Families in Nyamira County have been advised to embrace foster care to enhance the care and protection of vulnerable children in their region.
An Assistant Deputy Director (ADD) of Children Services, Ms. Jane Munuhe, stated that the Department of Children Services, in collaboration with other stakeholders handling children’s matters, is fast-tracking the implementation of child rights as enshrined in the Constitution and has elaborated statutory care reforms as detailed in the Children’s Act 2022 to ensure the future generation lives and grows in a conducive and nurturing home-based environment.
‘Foster care or parenting is one of the statutory child care reforms strategically formulated to guide on care and protection for children separated from their families or are at risk of separation to enable these category of vulnerable children to have an opportunity to live and grow in a conducive family setting so that they mature into responsible adults who can also take part in building our country’s economy,’ Ms. Munuhe noted.
The officer pointed out that globally, countries are fast shifting from the former system of caring for children in need of care and protection under the Charitable Children Institutions (CCIs) because, over time, it has been discovered that institutionalized children lacked personalized parental attention, suffered in silence under several forms of abuse causing dwarfed brain development, and lacked practical life skills that would enable them to face the realities of life once they become adults and graduate to the world.
‘It’s against these disturbing and worrying trends that have endeared countries, including Kenya, to seriously focus on alternative care options for children separated from families or at risk of separation, where institutionalizing them should come as the last resort,’ noted Munuhe.
The officer confirmed that they are advising residents to embrace foster care for children who are no longer living with their biological parents because they are likely to face a myriad of challenges.
She further explained that since foster care is temporary, foster parents would have the opportunity to care for, protect, and nurture a child or children in a home-based environment for a short period of time to give that particular child an opportunity to grow in a loving and caring normal home setting.
‘Abandoned children, those who have been separated from parents who have been detained due to their criminal activities, children who have become victims of abuse within the family, lost and found children, those living in unconducive present care environments, and even those children undergoing rehabilitation are some of the categories of children who qualify for foster care,’ the deputy director listed.
Nyanza Regional Director of Children Services Humprey Wandeo said that if foster care is embraced by Nyamira residents, endless court cases of rampant illegal ‘traditional child adoption’ practiced by the Abagusii community would be a thing of the past and would solve the daunting squabble of disinheriting a ‘traditionally adopted child’ in a conflicting family over property inheritance.
He promised that the Department of Children’s Services would lobby for partners to assist them in undertaking rigorous sensitization programmes at the family and community level to empower them and make them aware of the importance of alternative child care reforms.
‘In our sensitization and awareness creation forums, we will encourage families and couples of good will to foster a child who is separated from their families or is at risk of separation to give those children a sense of belonging and identity and make Nyamira County a champion of child care reforms by deinstitutionalizing children for others to benchmark,’ stated Wandeo.
Nyamira County is one of the four counties implementing a child care reform programme to deinstitutionalize children. A collaboration between the government and other support partners are rooting for alternative care options where foster care is a leading option. Other countries implementing child care reforms are Kisimu, Kilifi, and Kiambu.
Source: Kenya News Agency