By Subhrata Jena | Project Contributor
Executive Summary:
Orphaned and vulnerable children/ children without parental care often have a long trail of painful experiences. Nothing can take away the pain of the children who have lost one or both parents due to various circumstances and leading a life full of insecurity.
All children need safe, permanent families that love, nurture, protect, and guide them.Foster care protects children who are not safe in their own homes or living inadequate parental care. It is a form of care where a child is placed outside his/her own home. Foster care is the priority when the child does not live with his/her own family or failed to get a relation.
Foster Care Provides Care and Protection to children outside family:
Foster care is an interim arrangement where a child is placed in the care arrangements in an extended family naturally not having any blood relation. It ensures the child’s right to a family. The child grows up in surroundings of similar culture and social family background, making it possible to wean the child & be integrated with his own biological family as and when they have overcome the crisis. Foster family care provides a child with basic need of love, affection and attention.
According to the UNCRC every child should live in a supportive, protective and caring environment that promotes his/her full potential. Children with inadequate or no parental care are at special risk of being denied such a nurturing environment. Children who cannot live with their parents should still grow up in a loving home and enjoy all their rights.
With an objective to ensure the family environment YCDA has been promoting the Foster Care initiatives in the districts of Boudh and Bolangir. This programme supports the foster families- families who open their homes to children in need of care.
Our Strategy:
Delivering direct services, building capacity of all the stakeholders and making lobby and advocacy at the Micro and Macro level are our underlying strategies through which we have already transformed lives of many children and condition of families. Our aim has been to create poverty and vulnerability proof environment, and make the children combat-ready for any type of situation. We just want to rescue them from a poverty-ridden condition and enable them to customize themselves as per the changing situation as we believe in the adage “survival of the fittest”
To ensure the safe childhood, continue their education and ensuring all-round developments of the children. During the period we have supported 100 children who are living without parental care and stated intervention with small individual donation and existing project support.
Key intervention during the period:
Need Assessment of the children:
Every child has the right to development, but this right hits a roadblock when situations are adverse. Poor financial condition of the family is the major hindrance that blocks the development path and causes the child to go astray. Hence, we emphasized this support and found that it has reduced many problems related to education, development, survival & protection .Assessments should be done to identify children’s most critical care needs, prioritized based on urgency as well as proven effectiveness.
To assess the development of supported children, once in a year, YCDA staffs visited all 100 children along with a structured too to access the quality changes & development in their life . VCPC, particular child and community participated in the process. It helped the team learn the impact of support, lacuna, challenges, and thereafter take appropriate action. 100 children were assessed to continue to get need based support. Each and every child is an individual case, with distinct life history and a unique set of current circumstances. Individual case history and planning is the most basic part of the intervention .A family’s situation is reviewed every year and an annual plan is made as per their need. A comprehensive plan has been prepared with the involvement of VCPC, care giver and children for support. Children need various types of support ranging from those things necessary for survival, such as food and health care, education for development to those interventions that will provide a better quality of life in the future such as education, clothes, shoes, psychosocial support and economic self-sufficiency.
Need based Support to the Children:
Because of the poor financial condition, guardians are unable to meet the needs of the children which results in difficult circumstances at latter. As each & every child is very important for us, so focusing on the overall development support has been provided i.e health, education, survival & psychosocial support. To strengthen the family, a plan has been prepared for the linkage the care giver through the poverty alleviation scheme & for support through income generation activities. It has been ensured that all children avail their basic rights of food, health, education, care.
During the period, the major focus of the project is to ensure that all children continue their study. Regular follow up is going on so that children do not get dropped out from schools. As per the need analysis of the care plan, All 120 children are supported by reading & writing materials, school bags, tuition fees, food packets & dress materials. The children are going to school & tuition regularly. All children are getting prepared themselves for their annual examination.
As per the analysis the appropriate measures was provided to the children through the healthcare support. As per needsthe health supplements were provided, health care support were facilitated for the 32 children and appropriate medicine were provided as per the advice of the doctors to cure the diseases. As a result 32 numbers of children have got the opportunity to get the health care support & appropriate medicine to cure from diseases.
YCDA has been supported so that it can help to remain and complete their education to live a dignitary life. The children are happy after receiving the support for their need. These all happened due to the donor’s precious support. We greatly appreciate to the donor for their support. Donors support make possible for children to access education, food, health care for a sustainable life.
