ZAMBIA
Child care systems
are in a crisis, says Mwewa
Child and youth care systems in the
country are in crisis, Project Concern International NGO affiliate
manager Louis Mwewa said yesterday.
Mwewa also indicated that some of the children who have been on the
streets for a long time have now become street parents.
Presenting a paper at National Social Welfare Policy Review workshop
at Garden House Hotel yesterday, Mwewa said the child and youth care
system in the country was in desperate need of reform.
He said the situation called for an urgent transformation of the
sector to make it responsive to the needs of the children and
youths.
“There is a dire need to begin the transformation of the sector. We
need to know who is the custodian of the policy pertaining to the
welfare of children at risk, who is in charge of supervision and
accreditation, and the finalisation of standards will go a long
way,” Mwewa said.
Mwewa hoped that the crisis would
encourage people to change the system at all levels throughout the
country, and that the leadership of the process to that change would
be based on inter-ministerial representation.
Mwewa said there was an urgent need to explore leadership in the
child sector at both government and NGO levels to direct the issues
of street children and other vulnerable groups in the country.
He added that since the issue of street children was first noticed
14 years ago, some youths now looked after their fellow children on
the streets, where they had now formed families.
Mcdonald
Chipenzi
8 April 2005
