Foster Care for 100 Orphan Children in India

Executive Summary:

YCDA has initiated Alternatives form of Child Care programme with the key focus on care and protection through community based rehabilitation and family focused alternative care to ensure best interest of the child since 2007 in Boudh and Bolangir district in the partnership of SKN, The Netherlands. In addition to this, for the proper implementation of the programme YCDA now is supporting the children with small individual donation. YCDA plays a pioneer role in promoting non-institutional care in the State like Orissa through community centric child care like Kinship Care, Foster Care, Group Foster Care and Child headed household as its outstanding innovative.

Foster care provides a temporary, safe, stable and nurturing family life experience for a child when the child’s family is unable to provide. Foster care is based on the belief that a family and community is the most beneficial and desirable environment for the healthy growth and development of a child. The goal of the foster care system is to ensure that a child can be safe, secure and well cared for while a family is in crisis. The intended result is that the child grows up in a safe, stable and permanent home. The first priority is to work with the child’s family so they can provide safety and permanence for their child. This work occurs while the child is in foster care.

Placing a child in foster care gives the child a safe place to grow, either until the family circumstances improve enough to reunite the child with the parents or till a permanent rehabilitation is done for the child. Children are usually sent to foster care when they are deprived of family care due to various reasons.

Our guiding Principles:

The two most important attempts such as UNCRC, ICPS serves as a guideline principle for promoting the concept. United Nation Convention on the Rights to the children states that in order to be able to develop his or her personality fully and harmoniously, a child should grow up in a family environment in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding .The integrated Child Protection scheme in its guiding principle mention that institutionalization of children have to be the last resort as there is a need to shift the focus of interventions.

YCDA Foster Care Programme :

Foster Careis a family based non-institutional child care programme that provides temporary/substitute care for children in difficult circumstances, for example children whose parents are unable to care for them due to illness, death, desertion of one parent or any emotional crisis.

Group Foster Care:Group Foster is defined, as a family setting where a group of unrelated children are placed with fit facility/parents may/may not be having their own biological children

During the implementation of family based care arrangement YCDA has been rehabilitated the more than 100 CNCP in Foster care and Group foster care arrangement as per the best interest of the child.

Foster Family care provides a child with its basic needs of Love, affection and undivided attention. A foster home satisfies a child’s essential need for a mother. The shower of attention and care that the child gets from foster family helps preserve a child’s innocence.

OUR STATERGY:

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 a safe environment and make the children combat-ready for any type of situation.

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.

Our Support System:

Need Based Support

This aims to provide basic needs of survival, development for holistic development of a child. Beginning of the year team assess the need of the children and accordingly need based support is provided. Major focus of project remained on mainstreaming dropouts/irregular in formal school and completion of formal schooling. This support has changed life of children.

Ensure that education systems recognise the particular vulnerabilities of children in foster care and are able to offer adequate support for schooling, psychosocial support and protection.

Health Support :Time to time Regular check-up of all supported children is done .Immediate health problems of the vulnerable are addressed and special cases are taken care of.

Counselling support : Regular follow up/family visit and counselling support is provided to children and families. Counselling support aims to provide moral and professional support to overcome depression, trauma .

Family strengthening support: The Family Strengthening Program involves not just parents or children alone, but the whole family. The families are also linked through different govt. schemes & provisions .Household economic strengthening aims to reduce a family's vulnerability to poverty, increase economic independence, and improve people's ability to provide for their children. As a result children are getting more care and support from caregivers.

 Impact of the Program:

¨      All 100 children are in family based care & enjoying their childhood in a family like environment.

¨      35 numbers of sponsors have been mobilized and children are getting educational and health support from these initiatives.

¨      100 nos. of children are continuing their formal & Higher education.

¨      100 children's education, health and development needs are met with adequately through sponsorship support

¨      89 children are able to communicate clearly, self-conscious, confident & participate in co-curricular activities

¨      The counseling support has been able to reduce the depression, trauma, anxiety among 85 numbers of children. They have been also able to get moral and psychological support.

¨      Now, 100 numbers of children are going to school regularly and getting education. Children are getting additional support for their education and livelihood. Dress materials, school bags, reading and writing materials, tuition fees and food packets are provided to the children as per their needs. Staffs are regularly visiting and giving support to the children.

¨      59 Families got Income Generation Activity support are now getting profit and spend the profit for the children's education. Different initiatives have been taken for linkages these families with govt. entitlements.

¨      68 numbers of families have availed benefits under different schemes like BPL, Old age pension, Widow Pension, Indira Awas, Ration card, CWWB insurance schemes

¨      100 caregivers got orientation on child care, protection & parental skill .They have been developed capacity on child nurturing.

