The technical cooperation carries on

During the first three months of the year, the technical cooperation between RELAF and UNICEF Panama, along with the participation of local actors, continues the path started two years ago.

 

 

 

The fieldwork stage of the case study that will be made by a team of postgraduate students and experts of the Central European University was carried out during January, within the framework of the joint systematisation and analysis project of the deinstitutionalisation produced by RELAF in Panama alongside UNICEF Panama, the government and the Panamanian civil society.

The research team met with local authorities, such as Yasmín Cárdenas (Director of SENNIAF), Sara Rodríguez (Child Protection Officer for UNICEF Panama), Andrea Lo Presti (Child Protection Advisor for UNICEF Panama), Fortunato Peirotén (Director of Ciudad del Niño NGO), Sor Lourdes Reis Flores (Director of Hogar Malambo NGO) and Ariel Albano (SOS Children's Villages Panama).

All the persons involved showed great disposition to contribute to this evaluation, considering that improving RELAF's methodologies will allow for the establishment of effective mechanisms to carry out regional deinstitutionalisation processes.

In addition to this, the first meeting of the year of the "Monitoring Committee for Deinstitutionalisation" convened by SENNIAF was carried out during March. Its purpose was to provide continuity to the previous meetings made within the framework of the cooperation between UNICEF Panama and RELAF in 2016.

The meeting allowed for a deepening of the institutional adequacy processes that civil society organisations (Ciudad del Niño, Hogar Malambo and SOS Children's Villages Colón) carry out towards deinstitutionalisation. It focused on coordinating, with governmental institutions, the specific attention and support needed for the deinstitutionalisation of children, and on monitoring the situation of the more than 75 children that have already returned to their families. The meeting included the participation of Yasmín Cárdenas (Director of SENNIAF), Krysthel Lokan Rojas (RELAF Panama), Andrea Lo Presti (UNICEF Panama), Fortunato Peirotén (Ciudad del Niño NGO), Sor Lourdes Reis (Hogar Malambo and REDNANIAP) and Ariel Albano (SOS Children's Villages Panama). It also included the participation of representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Office for Childhood of the Panamanian Judiciary Organ, and others.