Caring For Separated Children In the Developing World.

CONTENTS.

Acknowledgements. Introduction. Children, the ultimate silent majority. Chapter 1. The nature and extent of the problem. Is the problem increasing? Traditional methods of caring for children and some associated problems. Institutions & residential care. Effects of separation & institutionalisation on children. Some lessons learnt from the UK. Are there alternatives? Prevention & planning. Substitute families. Adoption. Two fostering programmes in action. Some issues, problems and benefits. Why are these programmes not operating in the developing world ? A cultural perspective. Typical costs to set up a pilot programme. Difficulties and benefits with the programme. What does it need to work here? How is it done? The framework. Recruitment The process and some relevant issues. The role of the social worker. Is fostering relevant to Brazil? Should the Church be involved?

page 3. page 4. page 6.

Chapter 2.

page 10.

Chapter 3.

page 17.

Chapter 4.

page 26.

Chapter 5. Chapter 6.

page 32. page 34.

Chapter 7. Chapter 8. Conclusion. Notes.

page 42. page 47. page 53. page 54.

Contact addresses. Acknowledgements.

page 57.

I sometimes wonder how it is I actually came to write this project as it is the first time I have ever been involved with anything quite like it. After almost 20 years of social work practice in England ranging from residential work with adolescents, child protection work and the past 10 years in fostering & adoption, I thought it was time to look outside England to see if my experience could be of any use in another country. I have long since been challenged and provoked at seeing children who have been separated from their families growing up either in institutions or other forms of care, without the individual love and attention they require and someone they can belong to. For a child to lose their family and all that this means, memories included, and have it replaced by institutional forms of care along with the frequent changes of staff it experiences, is a remedy that no-one would ever accept for their own children. Yet this is usually the response given to these needy ones. Perhaps it is this injustice that has drawn me to consider more closely the needs of the separated child in the developing world. I am a Christian and believe that God has directed my life over many years. In the same way He has clearly been with us in Brazil over the past year as my wife and I have adjusted to the cultural differences and struggled with the Portuguese language! I would like to thank Pastor Jonathan Santos and all those at the Valley of Blessing for making our stay in Brazil an enjoyable and memorable one. I find Pastor Jonathan a remarkable man; his gentleness, awareness, energy, perseverance, and his passion for God are all attributes that have brought him and his work this far. I also need to thank two authors without whose books my work would have been much more difficult. Andy Butcher who wrote an inspirational book, Street Children, which should challenge anyone who reads it. Also David Tolfree who conducted the 3 year study for Save The Children Fund, from which he wrote Roofs and Roots. The information he researched has been so informative, thanks for letting me freely quote from it. I would also like to thank our good friends Antonio Pedro Da Silva Neto (Pedrinho), his wife Noemi and their two children, along with all the separated children they care for at Casa Novo Rumo, So Caetano, So Paulo. Their close friendship and availability made our cultural adjustment that much easier to cope with. Thanks also Pedrinho for helping us get to know So Paulo. My thanks go to all the various projects I visited and the workers I have spoken with during this past year. There are far too many to mention individually, but each of your contributions have played a useful part in me getting to know Brazil.

Finally, thanks to Richard and Raz in Rio for helping me with the project. To my mother and our family in England who have faithfully supported us being in Brazil. Also to our friends and Church who have financially supported our year in Brazil. Last but not least, I want to thank my wife Brenda who has stayed by my side and experienced with me the joys and heartaches of living in another country whilst we pursue the call God has for our lives. INTRODUCTION

