and adolescents.

Relaf is committed to contribute in this process of advance in the protection of the rights which Uruguay is going through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advances in Paraguay

 

Your browser may not support display of this image. BA Marina Sawatzky, who is the psichologist in charge of the Center of Adoptions of the National Childhood and Adolescence Secretariat, has shared the last advances in Paraguay in relation to foster caring. During last year, the process of approval of the Decree of Foster Care took place, and it was finally signed by the President of the Republic.

On the other hand, the Center of Adoptions works hard in the elaboration of protocols of intervention for each area, including the Foster Care area. Undoubtedly these protocols are important working tools which will strengthen the professional practice with a right approach.

Let’s celebrate the advance in Paraguay, which is the combination of the effort and hard work coming from the governmental authorities together with the NGO’s and the participation of teams and families providing alternative care!

With relation to the “Presidential Decree N° 5.196, which establishes the Foster Care Program of children and adolescents that are Your browser may not support display of this image. subject of protection and support”.

 

The recently approved Decree deals with the causes of the separation of the child from his or her family of origin, and highlights the provisional nature of this measure. It establishes that when facing a necessary separation, the State and civil society must provide alternative care that protects the rights of the child, “among which the right to develop in a family or family environment is essential”. With relation to foster care, following the lineaments of the Code of Childhood and Adolescence, the Decree establishes that “the children’s contact and life with their close family or affective environment must be maintained”, which gives an important role to the extended family and affective referents of the community of the children. It also gives a definition of Foster Care and establishes that its regulation will be the responsibility of the National Childhood and Adolescence Secretariat. It is important to highlight that, among the characteristics of this practice, the Decree mentions that “foster care is implemented towards the maintenance of the bond with the family of origin” and that “it will be provisional and will last until the definitive situation of the child or adolescent is decided”.

For further information, please visit the section “Presentaciones” in the section of “Seminario 2010” in our web page. There you will find the presentation of Paraguay about the Presidential Decree N° 5196.

 

First Seminar “Community- and family- based Care in Valle de Punilla. Introduction to the Promotion and Protection of Rights”. New legislations. 


The First Introductory Seminar  to new legislations of Promotion and Protection of Rights of the Child was held on 23th October 2009 in the city of Capilla del Monte, Córdoba, in the framework of the Project of Community- and family- based Care that the Civil Society Caminos del Sol has started to develop in that Region.

It was organized by the Civil Society Caminos del Sol, with the support of the Childhood Table of Capilla del Monte and sponsored by Relaf.

In this province different activities with local organizations have been held since May. The most relevant antecedent is the Training Session organized by the Ombudsman’s Office for Children and Adolescents of the province, during which a cooperation agreement between this entity and Relaf was signed and a working table with local actors was established.

The Seminar had the purpose of tackling the following themes:

 

The Seminar lasted 9 hours and there were presentations of papers, practical workshops, plenary debates and appreciative dialogue; all of them aimed at improving knowledge and share experiences between all the participants.   

First Panel: Introduction to the System of Promotion and Protection of Rights. 

At the end of the First Panel Professor Susana Lionetti, Director of the Council of the Woman of Capilla del Monte made a presentation about the situation of exploitation of childhood. She showed alarming figures of the province and the world and promoted Prevention as a possible and urgent action in the framework of family strengthening.

 

The Second Panel was “Introduction to Community- and family- based Care”. 

Third Panel: Alternative family care for children deprived of parental care.

 

There were presentations about the Program’s modality of accompaniment in situations of childhood deprived of parental care, which has to favor processes of family- based care with the modality of Family Foster Care. Other aspects, such as the construction of the System of life in a family, its methodology of development, the difference with other forms of family- based care and its scope and conceptual framework were tacked.

There was a round of questions and answers about the different presentations and methodologies of work. 

Governmental representatives of different levels of decision and execution of public and social policies for the protection of the Rights of the Child participated in the event, as well as non-governmental organizations and other social organizations, professionals, researchers, teachers, the media and adolescents and youth.

The participants received theoretical materials, copies of national laws, and brochures of the different programs of the institutions. 

Carlos Alberto Gallo

Director of Institutional Development.

