DURING JULY, THE PILOT TEST CONTINUED MAKING PROGRESS.

During July, representatives of RELAF, UNICEF and SENAME held meetings in Santiago de Chile during three working days. In this opportunity, the coordination team was composed by Soledad Larraín and Lorena Valdebenito (UNICEF); Ana Cáceres, Alicia Grandon and Flora Vivanco (SENAME); and Leticia Rodríguez (RELAF, Paraguay). They first held a meeting in order to review the agenda, share their expectations and organise the logistics.

During the second day, a Seminar was conducted in the Ministry of Justice and Labor with the participation of over sixty people who work at residential care facilities and foster care programmes. The subjects that were dealt with were the situations of family separation and alternative care measures, among others. The opening activity was led by Ana Cáceres. Afterwards, Soledad Larraín presented the Pilot Test and Leticia Rodríguez developed the issues that were to be discussed.

In this framework, there was an enriching debate that allowed the participants to reflect on the implementation of the Foster care programmes, the consequences of institutionalisation, and the difficulties in working with children and adolescents that have been separated from their families. Also, the subjects of the characteristics that a foster family should have, the strategies to recruit them, and their supervision and assistance were discussed, and the obstacles for the cooperation between the professionals of the technical teams and the Judiciary were identified.

Later, the representatives from RELAF, UNICEF and SENAME visited the Foster Care Programme of “Adra”, one of the NGOs that participate in the pilot test. The professionals of the technical team analyzed their working modalities and their future challenges, among them the development of strategies to recruit foster families. Concrete actions were planned and agreed on in order to overcome this difficulty.

The following morning, there was a visit to the children’s home “Casa Santa Catalina”, which is the other organization that hosts the Pilot Test. There, a revision of the current working practices took place together with its staff. In this context, the advantages of foster care were highlighted, and the changes that the working routine and approach should go through in the future were discussed. One of the issues raised by the staff of the Home was that of the challenges that arise in working with authorities of other spheres when making decisions for the life of children.

Finally, during the afternoon, a workshop was carried out with the participation of all actors involved in the Pilot Test: RELAF, SENAME, UNICEF, Adra and Casa Santa Catalina. During the activity, the participants shared their impressions regarding all the work done during the visit.