BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – SOS Children’s Villages Eswatini in partnership with the Deputy Prime Minister’s office has successfully certified another group of foster parents.
The SOS Children’s Village in collaboration with the DPMO is living up to its promises of providing the needs of children without parental care.
In this regard the duo has officially certified a group of Foster parents.
This comes after successfully launching the Foster Care Programme in the Kingdom of Eswatini, last year with the aim of ensuring effective implementation of the United Nations (UN) Guidelines on Alternative Care and the Eswatini Guidelines on Alternative Care for children (2009).
Since then interested foster parents were taken in for training, and now they have been certified.
In his remarks Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Themba Nhlanganiso Masuku, said from the onset that the country has recognized the need to strengthen its overall alternative care settings for supporting vulnerable children in the country.
Masuku said these alternative care settings are places of safety where children who are in need of care, support, and are without parental care are placed through the department of social welfare.
Masuku highlighted that traditional childcare arrangements have largely broken down over time and that basic needs for survival of orphans and vulnerable children are frequently not met.
He said HIV/AIDS, together with social problems such as poverty and substance abuse, are also contributing to the abandonment, neglect and abuse of children to name but a few, hence the need to ensure the availability of places of safety for children in the country.
“The Kingdom of Eswatini has a number of settings of such places of safety. These amongst others include the residential child care facilities RCCF is traditionally known as orphanages,”
“Eswatini currently has 40 of these RCCF’s that are distributed across the country and accommodate 2 300 vulnerable children. One of these RFFC’s is operated by government through the social welfare department whilst the rest are operated by non-state actors,” he said.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Foster care is the temporary placement of a child who is in need of care and protection.
The child is placed in the care of a suitable person who is not the parent or guardian of the child. In all these instances, the children are placed by a competent authority (Justice System) for the purpose of alternative care by preselected, qualified, approved and supervised State Partners, suited for providing such care.
The Government of Eswatini has taken renewed interest in advocating, securing and promoting the rights of every vulnerable child through a very hands-on and practical National Foster Care Programme.
Foster care can be short term, one week to three months, medium term above three months but less than 6 months) or long term beyond six months.
Long term foster care services can go beyond six months and can last until the child reaches the age of 18. Placement is done on a case-by-case basis, as determined by the principles of Necessity and Suitability, as well as other general principles of alternative care for children (UN Guidelines on Alternative Care for Children (2009); Swaziland Guidelines on Alternative Care (2009).
Foster care can be provided as an emergency response on a short, medium or long term basis. Emergency placement applies when foster parents open their homes and hearts to children affected during an emergency; with foster parents providing a safe and family-like environment for the child/children, while efforts aimed at tracing and reunifying the affected children with the families of origin or next of kin.
Foster care can be voluntarily or involuntarily. Voluntary placement occurs when the biological parent or lawful guardian is unable to care for a child, while involuntary placement occurs when a child is removed from the biological parent or lawful guardian due to risk or actual occurrence of physical or psychological harm. This may also include instances when the biological parent or lawful guardian is unwilling to care for the child or due to neglect.