Camino del Sol

011 1551188452

03548 15501614

Te/ Fax 02202494752

carlosalbertogallo@caminodelsol.org.ar

laconvivenciafamiliar@gmail.com

www.caminodelsol.org.ar

www.convivenciafamiliar.org.ar 


Training in Roatán, Honduras

 

 

 


This was taken from the report made by Leslie Chace, Director for Latin American operations of BUCKNER

Actividades en Roatan, Honduras.Buckner International organization held a Training on foster care in Roatán Island, Honduras. This three day activity was aimed at the directors and teams that lead and execute projects in Guatemala and Honduras. The vice president Randy Daniels and the Director of Buckner, Leslie Chace, as well as the Director for Perú, Claudia León, and for Honduras Sergio Ramos (who is also working in Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Joe King, who is the President of Kids Matter International, an organization linked to Buckner in Roatán also participated. Besides, Matilde Luna was invited as key speaker.


The activity was started with the presentation of the projects that the organization carries out in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the US in order to fulfill its mission. Then, there were presentations and debates on foster care in Latin America and the right to community- and family- based care in the framework of the changes in public policies aimed at the protection of the rights of the child. The situation of children without parental care in Guatemala and Honduras was analyzed, and the foster care project developed by Buckner in Peru was analyzed and debated, too. All this knowledge and debates were contemplated to improve the strategy of the programs of the organization in order to improve them, remove obstacles and take on the challenges to increase the benefits for children with whom Buckner fulfils its mission.


Although foster care is its initial and central focal point of development, as well as carrying out foster care programs Buckner has developed in those countries community centers that provide aid for families and that work with teens in the promotion of their autonomy, and organizes missions with American people that carry out social tasks in countries of Latin America.


We transcribe a summary of the evaluation of the activities made by the participants Frances Azzad, Director of Programs in San Pedro Sula and Roatán, Amed Bendfeldt, Director of Missions and Humanitarian Aid for Buckner Guatemala and Claudia León, Director of Buckner Peru:


“Besides the training we had, I consider the quality of the presentations as well as the value of the information we shared as excellent. The whole experience was very stimulating, and now I know that the technical team of Roatan is very motivated. I think that in the future (in Honduras), we will be able to take more advantage of these trainings, not only for professionals like psychologists and social workers, but also for key people such as members of the childhood courts, members of the Instituto Hondureño de Bienestar infantil…”


“It was very important to get to know everything the Peru team has made for foster care…Now we have started the search for families for our children (in Guatemala)…so that will be very useful for us” … “These days in Roatan were very special…this meeting let us see once more that the love we feel for children is what leads us to join our forces and leads us at Buckner to make our programs grow”.


Besides the improvement of their visions, knowledge and abilities, during this event a fundamental objective was fulfilled: to strengthen those who fulfill the difficult task with children and families every day by sharing their experiences in this beautiful sphere.

 

 

Technical cooperation activities in Guatemala:
International Workshop Seminar on “Alternatives of protection for vulnerated Childhood and Adolescence” and work meetings.

 

 


 


In the framework of the cooperation that Relaf Project Leader has been carrying out with different Guatemalan actors since 2006, the work agenda of activities in the City of Guatemala, which were a Seminar and several working meetings with key actors in the protection of Children’s rights was fulfilled. The agenda was be set by the UNICEF local office, and Justo Solórzano and Dora Alicia Muñoz were a benchmark for the international office.

 

A Training Workshop aimed at Government organizations (Secretariat of Social Well-Being, National Adoptions Council, National Attorney General's Office, and Courts) and Non Government organizations (Movimiento Social, Refugio de la Niñez, SOS Children’s Villages, Buckner, el Refugio de la Niñez, IPS) was carried out on 9th and 10th September. More than 40 people participated at the workshop/seminar: psychologists and employees of the courts and judges from the capital and the provinces, as well as psychologists and social workers of the government organizations and NGOs above mentioned. The speakers were: Christina Baglietto, Raquel Morales, Jessica Zabala and Matilde Luna.
The urgent need to have local resources for the protection of children without parental care was made evident. Among the dilemmas or obstacles for the implementation of foster care in Guatemala the participants highlighted these:
• There are difficulties in finding substitute families (this is how foster families are named in Guatemala), the government program is inadequate,
• There are a high number of institutionalized children, although the exact number is unknown. The participants said institutionalization is the main option they had.
• They described the long stays and regular or bad conditions of institutionalized children.
• They recognized the good work of some foster institutions such as SOS Children’s Villages.
• They said they found difficulties to achieve the goal of transitory condition of substitute families programs when this is a possibility.
• They made many questions about: children’s time of stay, payment for the families, training and so on. These questions rose from the presentation of Latin American experiences.
• They pointed out that special attention must be paid to distinguish foster care situations that can lead to adoption in order to differentiate between the two practices.

