The tragedy that took place at Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción on March 8, 2017, was not an isolated case but a result of the Guatemalan child protection system, which constantly violates the rights of children and which is deeply rooted in the country. Since the catastrophe, RELAF has provided the necessary technical and humanitarian support in order to accomplish a profound reform of the country's child protection system.

In this context, the Guatemalan government found the need to produce a Model for the Alternative Care of Children and Adolescents. This model will include all the indispensable standards in order to carry out its implementation and to mobilise the actors, as well as guidelines for the trainings. To develop the project, many international and national organisations and entities cooperated jointly, such as UNICEF Guatemala, Chemonics International USAID, the local government (representatives and high authorities from the Federal Attorney's Office), the Secretariat of Social Welfare (SBS), the National Adoption Council, Buckner Guatemala, SOS Children's Villages Guatemala and Viva Juntos por la Niñez. Actors from the healthcare services, from the educational system and from the Judiciary also contributed during the process.

Matilde Luna, with collaboration from Pilar Ramírez and Anuar Quesille, prepared the technical tools to diagnose the situation of institutionalised children in the country, as well as the Model for the alternative care in institutional and family contexts and the recommendations for its application.

The work done included intense fieldwork and monthly schedules with multi-level activities: with the children, with the technical teams, and with the high-level decision-makers. In this sense, many key actors from the Judiciary, the administrative power, the civil society, the Federal Attorney's Office, the SBS, etc., were mobilised and sensitised towards change. This was accomplished due to a revision of everything that was being done in the country regarding childcare followed by an analysis of what should have been done instead, which revealed severe flaws in the actions taken and unveiled the chain of decisions that ended up with a great number of children in institutions.

As a result, a strong commitment by the local actors was achieved: they accepted that it was their own decisions that were leading to the massive confinement of children.

All documents produced (Diagnosis, Model and Recommendations) are available to all high-level decision-makers and we expect to continue supporting their implementation during the next year.

Working for the creation of a comprehensive national child care and protection system

From May 30 to June 4, a joint work schedule took place in Guatemala between UNICEF Guatemala, Hope and Homes for Children, CHEMONICS, RELAF, the Secretariat of Social Welfare of the Presidency, the Guatemalan Federal Attorney’s office, the Judiciary, the National Adoption Council, civil society organisations, and private Guatemalan residential institutions.

The activities aimed at providing technical support to the improvements in the Foster Care Programmes and at scheduling many meetings and discussion groups on Foster Care, standards for residential care, deinstitutionalisation strategies, and parental care strengthening, among others.

Likewise, from RELAF we supported the diffusion of the foster families recruitment carried out during April and May by the Secretariat of Social Welfare along with the organisations Refugio de la Niñez, Buckner Guatemala, and SOS Children’s Villages Guatemala. All the calls had a great turnout, gathering almost 100 people amongst all workshops. These people are currently in the evaluation stage.

To conclude, we would like to share with you this piece of information from a local newspaper on the foster care programme of the Secretariat of Social Welfare. We will continue to inform you on the progresses achieved and challenges found in the country, which still has a long way to go in order to guarantee the implementation of a comprehensive child protection system that does not violate the rights of its children.

In the frame of an agenda of activities in Guatemala, Matilde Luna met with Silvia Palomo, Secretary of Social Welfare. During the meeting, the Secretary explained to the project leader the important advances made in childhood policies under her direction: a greater level of financial assistance for families, a widening of the coverage of the Secretariat into the interior of the country and areas which were not previously included, among others.

However, in respect to the provision of alternative care in the country, the Hogar Solidario (see note “Visit to the Hogar Solidario”) continues to hold a huge number of children and adolescents from all over the country. This situation is particularly worrying to RELAF, given that this state initiative goes against what we are working for in our region: deinstitutionalisation and the closure of large-scale institutions.

From RELAF, we have expressed our concern to the authorities and we trust that the work coordinated by all local Guatemalan actors can lead to the creation of another system, in which the prevention of separation of children from their families can be achieved and appropriate alternative care can be provided to those who need it.

Visit to the Hogar Solidario

RELAF visited the Hogar Solidario, a state-run large-scale institution that depends on the Secretariat of Social Welfare and whose characteristics are those of a true institution: isolation, ‘shutting in’, the deprivation of freedom. All of this, while keeping in mind that the children and adolescents housed there do not have any kind of insertion within the community: their lives take place “indoors”, as access to services such as healthcare, education, recreation, etc., all take place inside the institution. This means the panorama comes to be truly worrying.