Key Intervention During the period:

Followup /Family Visit:

100 Children are getting the counseling support in regular basis, the individual counseling impacts on the children resulted to make the children regular in school. Follow up visit and monitoring is the major part of the program to strengthen the system. The social worker regularly visits the children, care givers and counseled them. All the 100 children are in family based care.

The social worker supervised their annual academic progress records and discusses with the parents. All the 100 children are doing preparation for their annual examination.. The children are going to schools and tuition regularly. The social counseling and psychosocial support helps to the children to come out from the depression & traumatic situation. During the visit various challenges are identified and prepared the safety majors. Educational materials, monthly tuition fees, counseling and other need based supportswere provided to the children timely that.

Need based support to children:

This project aims to provide basic needs of survival, development for holistic development of a child. Beginnings of the year team assess the need of the children and accordingly need based support is provided .To assesses the development of supported children, YCDA staffs visited all 100 children along with a structured tool. VCPC, particular child and community participated in the process. It helped the team learn the impact of support, challenges, and thereafter take appropriate action. 100 children were assessed to continue to get need based kind support. A family’s situation is reviewed quarterly and an action plan is made as per their need. Children need various types of support ranging from those things necessary for survival, such as food and health care, 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. During the period Medicine support, Education study materials, school bags, tuition fees, food packets, dresses, and sweaters as per need supported all 100 children.

Celebrate “Joy of giving”:-India's Festival of Giving and Joy…

There are a lot of things in the world that can make us smile but nothing beats the invaluable joy of making someone happy. Daan Utsav is India’s festival of giving that brings people from various sectors together, to celebrate and spread the joy of sharing. Joy of Giving Week (currently called Daan Utsav), is celebrated in India between 2nd and 8th October every year.

YCDA in collaboration with Centurion University & Local Community is celebrating “Daan Utsav" in Joy of Giving week Festival" organized a programme on "Daan Utsav” ...Celebrating success on October 2017 at with an objective to The prime objective of the programme is to Celebrate success and spread the message of an act of giving & evoking that the happiness not only gives happy to the receivers but it gives much happy to the givers as “The Power of Giving is greater than Joy of Receiving” and preach “Every child has a right to a loving and caring family”

It is a cause for children in need through wish tree. Wish Tree is literally a Wish Fullling tree to fulll the wishes of Children. In this programme, JITM, Balangir , Sarpanch & Local community, Boudh came forward for donation drive for this cause. They have distributed 55 nos. of wishes given by children. The wishes were supported by Director, student, teachers, PRI members, villagers and staffs. Children were spreading happiness through putting happy dots.

Celebrating children festival:

Children’s Festival is a day for everyone, especially children to get together in a multicultural environment where they enjoy fun together, do things together and share their new experience with each other. The Children Festival “Patangi”, 2017 has been organized in Baunsuni , Boudh by YCDA, Odisha with the support of CIAI, Kids Right, SKN, Netherland & Edukan foundation. The objective of the programme is to create a platform for the children to show their potentiality. More than 500 children were participated in various events during the programme. During the programme children played a role play focusing on Swatch Bharat Mission. The programme was inaugurated by guest of honour ABEO-Dasaratha Meher & Secretary Mr. Rajendra Meher, Vice President- Mr. Sadananda Mishra from YCDA and other children representatives from District Children Alliance. After the inauguration session the guests deliver the message to the floor. In his enlighten speech they appreciated that this festival is the good platform to get gather from different school and to discover the talent within them in an innovative mode.Children festival is especially for children where the children ensure the Right of participation. The whole events was organized and presented by children only. The festival is unique in its celebration of cultural diversity with a spectacular non-stop entertainment program performed by the children from different blocks of Boudh district.

Family strengthening:

Family strengthening is the major part to bring sustainable changes of the foster family and child. The social worker visits the family regularly and in order to strengthen the capacity of the families helps to avail the benefit from govt. schemes. During the period 45 nos. of families have been linked in IAY, Old age, Widow Pension schemes, CWWB and availed it. For family strengthening programme YCDA provide revolving fund support to run the income generation activities. During the period 35 nos. of families have been supported by revolving fund for income generating activities like Vegetable cultivation, Vendoring, Poultry, Puja shop, Rice processing, Grocery shop etc. which can allow the families to earn additional income. Staffs visit to the family and giving the hand holding support for taking forward the Income generation activities and bank linkages for the socio economic development of the families. It also generates interest on the savings for the children.

                              Thanks to support Us & Full fills Our Wishes…

                                                  Thanks to GlobalGiving

• YCDA Report on Foster Care for 100 Orphan Children (PDF)