After the Seminar a meeting agenda on the ground with technicians and authorities of governmental organizations was fulfilled and meetings with key actors were carried out. Relaf Project Leader had meetings with the Secretary of Social Well-Being, Lic. Silvia Palomo, the Director of the Substitute Families Program of SBS, Víctor Reyes, and the directors of the organizations Aso- Seprodi, DEMOS, Buckner, Antonio Coolen and Edgar Ramírez, Anabella Rivera and Leslie Chase respectively. The meeting with Alejandra Vázquez, distinguished member of Relaf and activist for the rights of Guatemalan children was also very meaningful.
A brief evaluation, taking into account the situation described in this Bulletin’s Editorial: Guatemalan people and the international community must continue to work hard for the prevention, protection and restitution of the rights of Guatemalan children. We find technicians with a good academic background in this country who are committed to childhood and need support to fulfill their vocation and ethical commitment to their fellow countrymen.


 


Technical cooperation activities with Paraguay in Asunción

 

 


 

 

Relaf, through Matilde Luna, keeps on accompanying the design and execution of the pilot project “Deinstitutionalization and transformation of services for childhood”. This cooperation has the purpose of facilitating the transformation process of services for early childhood, taking into account the commitment shown by the National Childhood and Adolescence Secretariat of Paraguay to Relaf in October 2008. Since then, the Center of Adoptions (dependent of this State Secretariat) has begun a process of evaluation and revision of the modalities of family- based care that were implemented during the 10 years of the existence of the institution, with the purpose of creating new modalities framed in Integral Protection, with a view to the achievement of deinstitutionalization of children between 0 and 5 years in Paraguay.
This project is currently being designed by professionals of the Center of Adoptions, from the National Childhood and Adolescence Secretariat, and the NGO Enfoqueniñez. Inside the Center of Adoptions, the foster care team, which is directed by Victoria Ontañón, actively works in the project. The team is made up of Maria Elena Verdún, Evelyn Cattebeke, Felicina Meza and Marina Sawatzky. For its part, the NGO Enfoqueniñez has a working team devoted to this task, which is made up of Leticia Rodríguez, Livia González and Alejandra Rodríguez, under the coordination of Magui Palau.

 


Workshop Seminar: “Separation, ruptures, break-ups, discontinuities. Trying to name what is irrepresentable?”

 

Call to participate: Relaf

With the collaboration of Ieladeinu Program, the Children and Adolescent’s Rights Council of the City of Buenos Aires and the Childhood Office of the City of Buenos Aires.

Date: 5th October 2009.
Place: Maipú N° 116, basement. City of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Schedule: 9.30 to 15.
Participation requires previous enrolment; vacancies are limited.

The irrepresentable shows what cannot be accepted or understood, that which cannot be accepted, that is evil.
That is where separation from a child lies. According to the representation of motherhood, fatherhood and families, separating from a child appears as something that is difficult to explain.
We think that here’s an important obstacle for those who have to find sense in personal histories that include these kinds of events. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the productions that reflect them from the culture.
At this Workshop Seminar we will work on scenes from films in which separation or its effects are present. We will discuss the topic and include theoretical contributions that clarify these complex issues.
It is aimed at operators that work in social educational projects with children and adolescents and their families.

Daniel Moreira is a psychologist of Universidad de la República, Uruguay. He is a psychoanalytical psychotherapist and he is currently studying to get a Master’s degree in Psychology and Education. He is a professor in the Field of Problematic Subjective Formations in the Current Context at Universidad de la República. He is permanent supervisor to the Permanent Training Program of the Centre for Training and Research of INAU (Instituto del Niño y Adolescente del Uruguay). He has more than fifteen years of experience in the field of adoption and foster care. He is also a member of Relaf’s Latin American Consultative Council.

Enrolment:For further information on the enrolment to the Workshop Seminar send an e-mail to asistente@relaf.org

 

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