Hogas Solidario currently houses a total of 774 children and adolescents between the ages of 0 and 18 years. The admission of babies is of special concern: there are 17 babies up to the age of 6 months. The number of children under the age of 6 is to worry as well (there are 204 children younger than 6 and 55 younger than 3). These groups of children require special types of care and stimulation that these for their integral development.

RELAF values the effort and the dedication of the professionals working there, but we must express once again, as we have done in other circumstances, our unhappiness in finding programmes in our region which work in contrast to what RELAF is promoting: deinstitutionalisation and the provision of alternative care to guarantee the right of all Latin American children to live in a family and community.

Articulation/coordination roundtable on Foster Care

RELAF was present in the panel of the articulation roundtable on foster care, made up of the Secretariat of Social Welfare, Buckner Guatemala and Refugio de la Niñez. The formation of this panel was one of the recommendations sent by Matilde Luna in the consultancy carried out in October 2010 for UNICEF Guatemala, in which an evaluation of the Substitute Families Programme took place. Today, the panel is established and working well.

The three organisations are working in unison. Despite still having certain aims they focus on, the three programmes are making important advances in the establishment and consolidation of foster care in Guatemala: these are being positioned as trustworthy and transparent pilot programmes, are doing a good job strengthening the family unit and preventing separations and are experiencing good outcomes with foster care in extended families.

Meeting with Alejandra Vásquez, Director of the IPS in UNICEF

The RELAF team met with Alejandra Vásquez, Director of the IPS, and with Dora Alicia Muñoz (UNICEF Guatemala). The IPS is a non-governmental organisation that works to investigate, prevent and provide juridical help to victims of sexual violence.

The IPS works in Huehuetenango, Sololá and Guatemala City. It is part of the Social Movement and is accompanied by CEJIL, the High Commission of Human Rights and the National Panel on Migrations, dividing the country into 3 regions.

In the meeting, Alejandra Vásquez expressed her concern about the situation of children and adolescents in institutions. Since the ban of international adoptions, there has been a lack of financing in such institutions, as the majority of funds came from foreign donors interested in sustaining these sectors due to the fact that they were the link between the foreign adoptive families and the Guatemalan children. As international adoption is now closed, children’s homes have stopped being of such interest to donors and the situation in which the children there are living is, in many cases, extremely poor.

Facing the next elections in Guatemala and concerned about this and other aspects of the politics, a group of NGOs has created a minimal agenda of childhood and adolescence to be submitted to the candidates. The development of family-based alternative care is one of the priorities, together with the necessity of having skilled, qualified human resources in the whole child protection system, among other aspects.

RELAF shared the friendly versions of the Guidelines with Alejandra Vásquez. She positively valued the benefits these materials can bring in preventing the separation of children from their families and in strengthening the childcare abilities of the extended family, two aspects that today are being broadcast in a campaign to raise awareness in Quiché and Spanish.

The challenges Guatemala faces in the future are multiple. Firstly, to accomplish that the government set aside more resources for foster care programmes, as today the shortage of resources, both human and material, is seen as an obstacle. On the other hand, the lack of foster families is also an aspect that needs to be improved, along with the extending of the time-frame in which families can apply for a child. The delays by the Federal Attorney’s Office and in the development of the court hearings are two aspects which favour the long stays of children in alternative care, and this needs to be reverted. The main threat is the illegality and the lack of transparency which affects all institutions and their processes in the country. It is for this reason that a ‘double standard’ can be identified, also in the practice of foster care: some families are subjected to exhaustive evaluations, preparation and monitoring, while others receive children directly through the courts. Finally, in relation to the Regulations of the Substitute Families Programmes, the production of standards to provide assistance to children has begun. The intention of these standards is to achieve a better childcare, using a rights-based approach.

During October and November 2010, RELAF worked in Guatemala alongside local organisations in order to understand, reflect on and think of the future of alternative care in the country.

The social, economic and political context is worrying and affects the Guatemalan families and children. The country presents many years of political conflicts that have left severe consequences, criminal violence that is absorbing more and more children and youngsters (the so-called “maras”), migration in highly dangerous conditions, and natural disasters. 1600 people under 18 years of age have disappeared during the current year; most of them, in the departments that border Mexico. There is a lack of transparency and a preponderance of crime and corruption: a great deal of work is being undertaken in order to stop the massive emigration of children under “international adoptions”, when it is actually child trafficking.