Children, the ultimate silent majority. Perhaps one of the biggest social problems facing society today is that throughout the world there are many children being neglected, abandoned, abused and exploited, or orphaned through war, famine, natural or man-made disasters and disease. All that is wrong and corrupt in our world seems to inflict the cruellest of blows on these vulnerable ones. 1. As we approach the Third Millennium we can look back over the past 2,000 years at the many advances mankind has made in science, industry, health, education and general living standards. It seems to be something of a paradox that in this modern era of remarkable developments across the globe the world is faced with an upsurge of homeless, roofless, rootless people, many of whom are children. Instead of receiving the security of a loving family and a decent education, something most of us would hope for as the minimum we could expect in this day and age, they are faced with hardships that many of us have taken too lightly for too many years. Childhood is about socialisation and learning from life experiences that enable the child to develop their personality, establish their identity and thereby equip them for life as an adult where responsibilities and pressures are all around. If a child has negative and damaging experiences then we should not be surprised if they perpetuate those experiences as an adult. For example, if a child does not learn about taking appropriate responsibility within their own family networks, how much more difficult is it for them to exercise responsibility in the future, to their own family and to society in general? Over many years there have been some prominent people who have served our children well at great sacrifice to themselves and their own families. In the last century in England, George Muller was profoundly influenced by Psalm 68:6 referring to God as, The Father to the fatherless. He went on to open many orphanages for abandoned children and by 1869 he was caring for 2,000 children. Then there was Thomas Barnardo who shared Mullers vision. His first home for children was opened in 1870 and by 1905, the year he died, they were caring for 8,500 children. More recently we remember Mother Theresa who sadly died in 1997, after working for many years in Calcutta with children and families.

Is caring for these vulnerable children only for special people? Is there really a problem and is it increasing? What are the traditional ways of caring for these children and what are the problems? Are there any alternatives? How do other countries care for their children? Can those ideas work in our country? These are some of the areas covered as we take a closer look at the present responses of governments and agencies in caring for separated children. The second part of the project examines some alternative strategies in child care provision that could be employed in many countries if there was a desire to do so. However, first it is important to have some understanding of the problems that create the need for such a project and to examine why many of the present day responses to caring for separated children in the developing world are often inadequate. This is not intended to be a deep analysis about the causes and effects on children who are separated from their families, as there are already many excellent books and research studies on the subject. A brief description of present day child care practices and some of the effects this has on children is followed by suggestions of alternative methods of care for children, how they might be achieved and what needs to happen for those suggestions to work in any particular country. Finally, it describes how we can recruit, prepare and support families caring for children who are unable to live with their own family. This concept is widely known as fostering or substitute families, and is a practice which usually operates alongside or in place of, other traditional models of child care. The descriptions and suggestions made are to provoke serious discussion in child care agencies and influence future child care practice and policy making. The detailed methodology and management of such a project needs to be established later after a decision has been made by Government or child care agency to pursue these alternative models of substitute care. Although this project was written in Brazil, it is not specifically about Brazil. It can be socially and culturally adapted to work in any particular country that wishes to adopt this model of substitute family care. The work for the project has been researched largely from literature in the UK and from discussions with child care workers in various international projects. It also includes my own observations and interviews with several professionals during my time as a volunteer working with a childrens project in So Paulo, Brazil. I have 20 years professional experience as a social worker in England working for Local Government and non-Government organisations, the last 10 years of which I have specialised in preparing and supporting substitute families in caring for children. My time in Brazil has demonstrated to me that there are many people and organisations genuinely concerned for the welfare of these children and some are working to try and create a homely environment for separated children. My concern is not so much that no-one is working with these children but that only a minority are actively working at trying to find substitute families for them to live with.

My comments should not be interpreted as criticism of any Government or nonGovernment organisation regarding their child care policy and practice. Neither do I wish to portray a, this is how we do it in the West attitude, for we also have been involved in many unsatisfactory approaches to caring for children who are unable to live with their parents. Possibly one of the benefits of making mistakes is that if we are able to accept our mistakes, then invaluable lessons can be learnt from them which can give separated children a little more hope for the future. Chapters 1-7 have not been written from a Christian perspective. I include chapter 8 as a particular challenge to the Christian Church of Jesus Christ to rise up to the task of becoming more involved in the issues of caring for separated children.

CHAPTER 1

The nature and extent of the problem.

