Helping Children Grow Up In Loving Families

Often donors, stakeholders, and orphanage directors fail to ask, “What happens to all of the children when funding dries up or leaders decide they no longer want to run a children’s home?”

In addition to managing the cases of children in Foster Care and our Family of Origin as First Priority (FOR-1) programs, we were called upon by the government and partner organizations to help with the reintegration of many children from orphanages. Children’s homes run by a specific organization were suddenly shut down without funding. Although children are there for a myriad of reasons - mostly poverty - they cannot simply be returned to their families without proper vetting and planning.

Each case needs to be evaluated. Each child needs security and safe attachment, especially after feeling abandoned and having familial bonds broken.

It’s one of the reasons we believe placing children in orphanages should only occur when all other possible options are exhausted and should be re-evaluated by case managers regularly, with safe family being the ultimate and final goal.

While we hate seeing children’s worlds upended suddenly, we are grateful for our professional experience and expertise to assist in their reunification.

In addition to reintegration support, for the past four months, our staff have managed the cases of 132 children in both Foster Care and our FOR-1 programs.

Since domestic adoption became legal again in 2018, we have worked closely with many of our foster families to legally adopt their children. In the past six months, five children in our programs were adopted and their cases were closed after monitoring to ensure success for the long term.

Because permanency for children is near to our heart, our staff and the ministry overseeing child protection put on a two-day workshop for local leaders, government officials, police, and other stakeholders called “Permanency Planning Implementation through Domestic Adoption.” 54 participants attended to better understand the implementation of domestic adoption, following the social work procedure, the “Role and Responsibilities” of government stakeholders from national to sub-nation levels, and the “Process of Domestic Adoption.”

It is one thing to create laws, it is another to implement them well with positive outcomes for children and their families. It is exciting to see the communities we serve grow in their capacity to keep children safe and allow them to grow up in healthy and loving families.

Your support helped make this possible. Not only does your donation impact the children in our care now, it makes positive changes to protect and provide for vulnerable children in the future. 

Five years ago, Children In Families (CIF) enrolled Ratha*’s family in our FOR-1 program when a local church shared that his struggling, widowed mother needed support and guidance. The church and village leaders were concerned because they often heard her screaming at her children. Additionally, the boys did not attend school regularly.

After an assessment, it was clear she was overwhelmed. Her grief and other problems left her with little energy to parent or work. This compounded the issues of caring for her boys, who ran wild and were experiencing their own grief.

As our social workers listened to her problems and helped her gain perspective on her strengths, they taught her healthier forms of discipline and boundaries with her children. Receiving a monthly stipend lifted her financial burden, making it easier for her to return to work since she had hope for the future. Just having others walk alongside her gave her greater capacity.

For several years with CIF support, Ratha's mother diligently worked at the garment factory, but her long hours took her away from home for much of the day. So, in 2023, she asked CIF to help her start a small grocery and drink shop at her home. In the past, she had experience running a store and understood profit margins and saving.

CIF gladly gave her a few hundred dollars in seed money, having seen the growth in her work ethic and parenting.  Soon her business was earning a profit and she found other ways, like saving recycling, to earn more income.

Ratha’s been doing well at school and teachers say he is well-behaved. The local leader lives nearby and continues to monitor the family. He said, “What I am happy about the most is that - before the mother frequently committed violence and scolded the children loudly – but she has changed now. She no longer does that but replaced it [yelling] with good words and encouragement for the children.”

As CIF prepares to close the family’s case because they are doing well, Ratha’s mother shared, “I absolutely see changes in our family since we have CIF working with us. Before, we faced food shortages and lived in poor conditions… I was disappointed, hopeless in life, and nearly committed suicide because I was not able to feed or get my children medical treatment when they were sick. [CIF’s support] released my big burden during difficult circumstances.”

Because of donors like you, families like Ratha’s can have hope for a future and healthy means to parent and earn income. Thank you for your support of our work!