![]() ![]() “if priority populations, including vulnerable children/adolescents, their families and people living with HIV (PLHIV) adopt positive health behaviors, are protected from violence, and are linked to and use high quality, accessible, and comprehensive HIV testing, prevention, care, treatment and mitigation services, then new HIV infections will be prevented and quality of life will be improved.” The program’s activities are designed based on the hypothesis that: PROJECT GOAL: 4Children goal is to mitigate the impact of HIV and prevent new infections among the children in Lilongwe. 4Children draws on global evidence that illustrates that HIV and other adversities are best prevented and addressed when families and children have access to both high quality health and social welfare services. The project is intended to improve health and wellbeing of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) affected by HIV and AIDS and other adversities in 10 Traditional Authorities of Lilongwe. The authors propose ways to ensure child safety, to protect children without parental care by providing high-quality family-based alternatives, and to strengthen systems for the care and protection of children.Coordinating Comprehensive Care for Children (4Children) Malawi is a USAID/ PEPFAR-‐funded consortium of organizations led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with partners Lilongwe Catholic Health Commission Maestral Pact and Plan International. The report calls for child protection systems to gradually redirect funding away from institutions to community-based and family-based programs. "We've seen policies change here as well as some children reintegrated with their families," she said, noting that "there is so much potential for positive change." In Kenya, CRS and its partners worked to strengthen government and civil society to help them address the needs of families with children in institutions, Smith said. Well-intentioned people donate to orphanages with their "support coming from the heart," and this report will help with the understanding "that there are other ways to support children that have better outcomes," she said. The new report gives this issue the attention it deserves, Smith said. The United Nations defines an orphan as a child under 18 who has lost one or both parents.īecause of lack of services and stigma, people often believe that their children with disabilities would be better off in institutions that provide access to schooling such as those run by communities of sisters, Smith said.īut "it's always better for children's development" to be with families, she said. Noting that poverty, illness and disability often influence family decisions, Smith said sometimes "families feel they have no choice but to have their child in institutional care." In Zacapa City, Guatemala, for example, a mother was helped to take home her 10-year-old daughter and four grandchildren after losing them to a public orphanage when it was found that the 10-year-old was caring for the younger children while the mother went out to work.Īna Maria Martinez wanted the children home with her and received the psychosocial and economic help she needed to be able to support and nurture them, Smith said. The report "confirms what we have been saying all along," Smith said, noting that CRS and its partners, Lumos and Maestral International, help support families around the world to keep their children with them and to reunite them with members from institutions. Children can rapidly recover when they are moved into a family environment, although some effects might last into adulthood, it said. Institutions provide suboptimal care and are associated with many developmental delays, the report said. It said the institutionalization of more than 8 million children worldwide should be phased out in favor of family-based care. "Children belong in families, and we work to get this message to everyone," including governments, faith organizations and civil society, Anne Smith, CRS global director for Changing the Way We Care, told Catholic News Service in a June 22 phone interview.Ī two-part report by 22 experts on reforming care for children was published late June 23 in The Lancet Psychiatry and The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journals. CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) - A new report calling for the phasing out of institutionalized care for children confirms what Catholic Relief Services and its partners have been saying for many years, said a CRS director. ![]()
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