NECESSARY CHANGES IN THE CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM

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.