Overall targets
Children should not be separated from their parents and community. This project contributes to the vision that all children have a right to a family and a right to education. The project advocates for the deinstitutionalization of children by assisting in the development of alternative, contextual solutions and educational services.
Immediate targets
1. Design a comprehensive plan for the deinstitutionalization of children in residential facilities at primary school level who have been separated from their families and communities. The plan will harmonize with national and local legislation. 2.Strengthen rural municipalities, so as to assure the effective implementation of national child protection and inclusive policies. 3.Ensure parental participation and effective school-community partnerships.
Target groups
Children with disabilities living at residential facilities, their parents and communities. Local municipalities National policy makers INGOs and NGOs working within the field of child protection and education Local primary schools and the public at large.
Resume
In a historic move, the United Nations General Assembly selected ‘Children without parental Care’ as the theme for the ‘Rights of the Child’ resolution for 2019. The resolution gives guidance to all organizations and stakeholders involved in child protection to unite and work around priorities which help to ensure that every child can grow up in a caring family. Children who are poor are more likely to become disabled through poor healthcare, malnutrition, lack of access to clean water and basic sanitation. The present project is twofold, on the one hand it seeks to reunite or find sustainable solutions for children with disabilities who were separated from their parents, communities and placed in residential facilities, some as far back as the 1990’s. Often referred to as “The Forgotten Children”, conditions at these sites are reported to be deficient, not even meeting the basic needs of children. The second focus of the project is to assist people with disabilities, their families, communities and state duty bearers in the development of local inclusive educational strategies whereby children with disabilities can remain in their families and receive education - thus fulfilling the parental rights and educational rights of children with disabilities