Follow up & counseling support to the children:
Supporting a child once for all may not produce any desired and effective result. But the consistent follow-up and counseling is indispensable which can push the child’s future in the right direction. This is the best form of tracking to bring holistic development in a child’s life like health, education, hygiene, sanitation, nutrition and life style. Such tracking also builds an interpersonal relationship between the counselor and the child. The counselor plays the role of a guide, philosopher and friend of the child and tries all possible means to free the child from anything that has the potency to adversely impact the child. Many positive changes have come up in the lives of many children in the recent times and in future also it will have greater impact in bringing fruitful transformation in the attitude of children. The random counseling by the staffs of YCDA has brought a tremendous change among the OVC children’s in the families. Many of them have learnt to cope in every circumstance.All the children are in family based care. The major focus of the project is to ensure that all children continue their study. During the period, regular follow up & family visit is going on so that children do not get dropped out from schools. During the period, the social worker supervised their academic progress records and discusses with the parents and teachers. All the 100 children are going to school and tuitions regularly. Now they all are preparing to attend their annual examination for class promotion. On regular basis, counseling and psychosocial support helps to the children to come out from the depression & traumatic situation. Depression among the children has been reduced and balanced.
Children Clubs: Facilitating support to OVC through Children clubs:
Children clubs are the platforms where children actively and confidently participate in influencing parents, teachers, villagers, community and local government by voicing their concerns and responding to local issues. The club has the following main responsibilities:
60 numbers of children clubs have been formed in their villages to include the OVC children where they would sit together and discuss the issues related to them and bring to the solution. 300 children are regularly attending their meeting and have got opportunity to know their rights and responsibility; Particularly the issues of discrimination and inequality among the OVC children get reduced through the discussion and bring to the solution the issues like drop out, school irregularity and issues of the school environment, gets opportunity to get support and develop lifeskills for their day to day life. The children club is a process to make action plan & doing advocacy for their rights.
Family strenthening:
Although there are schemes for the poor, poverty is still a lifelong companion of many in this part of the world. The underlying reason of it is that there is no proper awareness among people, indifferent attitude of administration, improper identification of beneficiaries and cornering of benefits of schemes by the powerful sector. Hence, we thought of taking the initiative of linking people with the government schemes that has enabled them to avail their legal share from different schemes and in future also this initiative of ours will go on till they are self-contained. For the sustainable development and better care to the OVC children.YCDA aims to capacitate them and facilitated them to avail the benefits of govt. schemes & provisions as Family strengthening is the major part to bring sustainable changes of the foster family and child. During the period 14 nos. of families have been linked in IAY, Old age, Widow Pension schemes, NFBS, Mo kudia and availed it.
The socio-economic status of the people of this region is very deplorable. To make them financially strong, YCDA has been providing them hassle-free financial support in the form of revolving fund. We have found that such initiatives have been really very productive as it has not only come out handy in enhancing family’s financial condition. For self sustainable and to enhance the socio economic standard the care givers families are encouraged for the small entrepreneurship through which the family can be financial sound and may give good care and protection to the children rehabilitated in their families. YCDA also provide revolving fund support to run the income generation activities. Staffs visit to the family and giving the hand holding support for taking forward the Income generation activities and generate savings for the children. During the period, few families were identified for under taking various Income Generation Activities. We provide training and orientation on entrepreneurship, business plan development & planning.
During the period 12 nos. of families have been supported by revolving fund for income generating activities like Vegetable cultivation, puffed rice, Tiffin shop, Rice processing, Grocery shop etc. which can allow the families to earn additional income. We trained & capacitate the 80 IGA families in business plan, profit loss calculation & market linkages. Staffs visited the family and giving the hand holding support for taking forward the Income generation activities; generate savings for the children empower them to provide for the essential needs of the children in their care.
Thanks to all supporters to support....
Hellow….
I am 13 years old girl, lives with my little sister & mother in a village of odisha. She maintains our family doing wage labour work. She was not able to fulfil our educational needs and so we are irregular to school.But with your support & help we are regularize in school and our educational needs fulfils. Now, I am reading in class-VIII & going to school regularly. “I want to continue my further studies and to be a Doctor. I wish with your blessings & support I can achieve my dreams & help my family….”
...... Thanks to Global Giving ......
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