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]]>The study, ‘More Autonomy, More Rights’, captures the experiences of 100 young people who have already left or are preparing to leave care in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. The youngsters share the challenges they face and underline the urgent need for overall care reform in the region. This new survey also includes interviews with child care and protection system professionals in each country
One young male care leaver in Bolivia told the researchers, “When you leave the institution, they support you for a while. After that, you feel alone. It’s like they forget you.”
“You’ll figure out, my dear, how to move on”, staff told another teenager, when she asked what would happen to her when she left the institution. But “In my case, I had no one, absolutely nothing… I had spent so many years in there”, she remembers.
“These courageous and often forgotten children, adolescents and young people have shared the challenges they face”
The research confirms that the preparation for leaving care doesn’t exist or comes too late for young people who have spent time in residential facilities across Latin America. The decision to discharge youngsters from formal child protection systems is based on age alone. It doesn’t matter whether an individual teenager wants to leave an institution or feels prepared to live independently. Paradoxically, this arbitrary cut-off point is the only certainty that the system offers for children.
“Nobody told me anything… I just knew it. When the girls turned 18, they were gone”
“This research is important as it brings the voices of care leavers across Latin America to the fore”, says Victoria Olarte, Regional Director of Hope and Homes for Children in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“These courageous and often forgotten children, adolescents and young people have shared the challenges they face. Their evidence highlights the serious need for a gradual shift from an institution-based model of care-towards a system that strengthens families and provides family and community-based solutions for all children,” she confirms.
As one care leaver in Mexico told the researchers, “I entered the institution when I was 11 months old, I mean, I was a baby. Nobody told me anything… when I was growing up, they didn’t tell me anything either, I just knew it. When the girls turned 18, they were gone.”
The study was led by Doncel and the Latin American Care Leavers Network, with support from Hope and Homes for Children and Unicef LACRO, and includes recommendations to assist governments in Latin America to support care leavers as well as measures to support child protection reform as a whole in the region.
To build on the findings of ‘More Autonomy, More Rights’, the researchers will present their main findings and recommendations in a webinar via Zoom on Thursday, 6 August 2020,10:00 Mexico/16:00 BST. During the event, young people from the Latin American Network of Care Leavers will share further insights on their own experiences, the support they value most and the renewed challenges imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic. Register online or follow the event live at Centre for Solidarity and Philanthropy and Doncel’s networks.
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]]>The post World must wake up to dangers of orphanage care after deadly Guatemalan institution fire appeared first on Hope and Homes for Children.
]]>Wednesday’s blaze at the government-run Hogar Seguro Virgen de Asuncion institution in San Jose Pinula, is reported to have started after young residents rioted, in an attempt to escape the overcrowded conditions.
The latest reports say that 35 girls died in the fire and a further 23 children remain in hospital.
There have been widespread allegations of abuse and neglect at the facility, near Guatemala City.
The institution has an official capacity of 500, but as many as 900 children were believed to be living there at the time of the fire.
Experts estimate 240,000 children are living in orphanages and other insititutions across Latin America and the Caribbean. Worldwide, the number is estimated to be more than 8 million. About 80 per cent of these children have living parents who, with the right support, could provide a safe and loving home for their children.
Alongside its partners in Latin America and the Caribbean, we’re calling for the urgent reform of child protection systems across the region.
“The fire at the Virgen de Asuncion institution is an appalling event and we extend our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the victims. When large numbers of children are warehoused in orphanages, they are put at a higher risk of abuse and neglect. This was a wholly avoidable tragedy.”.
Victoria Martin, Hope and Homes for Children’s Regional Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean
Many orphanages across Latin America are run as businesses, where children are used as commodities. The more children are confined to an orphanage, the more money the orphanage owners receive from the state and private donors. Donating to orphanages, and volunteering in them, can perpetuate these immoral businesses.
Victoria added: “Orphanages are never a solution and evidence proves that children are always better off in loving, stable families.
“Orphanage-care is dangerous and the world must wake up to this.
Governments must direct funding away from orphanage-care, and towards supporting families to stay together.
There can be no more excuses.
To add your voice to the global movement to end orphanage-care, please share this news story or the statement issued by UNICEF.
This article was originally published in 2017, in the wake of the tragedy. Read our updated blog post Reflections on Guatemala for a fuller account of how we can better safeguard our most vulnerable children.
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