What follows is only a small selection of recent statistics that are available from organisations throughout the world who are working with disadvantaged children and young people. Around 40% of the worlds population, 1.8 billion people are under the age of 15 years and 85% of these, 1.5 billion, live in the two thirds world. 1. Almost half of the people in the two thirds world are under 15 years. 1. UNICEF claim over 650,000,000 children are living in extreme poverty existing on less than $1 per day. 2. Malnutrition contributes to more than half of almost 12,000,000 deaths a year among children under 5 years in developing countries. 3. The infant mortality rate per thousand is: 7 in Northern Europe, 51 in South America and 108 in East Africa. 4. It is estimated there will be 10,000,000 AIDS orphans by the year 2000. 5. It is estimated that Zambia already has 500,000 orphans due to AIDS. 6. India is emerging as a hot bed of child sex tourism with over 400,000 child prostitutes. Thailand has 600,000 child prostitutes. 7. According to 1994 estimates from UNICEF, 10%-25% of Cambodias population never enter school and only 33% of children who enter 1st grade are still there to complete 5th grade. 8. Mexico City has 1,900,000 children on the streets, 240,000 abandoned. Bogota Columbia has 50,000 children living on the streets. 9. In the 60s and 70s New York had 1,400 homeless children. In 1987 there were 12,303 and in 1991 this figure had exploded to 20,000 in New York City. 10. Romania has greater problems now with homeless children than it did in the Ceausescu regime. 11. In the UK an estimated 200,000 young people experience homelessness each year. 30% of young single homeless people have been in care, (cared for by local government when a child). 25% of adult prisoners have been in care. 38% of young prisoners have been in care. 12. There are estimated to be 100,000 homeless children living in the Indian capital. According to unofficial figures there are nearly 500,000 children living on the streets of Indias 6 largest cities. 13.

Although certainly not a new phenomenon, the increase of children all over the world working and living on the streets has to be a factor for serious concern. A recent report in The Washington Post highlighted the problem in Russia where the word besprizorniki (neglected ones), describing the legions of orphans who roamed the streets in the civil war of the 1920s, has made a sudden comeback. An epidemic of street children has made Russians fearful of a lost generation that at best will grow up

under-educated and at worst live a life of crime and disease. Ekaterina Rozhdektvenskaya, director of a social welfare group said, The indicators are frightening, everywhere we turn we see more violence towards children, more sex abuse, worse health, more fatherless homes, it looks bad for our future. 14. According to UNAIDS, no-one in Zambia is unaffected by AIDS. Everyone you speak to has lost a member of the family. In the wake of AIDS a second human tragedy is unfurling; an epidemic of orphans. By the middle of 1996, 9,000,000 children world-wide had lost their mothers to AIDS. Some 90% of these are in the sub-Saharan Africa. 15. A recent BBC television news item from Cluj, Romania, looked at the growing problem of children on the streets since the fall of the Ceausescu Government in December 1989. A film crew visited some children living underground in a hole and were astonished at what they found. After all the material aid and help given from Western governments and charities over many years, for some people extreme poverty was still a major problem and had become a way of life. The increase of children on the street seemed to be a direct result of these problems. 16. One of the recent information sheets from UNICEF writes about street children: It is believed there are around 100,000,000 children world-wide living at least part of their time on the streets and working in the urban informal sector, the fastest growing area of child labour. Some street children are orphans, others have been rejected, abandoned, or deserted by their families. But the majority have run away from their families who are simply too stressed and too poor to meet the childrens basic needs, either physical or emotional. Roofless and rootless, street children sleep wherever they can and buy what food with what they can earn in a day. 17. Dr Judith Enew, a researcher and advisor on street children and the author of Street and Working Children for Save The Children Fund writes: Those whose only home is the street are among the most unprotected of all children. They have no power and no rights - to care, shelter, education and health. 18. Without families or someone to care for them and show them the good things in this life these children are destined for a short life of misery and despair. Their only education is what they can learn on the streets. Andy Butcher in his book Street Children describes the situation as follows:- These children are being denied an inheritance that is rightfully theirs. The right to nurture and nourishment, help and hope, a family and a future. Instead they are being educationally wounded. Financially defrauded. Physically abused. Nutritionally starved. Sexually used. Environmentally deprived. Socially rejected. Spiritually scarred. Young hands hold out for begging bowls, glue sniffing tins, hypodermic needles, weapons. 19. It is now becoming clearer than ever before that what had previously been seen as essentially a problem of the developing world, is becoming much more of a problem in the major cities across Western Europe. There is a growing number of children without

families for whatever reason who need to become the responsibility of their local community, but sadly, society in many cases has all too often shown itself to be unwilling to shoulder that responsibility. Instead they leave this enormous task to the small groups of concerned people in governmental and voluntary agencies who are desperately trying to stem the flow. Is the problem increasing?

