Govt Announces Closure of All Children’s Homes and Orphanages in Kenya
The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection has announced its intention to terminate all of the country’s children’s homes.
Saturday, Florence Bore, Cabinet Secretary for Social Protection, announced while meeting with Staff and Children at the Child Welfare Society of Kenya Temporary Place of Safety.
The secretary of state proclaimed that this was part of the government’s Deinstitutionalization of Children program.
Some individuals, according to the CS, were using the children’s homes to indulge in human trafficking.
“Deinstitutionalisation of Children is the process of reforming child care systems and closing down of orphanages and children’s homes and in place finding suitable homely placements for vulnerable children and support them in non-institutional ways,” Bore explained how the program would work.
In the new program, foster homes will be identified by the government and placed with destitute or rescued children.
Most countries in the globe have embraced the concept of foster parents, which has proven to be more successful than children’s homes, according to CS.
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“This process is being hailed as Children can thrive best when raised in at best in a home,” she explained the rationale behind shutting down the homes.
She added that transitory places of safety provide a secure environment for rehabilitation while the government continues the reintegration procedure.
The government announced in November 2022 that it would phase out children’s homes and orphanages to return children to their families and community-based care.
By the Care Reform Strategy, the government has stated that this will be completed over a 10-year period.
“Kenya is a signatory to the United Nations (UN) Convention and Protocols on the rights of children and coupled with local laws, family and community remain the best alternative for child upbringing. This new Children’s Act supports the rights of children to grow up in families and communities,” Assistant Director in charge of Care and Reform at the Directorate of Children’s Services Jane Munuhe stated then.
Govt Announces Closure of All Children’s Homes and Orphanages in Kenya