This is the background in which both the public and private organisations that work to protect the rights of children try to fulfil their missions.

At RELAF, we value and recognise the efforts done by the people and organisations working in Guatemala. However, we must express our concern due to the paths taken regarding the provision of alternative care. The opening of the “Hogar Solidario”, institution that houses almost 700 children aged between 0 and 18, is of worry and goes against the work we intend to carry out in Latin America. Hogar Solidario is an extremely expensive, total institution: that is, it is isolated –placed in a difficult-to-access location-, it has high walls, security cameras inside its wards… In it, there is nothing that reminds of the individualisation, autonomy, stimulation and development of children. This, combined with the “hunting” of children in the streets (hunting that, ironically, is called “rescue”), represents the paradigm of what must stop being done.

We trust that the authorities will prepare different and better answers to the issue, that the society will become involved in the care of children and in their social integration, and that NGOs will continue to contribute in the humanisation of families and children in situations of extreme vulnerability.

Evaluation of the Substitute Families Programme

During October and November, technical cooperation activities propelled by the UNICEF Office were carried out. A programme of Substitute Families is being developed in this Central American country and is currently going through revision for its improvement.

UNICEF cooperation with the government and different organisations of that country led to the planning of different activities, and Matilde Luna was invited to participate in them as an expert. María Sánchez Brizuela, RELAF’s Referent for Integral Management, also participated and contributed with her presence and by presenting the resources of the network as an option to get to know, exchange, improve and strengthen the Guatemalan experiences.

An intense working agenda of meetings and interviews was fulfilled, while promoting the identification and removal of obstacles by NGO’s local actors and governmental institutions, and the strong points to boost the growth and improvement of the Substitute Families Programme, as well as other options of foster care, in Guatemala.

Academic Activity

Together with Landívar University, UNICEF Guatemala currently promotes the specialisation and training of human resources in alternative care with a human rights approach. In order to achieve this, a Diplomate Degree is given; this is a postgraduate course attended by a heterogeneous group of professionals that work and have responsibilities in different areas of the system: the judiciary, administrative bodies and NGOs. In this context, Matilde Luna gave a Seminar on foster care, which she presented from a conceptual and practical point of view. In addition, tools of concrete intervention to develop and strengthen the practice were analysed based on the Latin American and Guatemalan context. According to the orientation of this Diplomate Degree, it is expected that the pupils will develop concrete proposals for the prevention and provision of alternative care in their institutions.

Visit to Refugio de la Niñez, Guatemala

As part of the working agenda. a visit to the offices of Refugio de la Niñez was made, where a meeting with the working team and authorities of the organisation was held.

Refugio de la Niñez currently has four programmes (legal, protection and shelter, family strengthening and prevention and incidence), to which a Foster Care programme will be added. It has UNICEF’s cooperation in this initiative. The aim is to recruit 30 foster families in the course of 2011. In this sense, RELAF shared the material to raise awareness and call for families, so that it can be used in the community.

Refugio made a presentation during the 2010 RELAF Seminar, sensitising those who were able to get to know the hard social context of Guatemalan childhood and the results of its work thanks to this presentation (which is available on our web site).

Meetings with non-governmental organizations

Among other objectives, these meetings aimed at getting to know the NGOs that have started to work in foster care or that are potential executors, as well as analysing the situation of childhood in alternative care from the point of view of Movimiento Social (a movement that works to defend the rights of children). All the organisations showed their calls to advocate for the rights of children and have an effect in the practices that aim at protecting childhood.

The following entities that assist children without parental care and intend to strengthen families and communities took part: SOS Children’s Villages, Buckner, Refugio de la Niñez, Nuestros Ahijados and Camino Seguro. Its representatives shared with one another the advances in the development of the practices, the obstacles and future prospects. Each organization shared its experiences with the group, and several strategies were considered, including how to articulate between them and how to continuously share their learning so as to have an effect on public policies. The burden of the assistance provided to children without parental care falls on them. For instance, among the more than 5500 children that are in different kinds of institutions, 4900 are in homes of NGOs that have no support from the state and that mainly rely on the support of donors from other countries.

Movimiento Social is made up of 89 non-governmental organisations that work in the field of children’s rights. Its coordinator as well as representatives from the Association Viva Juntos por la Niñez, Fudaespro, the Embassy of France, Asosepredi and IPS participated in the meeting.