One thing that has become clearer in recent years is that urbanisation has grown enormously in the worlds cities over the past 2-3 decades along with inflation and collapsing economies. As a consequence, the number of street children has risen sharply . What commences as a search for work and improved living conditions by families from the poorer rural areas, often ends in squalor and despair in city slums. The children of these families are in a particularly vulnerable situation. Access to decent education is a rarity and even this is often sacrificed as the need to supplement the family income rises. Instead they can find themselves working on the streets sometimes late into the night. Good health care becomes an ideal that is beyond the reach of many families; just getting through each day can become the habit of a life time. It has been suggested by researchers that financial and social poverty are largely responsible for the growth in the worlds street children. Although this viewpoint is accepted by many organisations, UNICEF also believe that poverty does not automatically lead to child labour. It does however place considerable strains upon the family in their struggle to survive. Many of these problems are now confronting the First World again with an ever increasing amount of disadvantaged families. A report for the Independent Commission on International Human Rights gave their opinion, that whilst there are differences in the causes and effects of street childrens lives between the West and the developing world, there are also many features in common, All those on the street everywhere can be described as victims of the crisis of the family. The breakdown of family structures and traditional values, massive emigration, the economic decline of neighbourhoods in the North and growing sophistication in the cities of the South, narrow the difference between streets in different continents. 20. David Barrett, compiler of the World Christian Encyclopaedia, projects the number of mega-city street children mushrooming to a staggering 800,000,000 by the year 2200. This is based upon the anticipated explosion in the number of mega-cities, with a 1,000,000 plus population and the accompanying growth in the number of street kids. 21. We already know that the population of the worlds cities has doubled in the past 30 years and is predicted to double again in the next 20 years. Former Director General of The World Health Organisation, Halfdan Mahler writes: The human consequences of this phenomenon are frightening to contemplate, we know for example that even now over 1 billion people, a fifth of the worlds inhabitants, are either homeless or live in extremely unhealthy conditions. 22.

If these predictions are correct then the problem of the worlds street children is not going to disappear. On the contrary, it seems that unless governments and organisations give the subject the serious consideration and action required to redress the problem, then the problems will actually increase. David Barrett expects that if current trends continue then the number of abandoned children will double by the year 2000. 21. This may be an anticipated figure that does not actually materialise, but if it does, many countries will have to develop more preventative and effective child care strategies to deal with this growing problem. Most governmental or voluntary organisations who are already grappling with these issues will accept that this problem, unless tackled urgently, is likely to become uncontrollable. In order to combat the problem there need to be strategic health care plans that educate and protect the poorest in different societies. Effective social care plans that are specifically aimed at preventing family break-up and supporting family values have to be developed. Governments have to ensure that a good education actually is available for all, particularly in the poorer sections of our cities. Without these provisions an increasing number of children will grow up unable to look forward to decent opportunities and be optimistic about their future. The cycle of deprivation often begins to take effect where the child grows up only able to reproduce what has been sadly lacking in their own life. These issues are immensely important for the welfare of the family and the child, but also for the long-term welfare of societies in general. Without these supportive and preventative measures in place, the future for many children from the poorer sections of society looks bleak indeed. Creating new legislation that gives serious concern to these issues is certainly a step in the right direction. However, unless the necessary finance is made available to support the development of these programmes, the ideals will rarely have a practical application. These supportive and preventative measures although of paramount importance are not the main focus of this project and therefore are not developed further. It is however, essential to have these issues clearly stated at the beginning of this project as they inform us about the size and growth of the problem that currently exists and where preventative measures need to be applied.

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CHAPTER 2.

