Training sessions with MIDES operators

Continuing the technical cooperation that RELAF carries out together with UNICEF Panama, on July 13th, we conducted a training session with technicians from MIDES Panama.

It was aimed at operators from Red de Oportunidades, the Centro de Orientación y Atención Integral (COAI, Comprehensive Guidance and Care Center) and the Dirección de Servicios de Protección Social (Directorate of Social Protection Services) and focused on the strengthening of families of origin. Specifically, the model for the prevention of family separation was introduced and two questionnaires on information gathering were applied. These questionnaires’ aim is to diagnose the conditions of the country in order to develop a strategy for the prevention of family separation that can use our model as reference.

Regarding the technical cooperation that we’ve been undertaking with the Panamanian civil society, we are providing continuity to the work agendas planned with SOS Children’s Villages Colón, Hogar Malambo and Ciudad del Niño. With SOS Children’s Villages Colón we continue working on the bond between the children housed in the facilities and their families of origin. Hogar Malambo continues its efforts to deinstitutionalise 25% of the children currently residing there, as planned. With regard to the project with Ciudad del Niño, Daily Support programmes  have been strengthened, and it is expected that 15 children will be deinstitutionalised by the end of 2016. In turn, we are working together to systematise their programmes in a field manual.

The deinstitutionalisation pilot programme at Casa Hogar Soná continues. A great outcome of the pilot, the organisation is developing systematisation documents and guidelines for deinstitutionalisation processes in order to project a DI policy nationwide.