Panama: technical cooperation activities and advances regarding the Study on institutionalised childhood

Between October 22 and 26, Matilde Luna (Project leader of RELAF) and Mónica Tarducci (researcher and member of RELAF’s research team) carried out activities as part of the cooperation agreement between UNICEF and RELAF, more specifically, the production of the Report on Institutionalised Childhood. The activities, as coordinated by UNICEF and SENNIAF (National Secretariat of Childhood), encompass the aims of improving the living conditions of those children without parental care who reside in residential care institutions and of assisting in the implementation of community- and family-based care alternatives.

The Seminar-Workshop “Foster Care as an exercise of alternative care for the protection of children’s rights” was coordinated by RELAF representatives and included the participation of professionals from the judicial branch, technicians and decision-makers from SENNIAF and representatives from non-governmental organisations. It allowed them to reflect on and revise the current practices, taking into account the friendly versions of the Guidelines as a conceptual framework.

In addition to this, in order to gather information for the Report on Discrimination, visits to the residential care institutions “Ofrece un hogar”, “Metro amigo”, “Ciudad del niño” and “San José de Malambo” were conducted. This was carried out in order to get to know the locations and work modalities and to allow meetings with their directors, operators and children to be held. Also, in relation to the Study on Institutionalised Childhood, the promotion of the “Study on the Current State of the Rights of Children Living in Residential Care Institutions Without Parental Care” was -and still is- vital. This Report has been strengthened by the People’s Ombudsman of Panama with the cooperation of the UN Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund and UNICEF.

Finally, important meetings of a different caliber were held with local counterparts: with Rosaria Corea (local expert); Jennie Barb (consultant for the research and production of the Protocol and Handbook for the assistance of children without parental care in residential care institutions); and Roderick Chaverry (referent of the civil society in this country). In addition, meetings were held and interviews were conducted with SENNIAF for the analysis, evaluation and drawing of conclusions on the activities, to identify the most worrying issues that would require certain practices to be altered or eradicated, as well as on potential improvements needed to accomplish the rights of children deprived of parental care.

Next, you can have access to materials of interest about this country, the Study on the current state of the rights of children deprived of parental care, and the Protocol and Handbook for the assistance of children without parental care in residential care institutions:

Study

Protocol

Handbook