Traditional methods of caring for children and some of the associated problems.

2 a. Institutions & residential care. The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child, was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20th November 1989. Since that time around 190 different countries have voluntarily signed up to the agreement. In Part one of the agreement, there are 41 articles which address many possible scenarios relating to the welfare of the child. I do not intend to look at those articles themselves but suffice to say that in the preamble to the Convention On The Rights of The Child it states:- We are convinced that the family, as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members and particularly children, should be afforded the necessary protection and assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities within the community. It then states, Recognising that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding. The importance of a family for a child is clearly recognised and stated here. Few countries in the developing world have a long history of institutional care for children. This concept was introduced by missionaries or Government departments modelling themselves upon their counterparts in the colonial powers often emulating the pattern of residential care which was widespread in Western Europe in the early twentieth century. Subsequently, large scale institutional care has continued to be the norm in the developing world with programmes of substitute family care often remaining at a relatively early stage of development. 1. In 1990 Save The Children Fund (SCF), commissioned David Tolfree to document and analyse the experience of SCF and others in the field of residential and other forms of care for children separated from their own families in developing countries. His book Roofs and Roots represents field visits to almost 20 countries over a 3 year period between 1991 -1994, 14 specially commissioned case studies, and a comprehensive review of literature along with the accumulated experience of one of the largest organisations concerned with childrens development in the Third World, SCF. He found that throughout developing countries, those children separated from their families, and who are not absorbed into the extended family, are usually placed by governmental and voluntary agencies into institutional care without any thorough examination of the problems facing the individual child, or an active search for alternatives. He found that:-

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Only a small minority of children living in institutions are there because they have been permanently abandoned or fully orphaned. Placing a child in an institution is often a survival strategy used by parents as an act of desperation caused by poverty. Residential institutions offer an attraction because of the immediate advantages they offer to a child of shelter, food and education. 2.

At a conservative estimate, between 6 - 8 million children world-wide currently live in some form of residential care. Most agencies working with families would accept that residential care is not an appropriate response to solving poverty itself; it only relieves the immediate burden on the family. It has been said that placing children in institutions solves the problem of the placers and not the child. In turn, the expenses accrued by the agencies who operate the residential homes become a continuous burden to them as they seek to maintain their operations and receive more children. In this paper I do not want to give the impression that all residential care for children is bad although some extreme examples most definitely have been. For example, the orphanages in Romania and Russia where children at an early age were labelled as having mental health problems and placed into institutions ill equipped, poorly staffed and offering little individual attention for the child, received widespread television coverage. However, there are some residential homes which have steadfastly tried to meet as many of the childrens needs as possible by trying to create a sense of family atmosphere within the home. Yet they too come under increasing pressure due to finance, fluctuation of workers and the inevitable problems that arise when large groups of children live together. Some of the problems associated with institutional life are described as follows: Institutions rarely provide children with appropriate role models. Child care workers come and go leaving the child wondering who they can model themselves on. Workers cook, wash, iron, clean and usually others offer child care. Even the purchasing of food and household items is done centrally, so the need to go to the local supermarket and budget for the family passes the institutional child by. Institutional care detaches children from their families. Even if the child could return at a later date to their family, the chances are that even a reasonably short period of time in a residential home can change the childs expectations to the immediate material benefits. House practices and hygiene can isolate the child even further from their family who see them as having changed. Institutional living tends to breed a sense of dependency and a marked lack of self motivation for the child. Everything is provided, rules and routines are for the majority and not the individual, punishments can be harsh. It is not surprising to find that many young people who have been raised in institutions find great difficulty in adjusting to life outside of the institution. Institutions can bring together children from a wide variety of ages, backgrounds and experiences who live together exchanging stories and personal experiences some of which are true but many can be widely exaggerated.

13

Residential homes can be isolated from the community so the need for the child to leave the institution for school, leisure, shopping or other activities is rare. Their whole experience is in and around the institution. Residential homes tend to have a low ratio of child care workers to children. Perhaps the total number of workers will be higher but this usually includes the various other workers who do not have direct involvement with the children. By definition, residential care effectively means 24 hour care which is both expensive to the organisation providing the care and physically demanding upon the carer. The opportunity for individual care and programmes for each child is often not possible. The child can grow up stifled of love and affection, stimulation and learning experiences whilst competing with many other children for what attention is available.

