At SOS Children’s Villages, we operate in the best interests of each child. It’s widely recognised that a safe and secure family is the best possible place for a child to grow up. But we know this isn’t always possible. Sometimes children don‘t have parents or other close relatives to care for them, or families can become unable to care for their children, temporarily or permanently.
When this is the case, SOS Children’s Villages provides a safe, loving, family-like home for children, so they grow up with the relationships they need to thrive.
Ultimately, we aim to reunite children with their biological families, when safe and possible to do so.
In recent months, in two locations in particular, Basse in The Gambia and Chipata in Zambia, we’ve been focusing on providing extra support to families and communities. As part of our work to strengthen families, we’ve been working to reunify more children with their biological parents or find alternative forms of care, such as kinship or foster care in the community.
Kinship care is where a member of the child’s extended family, such as an older sibling or grandparent, takes care of the child, a very normal situation around the world.
As a colleague from SOS Children’s Villages Zambia told us: “Kinship care is a common practice that can be built on, supported, and strengthened to prevent child separation from their families. When asked how many of the participants take care of children other than their biological children, over half raised their hands.”
A good example is nine-year-old John, who recently moved from SOS Children’s Villages in Chipata to be reunited with his biological sister. His sister’s living situation has improved so she’s now able to provide a good home for him and his siblings. John has previously spent holidays with her and is happy about the move. The SOS Children’s Villages team spent time preparing him, his sister, and the wider community where he’ll be living, for the change and visit him regularly to ensure he’s settling in well.
Learning from many other examples around the world, and after many years working in SOS Children’s Villages in Chipata and Basse, we’ve been able to bring more children like John and their extended families back together.
The process of reintegration is managed carefully. We collaborate with relevant authorities and involve social workers, educators and other childcare specialists. This includes preparing children and young people, their families and the wider community prior to reuniting the children and supporting them afterwards with ongoing contact and follow-up visits by social workers.
Children who can’t be reunited with family members continue living happily in their SOS Children’s Villages families, but increasingly we’re looking to integrate these into communities.
We’re working more closely with families and communities to provide the support they need. This support can include financial help and advice, work training or skills development, parental guidance, and mentoring. We continue to contribute until we’re sure the family can manage on their own again.
This means we can ensure fewer children lose parental care in the first place and can help even more children and families.
