WORKING ON ALTERNATIVE CARE WITH CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS

In August, we continued with our agenda of technical cooperation between RELAF, UNICEF Ecuador and the Ecuadorian civil society.

In this regard and within the technical support we provide to the Network for the Right to Family and Community Life in Ecuador, on August 15, a work meeting was held at the premises of SOS Villages Ecuador to build the family component of the alternative report that the civil society will present before the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Furthermore, we gave the first two workshops for the technical and operational staff at Hogar Para Sus Niños Fhc on the 24th and 31st of August, in Quito.

Both workshops revolved around the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (http://relaf.org/material.html), using a participatory (exhibition-discussion) and practical (analysis of cases) methodology.

On the afternoon of August 31, we held the first workshop for children aged between 3 and 6 years old at Hogar Para Sus Niños. For this workshop, we designed a specific methodology which included the use of puppets and playing material. This made it possible to address the issue of the right to family and community life with children of those ages.

Continuing our agenda with the civil society, on September 5 we met in Guayaquil with the technical team of the Meritorious Society for the Protection of Children (Benemérita Sociedad Protectora de la Infancia) at Hogar Inés Chambers, to work on models of alternative care as well as to strengthen the activities of the Ecuadorian Network for the Right to Family and Community Life.