PANAMA: END OF THE 2015-2016 PROJECT AND ACTIVITIES FOR 2017

During November, RELAF and UNICEF Panama carried out the second Meeting for the Strengthening of Local Protection in Santiago de Veraguas, an activity within SENNIAF's working plan. Other organisations participated in the activity in addition to the SENNIAF team, including the Children's Court of Veraguas, MIDES Panama, MINSA, MIVIOT, MITRADEL, the First Lady's Office and representatives from the Children's Police. The activity aimed at strengthening the local protection system, focusing on interinstitutional coordination in order to protect and guarantee the right of children to family life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last of three workshops planned with children and adolescents from Hogar San José Malambo, Ciudad del Niño and SOS Children's Villages Colón was also conducted. These workshops were carried out within the framework of the reform and deinstitutionalisation processes led by these three NGOs. The participation of children in said processes is essential to achieve these objectives.

We are glad to let you know that many of the children with whom we have worked during this year spent the holidays with their families. In addition, in the cases that presented appropriate conditions, many of these children stayed living with their families after the holidays, thus having their right to family life restored. We expect that these family reintegrations are a good augury for many other children deprived of parental care in Panama and the region.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December saw the closure of our project in Panama. RELAF carried out an evaluation agenda with the key actors of the child protection system, from organisations such as SENNIAF, the Monitoring and Support Committee for Deinstitutionalisation, and with our partner, UNICEF Panama.

On the 5th, RELAF and UNICEF Panama held a closing meeting with Yazmín Cárdenas, Director of SENNIAF, to evaluate the actions taken during the cooperation and to present its results and products. The pilot test conducted in Casa Hogar Soná brought results and lessons to be projected onto national policies. The knowledge gathered during the pilot test has been put together into a "Systematisation report". This report was presented in the meeting along with the Foster Care Protocol, the Actuation Circuits (that aim to put the reforms and adaptations into effect) and the Financial Report (that shows the dimension of the expenditure in alternative care and compares it with the investment in the prevention of separation and abandonment). Both the Actuation Circuits and the Foster Care Protocol were validated by SENNIAF's technical teams during workshops carried out to present and improve the documents. It is important to note that SENNIAF requested support from RELAF for the application of the tools during 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In turn, on December 6 a meeting was held with the Monitoring and Support Committee for Deinstitutionalisation. Teams from several organisations took part, such as RELAF, UNICEF Panama, SENNIAF, the Children's Court (represented by the Court President's assistant), the National Network to Support Children and Adolescents (Red Nacional de Apoyo a la Niñez y Adolescencia en Panamá, REDNANIAP), Ciudad del Niño, Hogar Malambo, SOS Children's Villages Colón and Clamor de Corazón. During the meeting, the work developed in 2016 was evaluated and new lines of action were projected for 2017, bolstering the commitment to keep on working towards deinstitutionalisation and towards the creation of foster care programmes.

On December 7, a meeting was held with UNICEF's Representative in Panama, Ms. Kyngsun Kim, UNICEF's Child Protection Officer, Ms. Sara Rodríguez, and with consultant Andrea Lopresti, in order to close the work done during the year and evaluate the cooperation between the organisation and RELAF. UNICEF positively evaluated the cooperation and considers that, jointly with RELAF, it has been able to make progress in the creation of conditions to support the projection of a national deinstitutionalisation policy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this important meeting, we held a working session at Ciudad del Niño, where we also evaluated our cooperation with the civil society in 2016 and discussed new actions for 2017. This meeting saw the participation of the RELAF team (represented by Matilde Luna, Federico Kapustiansky and Krysthel Lokan), Andrea Lopresti, and Mr. Fortunato Peirotén (Director of Ciudad del Niño) and his working team.