ZAMBIAN VIEW

Concept of foster homes

Growing up without a parent is not something anybody would want to experience because every child needs the protection and guidance of an adult when growing up.

The reasons why children grow up without their parents are many, some parents have died from HIV/AIDS and other related illnesses while some cannot simply afford to look after the children and abandon or neglect them.
And it is for this reason that organisations the world over came with the concept of foster homes and foster parents.
This is not a new development and in Zambia, there are a number of foster homes, one of them being the SOS Children's Village.
Foster care is the temporary placement of children and youth with families outside their own home due to child abuse or neglect. The goal is to provide a safe, stable, nurturing environment.
A foster parent is a person who cares for children/youth who are in their custody, children and youth who have entered the foster care system.
Foster parents care for children and are willing and able to provide care and nurturing for the duration of the child's stay in foster care.
Foster parents are asked to complete an application, submit to home assessments and attend training.

The SOS Zambia Children's Village was formed in 1999, with a view to providing a home for vulnerable children.
Currently, there are three SOS children villages in the country, the main one being in Lusaka and one in Kitwe and the third in North-Western Province.
SOS Children's Village director Myers Hachibone Mudenda says the foster homes at the village comprise of a mother, an auntie and 12 children.
Mudenda says these children are not biologically related to the mothers.
“They came through the social welfare department under the Ministry of Community Development and Social Welfare. The department goes around the orphanages and check if there is space for children. These children may be orphaned, abandoned, or vulnerable in cases of children with terminally ill parents,” he says.
He says after the children are identified, the SOS village social worker checks these children in the homes because some may not be telling the truth.
He says children are admitted to the village after their circumstances are thoroughly checked.
“We admit children from a day old to 10 years. This becomes their home, when they are old enough to be self-reliant, we de-link them from the village. When they want to get married, we help them because we are their parents.
There are currently 190 children at the Lusaka SOS children's village and there are 150 children at the Kitwe village,” he says.

Mudenda says the children at the village are not for adoption because the village adopts the children.
He explains the process of adoption.
“Like any normal adoption, the process is cumbersome. We fill in the documentation and we surrender this to the social welfare department to get a court order. Our social worker stands in court and says we want to put the child in the care of SOS. We actually have official documentation for each individual child,” he says.
He says the village gets requests from people to adopt the children but the answer is always 'no'.
He says they allow people to adopt the children from the village but not taking them from the village.
Mudenda says before the mother can take up the role of a foster parent, she has to undergo training in various skills.
“They are trained in psychology, and how to deal with children from different backgrounds. The issue of OVCs is a time-bomb because the number of children in need is expanding,” he says.
“We have also looked at the possibility of relationships on the village but we tell these children that they are a family and relationships are not allowed in the village. We talk to them about HIV and pregnancies because the oldest boy is 21 years,” he says.

And one mother Tabitha Paseli who runs one of the 12 foster homes says fostering is not like any other job, but a calling from God.
“I have always wanted to do charity work. I am a widow and I have eight children, my last one is doing Grade 12. I stay with the children 24 hours a day, so basically my life is here. In my home, there are 12 children, eight girls and four boys but in some homes, it's eight boys and four girls,” she says.
Paseli says as a foster mother, she does not encounter a lot of problems with her children because before taking up the job, the mothers undergo a two year training programme.
She says she teaches the children how to cook and house chores and guides them.
She says like any other home, there are rules to be followed.
“The youngest child in the house was only five weeks when he was brought here and now he is five years old because I have been here for six years. Each house is given an allowance and we sit down as a family and plan for the month. We have a timetable of what we are going to eat everyday,” she says.
Paseli says if the children do something wrong, she sits them down and talks to them but the mothers are not allowed to beat or scream at the children.

Paseli says when the children turn 16 depending on the maturity of the child, they are moved to a youth facility, which is headed by a youth leader.
“There are two youth facilities, one for girls and another for boys but if the child's stay shows signs of immaturity, they stay at the homes with the mothers,” she says.
She says in cases of children coming from the same family, they are put in one home.
One of the children, Gladys Kwema, 15, a grade seven pupil and a double orphan says she went to the village in 2000 and she finds the place amazing.
Gladys says she feels sorry for the numerous children on the streets because they do not have the free things she can get like food and shelter.
“We fight in the house and sometimes we even stop talking to each other but it is better than living on the streets. I am an orphan and I used to stay with my aunt on the Copperbelt but she could not manage to take us to school,” she says.
Her young brother who also stays at the village, ten-year-old Simon Kwema, a grade five pupil, says the village is a good place as it has taught him a lot of things.
“I have learnt how to respect elders and be polite,” he says.
Thelma Nswana, 15, a grade nine pupil who stays in the girl's youth facility says she has been taught a lot of things.
Indeed, organisations that have the capacity to deal with the increasing number of OVC should take up the challenge.

An example has already been set.

Masuzyo Chakwe
28 August 2005

 

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