Alternative Care for Orphans and Vulnerable children OVC

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Alternative Care for Orphans and Vulnerable
children (OVC)

• Navajeevan Bala Bhavan, Vijayawada

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Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

• 275km north-east of Hyderabad
• Travel hub largest railway junction in the
  South Central section of the Indian Railways
• Industrial city agro-based industries and
  automobile based industries
• Nearly 3,000 street children
• Every day, between 7-25 new children

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Navajeevan Bala Bavan

• Salesians of Don Bosco invited to open a shelter
  for street children by Municipal Corporation of
  Vijayawada in 1989.
• Shelter inaugurated in 1990, closes due to
  political opposition in 1992.
• Salesians continue to work with street-children
  and project revived in 1993.

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Navajeevan Bala Bhavan

• Support and rehabilitation for street children
  and other young people in difficult circumstances
• Support on the street Street Presence Project
• Temporary shelter
• 24-hour Drop-In Shelter
• Two Night Shelters

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Residential Re-orientation Camps

• For street boys
• Prerana (below 10 years)
• Velugu (between 11 and 14 years)
• Vimukti (between 15 and 18 years)
• For other vulnerable children (e.g. child
  laborers)
• Sethu for girls
• Mettu for boys

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Residential Support

• Chiguru childrens village
• Navajeevan Yuva Bhavan
• Navajeevan Vruthy Bhavan
• Vimukthi De-Addiction Program
• Group homes

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Vocational Training

• Vocational Training Centre, Vijayawada
• Vocational Training Centre, Autonagar

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Support Services

• Navajeevan Infirmary
• Counseling Project
• Home Integration Project
• Day Bridge School for Child Laborers

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Group care

• Part of the compendium of residential care
  solutions
• Started in 1994
• Group of 10 children with a set of foster parents
• No drop-outs from this batch all well-adjusted
  contributing citizens

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NBB strong motivation/resolution for Home
re-integration

• Navajeevan strongly believes in the value of the
  dictum there is no place like home
• As of today, NBB has given shelter to 31,538
  children, of these 15,539 have been rejoined
  with their families as on 8-02-2009

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Children in Group Care at Chiguru
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Cottage 2 at Chiguru
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Cottage 3 at Chiguru
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Children mothers, Chiguru
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Children in ten Group care Mogga (Bud) centers -
currently
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(No Transcript)
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Children in Foster Care
Master Prem Raj
Baby Durga
Baby Nirmala
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Process in Foster Care

• Foster Care in NBB is being implemented
  following the latest Juvenile Justice Act 2000/06
• Approval is sought from the Child Welfare
  Committee (CWC) of the district CWC conducts
  enquiry prospective family.., the child.. gets
  report ..declares the family Fit Personpasses
  order
• Two full time staff have been appointed for
  identifying Foster Parents
• To date 85 families have been contacted and 10
  families are ready to foster care
• Of those children in various rehabilitation
  centers between 5-12 years, there are 45 boys and
  28 girls, who are orphans and need foster parents

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Rationale

• Children leave homes because of abusive or
  unhappy situations
• Need loving care and attention to offset early
  negative experience
• Street experience makes it difficult to fit in
  with regimentation of hostels
• group situation because of dearth of suitable
  care parents

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Replication of model

• Success of first experiment led to replication
• Number of children with each set of care parents
  varied from 10 to 16.
• Total number of children served through this
  model 112
• Total number of care Parents are 9 couples and 1
  care mother

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Replication of model

• In one exceptional case, 27 young people with one
  set of care parents
• These young people were older than 14 and in
  vocational training
• Other children students at various schools
• Less than 5 drop out in the entire experiment

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Current status of model

• Currently, 112 children in group care
• 9 sets of care parents and 1 care mother
• 9 to 10 children per couple, 13 children with
  care mother
• 2 girl children in foster care
• 1 boy attached to a family (psychological support)

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Support systems (Financial)

• Rs. 650 per child per month for food expenses
• House rent paid by NBB
• Stationery, books, clothing and medical expenses
  met by NBB through care parents

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Support systems (Technical)

• Regular follow-up home visits by Fr. Michael,
  trained counselor and psychologist and the
  counseling team members
• Regular meetings with the care parents once in
  two months
• Quarterly trainings by the counselors

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Challenges

• Difficulties in finding sets of care parents
• Trained care parents leave in the middle of the
  school year
• Trained care parents are not sustained for
  significant length of time
• Not easy to find willing and suitable foster
  parents
• Lobby with the Gov. for a more proactive approach
  to foster care JJ Rules (AP)

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Planned Sustenance aspects

• Currently NBB is not receiving any support from a
  donor agency towards Alternative Care. NBB
  looks forward to that
• NBB has already initiated the process of finding
  sponsorship for the children and in this regard,
  NBB needs to intensify efforts.

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The way forward

• Increase efforts to motivate people to become
  foster parents or care parents
• Appoint more full time staff to identify
  interested families for foster care
• Convinced of the value of the experience and move
  more vigorously in this line
• Study the Rajasthan model (18k children in FC),
  propose it to state Govt.

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Thank You!