During the meetings, the worry for the extended practice of institutionalisation was expressed, together with the existence of institutions with a large number of children in Guatemala. One of them, Hogar Solidario, houses almost 700 children ranging from the first days of life to 18 years old.

RELAF shared this concern based not only on the conceptual conviction that this institutional model is not a good care alternative, but also based on the results of the visit to this large-scale institution. Among other issues, it was seen that there are 200 children under the age of 6, and, among them, 140 are under the age of 3. The deterioration in the development of children caused by institutionalisation is soon revealed: signs that result from the deprivation of appropriate care were seen.

In addition to this, attendees shared their concern for the practice of the so-called “rescues” (“rescates”). By carrying out operations on the streets, governmental operators search for children that are on the streets in survival activities, even those who are with their mothers. In fact, some of them beg for money, sell small objects or are used in situations of exploitation. All of them suffer the same fate: they are captured and then taken to the centers of internment.

The NGOs shared their concern and their interest to contribute with better answers that include respect for the protection of Human Rights.

 
Visit to Asociación Nuestros Ahijados in Antigua, Guatemala
 
This organisation has worked in Antigua for the last twenty years. Its contribution stands out due to the important community work they carry out. In their seat, there is a school for children in situation of poverty and a health center that provides clinical, pediatric and dental care. This community comprehensive health service is complemented with workshops and meetings with families of the community from a preventive approach. The organization has a soup kitchen and provides food for the families in order to improve the conditions of development of the children within their families.

Besides these programmes, which have a strong orientation to community and family strengthening, Nuestros Ahijados has a foster care project. It currently has almost 20 foster families, which were accredited by the Substitute Families Programme of the Secretariat of Social Welfare, based on the agreement signed between them.

RELAF had the opportunity to meet one of the families. This experience can be known in the section “Experiences of Foster Care”.

Meeting with Fundación Sobrevivientes in Guatemala
 
This organization, which is managed by Norma Cruz, fights the violence against women and the trafficking of people, including children.

Sobrevivientes has several areas of work. Its teams provide complete assistance for the victims and their relatives: social assistance (heath services, shelter, housing improvement, education and labor exchanges), psychological assistance, legal assistance (civil branch and criminal branch to prosecute the attacker and to ensure that the victims can access the judiciary system), systematisation (elaboration of research and protocols) and incidence and sensitisation campaigns. According to its 2009 report, in that year 16,090 assistances were carried out.

As regards the right to community- and family-based care, Norma Cruz said that, in the case of children who have become orphans after the loss of their mothers due to violence, work is carried out with the extended family so that they can responsibly care for these children, avoiding unnecessary institutionalisation. In this sense, besides the direct assistance to the child, the accompaniment and supervision of the extended family is fundamental in these kinds of cases. To achieve this, they also work with the Family Courts, allowing uncles, aunts or grandparents to have the legal custody of the children.

In this way, we got to involve ourselves in a very valuable experience that, among other resources, turns to the foster care of children in their extended families in the context of very critical situations of social violence.

Workshop Seminar on "Alternatives of protection for vulnerated Childhood and Adolescence" and work meetings.

In the framework of the cooperation that the RELAF Project Leader has been carrying out with different Guatemalan actors since 2006, the work agenda of activities in Guatemala City, which included a Seminar and several meetings with key actors who work to protect children’s rights, was fulfilled. The agenda was set by the UNICEF local office, and Justo Solórzano and Dora Alicia Muñoz were the persons of reference from the international office.

On September 9 and 10, a Training Workshop was carried out aimed at governmental organizations (Secretariat of Social Welfare, National Adoptions Council, Federal Attorney’s Office, and Courts) and non-governmental organisations (Movimiento Social, Refugio de la Niñez, SOS Children’s Villages, Buckner, el Refugio de la Niñez, IPS). More than 40 people took part in the activity: psychologists and employees of the courts and judges from the capital and the provinces, as well as psychologists and social workers of the governmental organisations and NGOs mentioned above. The speakers were Christina Baglietto, Raquel Morales, Jessica Zabala and Matilde Luna.

The urgent need to have local resources for the protection of children without parental care was expressed. Among the dilemmas or obstacles for the implementation of foster care in Guatemala, the participants highlighted the following:

• There are difficulties in finding substitute families (this is how foster families are named in Guatemala); the government programme is inadequate.

• There is a high number of institutionalised children, although the exact number is unknown. The participants said institutionalisation is the main option they had.

• They described the long stays and the regular-to-bad conditions of institutionalised children.

