Support Family-based Care for Children in Ghana

Dear community,

Time flies and as we are experiencing the peak of the rainy season in the Northern Regions of Ghana currently, it is also time for BRAVEAURORA’s 2nd quarter report of 2021. A lot has been achieved within this period again and we are delighted to take you on the journey with us and see what steps have been made to provide children with protected lives in family settings.

This quarter, we want to start with a story of Dali. Dali was one of three children, who with the support of BRAVEAURORA and the Department of Social Welfare, were reunified with their families in June 2021. After a life of around 10 years in the orphanage, they are now finally able to live in their communities and with their families again. For Dali, like many children, the reunification was an event she anticipated with mixed feelings. There was on the one hand her excitement of getting to know her family and being close to them and on the other hand many insecurities and fears. Some of the main challenges for Dali were that in the residential home she grew up being Christian and spoke a language different from her family’s. So, when she started to live with her family again, she first felt alienated and as a stranger in the mid of her own relatives. However now two months later through regular psychosocial counselling and support, Dali is settling well with her family again. When our social worker visited her the last time, she was amazed by how warm and welcoming the relationship between Dali and her family has become and Dali’s smile is proving that she is very happy to be back home. The story of Dali how important the continuous support of social workers are during the reintegration process. Even though, a lot has been achieved already, when children are being reunified with their families, it is key that the support doesn’t end there. BRAVEAURORA together with the Department of Social Welfare ensure through regular monitoring visits that the needs of the children are being met. In order to make more stories like that of Dali come true, we are tirelessly working together with the Department of Social Welfare on encouraging residential homes to shift towards family-based care and supporting them in the process. This means mainly a lot of technical support in terms of providing them with the necessary knowledge and tools and also in awareness creation.

This quarter therefore we visited the regional Department of Social Welfare office in Wa and collaborated with them in monitoring several homes in the region in order to provide quality assurance, as well as further promoting the transitioning of the homes into family-based care. Besides that, as part of the Foster Care Program, assessment were conducted in 4 homes in two of the Northern regions of Ghana together with the Head of the Foster Care Service Unit of the Department of Social Welfare National Office. The purpose of these visits was also to monitor the progress in the transitioning toward family-based care as well as assessing the possibility for Foster Care Placements, if the reunification into their families of origins is not possible.

You may ask yourself how the story of the Mama Laadi Children’s Home continued this quarter? After we signed a memorandum of understanding within the last quarter, in which they committed to the transition to family-based care, we used this quarter to provide training to the staff. We trained them on the necessary steps, tools and documentation processes within the reintegration process based on the Standard Operating Procedures for Child Protection and Family Welfare. This quarter, a lot of focus was on the collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare and active promotion of family-based-care in the residential homes. Reflecting on it, we are very proud, what steps could be achieved again within this time. Steps that would not be possible without the endless strength of our team and all our supporters.

Successful events like the reintegration of Dali keep us moving and fighting for family-based care day in day out. We are grateful that you are by our side to celebrate this success with us and we are looking forward to everything that still awaits us on this journey- until we hear each other again- keep in mind- small moves- big change.