These are just a few examples that illustrate what many researchers of childrens homes have already reported about the problems of institutional life. These are widely known and accepted by many who work inside the institutions as well as the children themselves when their voice is heard. Yet there are also some benefits in the provision of residential care which cannot be ignored. Some homes are well equipped to act as a rescue programme on a short-term basis. This can offer time and space for child care plans to be established and the re-adjustment for a child who has suffered separation from the family. This is particularly useful when a child has already had a substantial amount of time living outside of a family environment and would experience difficulties having to adjust to family routines. Residential homes can also provide long-term placements for the older child who realistically has little chance of finding a substitute family. However, beyond this framework residential establishments do tend to move into longer-term difficulties for the child by isolating them from families and the community. A simple quotation from a teenage girl who had spent most of her life in an institution in Nepal illustrates graphically what is possibly the fundamental problem with most models of institutional care: I have no idea what it is like to live in a family. 3. This is the problem that most institutional homes experience sometimes even when they have good established skill development programmes. They usually fail to equip young people in institutional care with the knowledge, skills, experiences, emotional reserves, and a personal support system to cope with life outside an institution and in the community. 2.b. Effects of separation & institutionalisation on a child. Much of the current and extensive research about attachment and separation of children from their families, although widely accepted, has been derived from research in Western societies. Due to a lack of research on this subject within a cross-cultural setting we can therefore only have partial answers regarding the effects of attachment and separation outside Western societies. Equally, we have little information regarding child development in a cross-cultural context. However, Rohner from his studies concludes that all humans have a profound but generalised need for positive responses from people who are important to them. 4. David Tolfree points out that the value of his study is that it confirms that lack of acceptance, love, warmth, and

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affection leads to certain consequences for the personality of the developing child regardless of cultural background. 5. Attachment between humans is a complex process. Although still not fully understood, along with separation it is at the heart of child care work. Throughout an individuals lifetime attachments provide connections to other people and help us to develop a sense of self. It aids us in our own quest for identity. For most children in the majority of situations these attachments are taking place all the time with various members of the family and friends even when they are not aware of it. It is more than likely that children who live in institutions for any length of time are faced with repeated separations and losses. They are frequently separated from their primary attachment carers. In addition they are often separated from brothers, sisters, extended family members, friends and neighbours, routines and lifestyles. Very often the institutionalised child loses touch with all their former identity. Winnicot says, Of course the pain of separation from those we love is for all of us a devastating experience, but for the dependant child the whole of his / her world collapses and everything loses meaning 6. In general terms, it seems that the stronger the relationship between family and child, the more traumatic the loss for the child. Separation, whether temporary or permanent, from meaningful relationships precipitates an acute sense of loss for the child. Grief is the process one passes through to recover from that loss. If a child is unable to grieve properly and to be helped to understand why the separation took place then they may carry that grief with them for the rest of their life. We now know that it is particularly disruptive to separate children from their attachment carers from around the age of 6 months to 4 years. This time is important for the development of bonding and attaching to parent figures. When this bond is severed the child senses the loss and begins to interpret this as, Perhaps I did something wrong, You cannot trust adults, or simply, Rejection. Children who are separated from their families at an older age also have profound difficulties, but at least some of their personality development has already begun thereby enabling them to develop some strategies in order to cope with the loss. One of the most serious challenges of child care work is helping these children cope with these traumatic separations whenever and however they occur. Because children who are separated from their families have a particularly difficult time in coming to terms with their situation, residential institutions are rarely the right place for them to be on a long-term basis. Yet across the world for many years this was the inevitable response and still is today in many developing countries. The environment into which a separated child is placed is of great importance. The following examples of institutional life demonstrates how these institutions have great difficulty in meeting some of the childs needs:-

