Chapter 13 - Children in need of special protection - Children's ...

554An example of this is Kwasha Mukwenu 49 (help your friend), an interdenominational communitybasedNGO run entirely by volunteers who each contribute at least 4 hours a day to the project.The group’s main programme is the identification, care and support of orphaned children. Eachmember is responsible for identifying children in need in their neighbourhood, and for acting asa caretaker parent to 3-5 families of orphans. On identifying orphans the initial response is toattempt to place the children within their extended family. If this is not possible, children areplaced in institutions or left in their homes under the supervision of a member of KwashaMukwenu. Each caretaker parent will visit her orphan families on a daily basis and ensure thatthey have adequate shelter, food, clothing and health care, and are attending school and haveaccess to adult attention.· Foster careTraditional models of foster care entail the placement of one or more children in a familysetting under the care of a foster parent or parents. This placement may follow a formal legalprocess with ongoing supervision of the child by a social worker and the payment of a grant tothe foster parent(s), or it may be an informal arrangement with no monitoring or financial aid.The vast majority of informal foster placements occur as private arrangements within familiesfollowing the abandonment or orphaning of one or more children. 50The major advantage of formal and informal foster care lies in the placement of the child within afamily environment. Problems experienced are those which may potentially arise for any child insurrogate care, and include exploitation and abuse. This applies both to formal and informal, aswell as intra- and extra-familial placements. In theory, the provision for monitoring by a socialworker of formal placements should facilitate early intervention to protect the child should theseproblems occur. The reality is that large case loads, transport problems and poor motivationresult in only some placements being monitored. There may therefore in practice be littledifference between formal and informal placements as regards ensuring the ongoing well-beingof the children concerned – however, the availability of financial assistance in court-orderedarrangements allows at least for basic material provision for the child.4950Kamanga P, “A Case Study of Kwasha Mukwenu: A CINDI Programme in Urban Lusaka, Zambia” inCommunity Based AIDS Prevention and Care in Africa: Building on Local Initiatives. CaseStudies from Five African Countries The Population Council, 1997, 29-33.Models of Care for Children in Distress and Responses to Orphaned Children: A Review of the CurrentSituation in the Copperbelt and Southern Provinces of Zambia.