TECHNICAL COOPERATION IN GUATEMALA

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.