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Many other children also live there and have similar problems. Those children who create the most problems are usually the ones who receive the most attention. Staff ratio to children is usually very low, perhaps 2 care staff to 20 children, or less. Individual time for the child is often an impossibility and the best that can be offered is to work in groups. The physical and emotional demands on child care workers mean that many of them will move on. For them that is a right they have as they try to find work which they enjoy, but for the child it is yet further confirmation that adults cannot be trusted. Just as the child comes to trust and perhaps confide in an adult, they leave. The childs likely response is to become emotionally introverted learning that to avoid the pain of future losses it is better not to become emotionally involved with anyone. Very often such institutions are unstimulating for the child and have regimented routines. Although some residential homes have tried hard to create a family home atmosphere with individual attention to the child, it can still be very difficult to avoid the institutional way of life.

David Tolfree says that no-one is saying institutional care is intrinsically damaging to children, but the evidence does suggest that certain features of institutional care are likely to have a detrimental effect on a childs development. 7. These children are particularly vulnerable ones, and as such, need to be given more input than just being cared for. They need close and affectionate relationships with care workers in order to help them develop a sense of trust again and begin to make new and sustainable relationships. They need to feel wanted and valued through close and personal relationships, thus developing their own sense of self-worth. They need the security and comfort of a close relationship to help them adjust to their sense of loss and be able to have memories about their previous family life which will aid them in their own individual identity as they grow. Most studies into the effects of institutionalisation on children indicate that the longer the stay in an institution, the greater the likelihood of emotional or behavioural disturbance and cognitive development. In the West the term to drift is used describing the situation in which a child remains in an institution or other family unit without any clear child care plan being established or realistically sought after for many years. American and British studies have shown that children often remain in care because of the lack of any alternative. Those who are responsible for the decisions of these childrens lives, social workers, lawyers and judges, sometimes need to be reminded of the long-term damage that is done to children because important decisions and child care plans are not being acted upon at an early stage. Many writers have stressed the difficulty children have in reaching their full potential when living in limbo, uncertain where they will be living next year or who is ultimately responsible for them. One of the most damaging long-term effects on these children is the knowledge that in their life beyond the institution they belong to no-one, other than the institution. The

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total separation from their original family took place many years ago when no plans were made by the social workers to encourage the keeping of links with the biological family. In most situations now as adults, they return to visit the residential home where they once lived hoping to re-capture valuable memories of their childhood. Sadly, they often find that the care workers they grew up with are no longer working there. Their friends too will have moved away a long time ago. These adults are now faced with a lifetime ahead of them in the community without a personal support system that is so invaluable to everyone. 2 c. Some lessons learnt in the United Kingdom. Many institutions in the developing world are similar in many ways to those in the UK in Victorian times. What lessons can be learned from the UK experience to assist in developing appropriate approaches to preventative care and alternative solutions of child care strategies in developing countries? Perhaps one of Englands most famous voluntary child care organisations is Thomas Barnardos. His work began in London where society was struggling to cope with the effects of the Industrial Revolution. Londons population had doubled in 30 years and its streets were home to thousands of children, abandoned, orphaned, abused, or disabled by industrial accidents in factories which relied heavily upon child labour. Twenty percent of children died of malnutrition or disease before the age of 5 years. Barnardos opened their first childrens home in 1870 and by 1905, the year Thomas Barnardo died, they were caring for 8,500 children. Western countries in the last 50 years or so have seen a major shift in policies and practices regarding children who are unable to live with their own families. Before the Second World War, most children facing orphanhood, abandonment, and family breakdown who were unable to live with extended family members lived in orphanages and other institutions. It took the mass evacuation of children from the major cities in the UK during that war to draw peoples attention to the damaging effects that separation from their families actually had on those children. Research on this subject has revealed that although the reason for the separation was a serious one, the effects upon the children nevertheless were considerable. A number of factors have led to the progressive reduction in the use of residential care for children in the West, ranging from research findings about the long-term damage to children living in institutions to the high cost of residential forms of care in general. One of the most significant studies in the area of social work practice in the UK is the publishing of Children who wait by Jane Rowe and Lydia Lambert. 8. They studied the history and development of almost 3000 children who were in care and living away from their families and 33 child care agencies involved in working with these children. They found: The majority of the children studied (2812) had not only come into care very young but had been in care for the greater part of their lives.