• They recognised the good work of some institutions, such as SOS Children’s Villages.

• They said they found difficulties to achieve the transitory condition of substitute families programmes when this is a possibility.

• They made many questions about the children’s time of stay, the payment for the families, the trainings, and so on. These questions rose from the presentation of Latin American experiences.

• They pointed out that special attention must be paid to distinguish foster care situations that can lead to adoption in order to differentiate between the two practices.

After the Seminar an agenda of meetings on the ground with technicians and authorities of governmental organizations was fulfilled and meetings with key actors were also carried out. The RELAF Project Leader held meetings with the Secretary of Social Welfare, Lic. Silvia Palomo, the Director of the Substitute Families Programme of the Secretariat, Víctor Reyes, and the directors of the organizations Aso, Seprodi, DEMOS and Buckner: Antonio Coolen, Edgar Ramírez, Anabella Rivera and Leslie Chase, respectively. The meeting with Alejandra Vázquez, distinguished member of RELAF and an activist for the rights of Guatemalan children was also very meaningful.

A brief evaluation, taking into account the situation described in this article: Guatemalan people and the international community must continue to join efforts in order to protect and restore the rights of Guatemalan children. We found technicians with a good academic background in this country who are committed to the proper development of children and who need support to fulfil their vocation and ethical commitment to their fellow countrymen.

The challenge to comply with the right to family-based care of Guatemalan children is considerable. The existence of enormous social and political difficulties is an obstacle for the development of childhood: the president has just declared a “state of calamity” due to the high level of children malnutrition, among other issues. Besides, there are other aspects mentioned in the other articles of this section. In this context, a group of families gathered together by the government programme “Substitute Families” of the Secretariat of Social Welfare, coordinated by Víctor Reyes, managed to foster some children deprived of parental care.

We want to introduce you to the Estupiñán-López Family. Its foster mother is Claudia; its foster father, Venicio; and their child is Diego. They kindly foster Sandra Marina while her definitive situation is being legally evaluated: reintegration into her family of origin or integration in an adoptive family. This family opened its doors and was pleased to share its experience with us.

We had the opportunity to meet the family along with social worker Marta Pixtún (she is the one holding the girl in the picture) and UNICEF professional Dora Alicia Muñoz, which provides technical cooperation for the programme. Due to the National Holiday, the whole family was together at home. Sandra is very outgoing and looks healthy after having started at a disadvantage: she was given to the family to be taken care of by the court, since she was “alone” in the hospital and her health condition was critical. Claudia is effective in her temporary role; she feels important in the life of this little girl and is recognises that she has given her the care that will enable her to have a better future. Venicio, a fireman, was the one who initially responded to the call for families made from the government programme. Diego is like Sandra’s older brother: he takes care of her and offers her new games, standing by her while she discovers the world around her. All of them think of the girl’s arrival as a blessing, and they anticipate how difficult it will be to say goodbye. However, their conviction of being a “substitute family” allows them to transmit firmly what they consider to be their mission: providing Sandra with the opportunity of having a family as well as being a “bridge” so that this girl can grow healthy, strong, sensitive, and communicative. Very good training and professional support from the team can be recognised in the family.

We have been told more foster families are needed, applying the criteria of the temporary nature of the role, giving children the opportunity to live in a family while governmental entities decide definitive solutions for all children deprived of parental care. Showing their expressive faces is better than describing the bonds established between this foster family and the girl, and between her and the professional responsible for the monitoring.

The roundtable on foster care is composed by the Secretariat of Social Welfare (SBS), Buckner Guatemala and Refugio de la Niñez. This formation had been one of the recommendations expressed by Matilde Luna in the consultancy carried out in October 2010 for UNICEF Guatemala, during which an evaluation of the Substitute Families Programme had been made. Today, the roundtable is solid and is working.

All three organisations are working jointly, in coordination with one another. Although the casuistry is still limited, all three programmes are advancing in the establishment and consolidation of foster care in Guatemala: they are starting to position themselves as reliable, transparent pilot programmes, they are doing good efforts to strengthen families and prevent separations, and they are carrying out strong experiences of foster care in extended family.

Contact information:

Refugio de la Niñez
11 Avenida 16-40 zona 1. Guatemala City. Guatemala, C.A. 01001 
(502) 2253-7976
comunicacion@elrefugiodelaninez.org.gt
www.refugiodelaninez.org.gt

Buckner Guatemala
www.buckner.org/locations/lamerica-guatemala.shtml