So what have I been doing at HFHK????

Now that you are all well educated in deinstitutionalisation.... I’m going to attempt to summarise what I have done in the last couple of weeks to assist the process... so here goes:

My initial induction to the organization was to become and expert through research on deinistituionalisation in the context of children’s residential centres (often misguidedly called “orphanages” or “children’s homes”- as they are rarely filled with actual orphans as the children will have one or more living parents, and they are definitely not a home environment.)

From this research I realized a more comprehensive data gathering and monitoring system needed to be created for the children in the centres already associated with HFHK so we can continue the deinstitutionalisation process with these children as it has already started with a couple of pilot projects.

(A pilot project example: These boys previously lived in Sahara Children's Centre and now live as housemates. Initially supported by a mentor who case managed this alternative care, however they are all living independently, and attending higher education, with minimal support from HFHK.)

So a component of my role has been to assist with the development of this data gathering system. Another Australian volunteer, Gemma, who arrived here before I did has created the information system data base by which monitoring and evaluation will also be stored and updated. Currently there are three data bases, one for the children, one for the staff/volunteers and one for donors. 

My role in the creation of an information gathering process primarily relates to the child data. The children concerned are those who are still in the two homes associated with HFHK, and also those we are receiving referrals for in regards to our preventative program. 

(An example of a rural family that HFHK has supported so this young girl did not end up institutionalised and separated from her parents.)

So far it is difficult to comprehend the process by which both quantitative and qualitative data will be gathered and stored as there are many barriers to overcome (which I'm sure to highlight in future posts). Ideally, a consistent template will be created by which all demographic data, physical health histories, mental and social welfare histories, education histories, family histories (genograms) would be stored in a manner that can be easily updated and monitored during the reintegration process. Some of this information we already have for the children in the homes, some is missing and will have to be gathered. 
More importantly though for the eventual evaluation of the deinstituionalisation project is the gathering and recording of the actual needs of the child ie: The reasons they ended up in the children's centre in the first place. This information is more difficult to obtain, especially for the children who have been institutionalised for a majority of their life. Examples (by no means an exhaustive list) of the reasons children end up in the residential homes are: Poverty ie: the family misguidedly believes the child will get basic needs met in centres, actual death of one or more parents, abandonment at birth (for a variety of reasons: gender, disability, unwanted), and one of the most disturbing and common reasons is that a child centre (under the guise of an “orphanage”) is often created by an ill-intentioned person and poaches children from villages. They tell the parents that the child will be better off in the institution where they will get needs met. When in reality it is someone exploiting the children in many ways, usually to get money form well intentioned tourists. Here in Pokhara this is rampant as it is a tourist haven, being the trecking mecca and a lot of tourists want to do a stint ‘helping’ the children, not really knowing that they are enabling a corrupt, money making middle man. They have essentially taken children from their parents in order to pocket the money tourists come and contribute. It is a real problem here in Nepal.

Anyway, back to my job…

Surprisingly from my research of deinstitutionalisation case examples, mainly through central Asia and Africa, information systems rarely recorded the needs that the services intended on meeting. I intend on creating a best practice system of gathering the information on how and why the children ended up in these institutions, in order to mould the process of meeting that need by finding the most appropriate form of family based care, back in the community.
Keeping data gathering focused on the primary need of the child will ensure the evaluation post deinstitutionalisation in Nepal remains accurate and quantifiable.

We will see how this all goes…