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626 were thought by the social worker to be in need of a substitute family. 50% of these were aged 8-10 at the time and had been in care for 6 years or more. Equally, half of those aged 2-4 years had been in care for 2 or more years. Most of the children had already been waiting a long time for some permanent plan to be achieved for them Reports showed that the children in care usually came from socially deprived and disorganised backgrounds. Most of the children waiting for substitute care were waiting in residential care. Historically, voluntary agencies and governments had not developed large scale foster programmes and had concentrated instead on providing specialised residential care and family group homes.

Since that influential study, growing emphasis has been placed upon the importance of assessment and planning for children to prevent the damage to them from indeterminate periods of time in institutional or other forms of non-permanent care. Some recent statistics from England and Wales:- 1980 - 1990 - 1996 - 1960s - 1970s - 1992 - 1995 95,000 children in care. 60,000 ditto 47,000 ditto 30,000 children in residential care. 25,000 ditto 11,500 ditto 8,000 ditto

In 1997, out of a total figure of 48,000 children in care (looked after by local government) approximately 35,000 were in foster care representing around 65% of all children in care in the UK. These figures have remained constant for the past 10 years. Previously there had been more children in residential care than foster care. 1997: There were around 20,000 foster carers in England caring for children. From these figures it can be seen that residential care for children has decreased significantly. There is an increased emphasis on using substitute family care for children when a return to their own family is not possible or there is to be a period of time before that return can take place. In the UK residential care still continues to be a valuable part of child care policy but this now tends to be with particular objectives in mind such as caring for the older child or having specific tasks to achieve on a shortterm basis. The developments of the substitute family programmes in the UK were made largely through the voluntary organisations, of which Barnardos is one. Whilst Government departments generally recognised the weaknesses in their child care practices they rarely seemed able to divert the resources necessary to develop these practices. This was usually left to the voluntary organisations, who without the statutory duties to

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perform, had the time to research and develop new practices and skills and tended to be the pioneers of social work practice by being at the leading edge of developing social care. From that position they have been able to sustain part financial support for their work by developing and arranging training courses for agency social workers, for which they charge a fee.

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CHAPTER 3

Are there alternatives?

3 a. Prevention and planning. The previous two chapters were essential to this project as they provide the basis from which to move on to more constructive and positive messages. Without this understanding of the traditional patterns of caring for children who are separated from their families and the effects this has, it is impossible to accurately move forward in developing social care for these children. In virtually all the countries studied in the research conducted by Save The Children Fund, they found that the underlying reason why children were placed in institutions was poverty combined with the availability of residential care as an apparently attractive instant solution to the problems facing hard-pressed families striving to meet the needs of the children. 1. It is nothing new to state that families come under ever increasing pressure when they have little work, money, education or opportunity for breaking this cycle. Most governments recognise this and some are trying hard to develop measures to assist these families. However, as there is an increasing number of people across the world living in extreme poverty, according to UNICEF 650 million living on less than $1 per day, the plight of many of these families remains much the same. It seems that one of the major solutions to this increasing problem is for governments, aid agencies and the community itself to implement programmes which support families and enable those families in turn to support their own children without creating a dependency mentality. This is best described as taking preventative measures to identify children who are at risk and try to keep them integrated within their families. Once the family tie has been broken and the children are either in institutions or on the streets, re-integration into their original family becomes increasingly difficult the longer that situation continues. These preventative measures are essential in trying to prevent family breakdown and all the problems associated with it. On occasions some countries have taken quite radical measures to try and redress the problem of the growing population of institutionalised children. In Madras India some years ago, due to the growing awareness about the disadvantages of institutionalised forms of care, the decision was made to explore the possibility of children returning to the care of their families from a home caring for orphaned and destitute boys. No less than 66% of the children were returned to their families who were offered a programme of material aid and social support. 2. The crucial point is that this same programme could have been implemented at a much earlier stage if there had been a desire to do so.

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