According to the Standard News paper,the Catholic church has joined the list of stakeholders supporting the plan to phase out Charitable Children’s Institutions (CCIs) and transition children to family-based and community care.
Archbishop Martin Kivuva(outgoing chairperson of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB)), said the Catholic church embraced the new law under the National Care Reform Strategy in Kenya after overwhelming scientific evidence showed that institutions are not good for children’s growth.
He also criticized some people who run children’s homes for using them to make money instead of caring for the children. These “briefcase children’s homes” and fraudulent fundraising efforts harm the children they claim to help.
The government-led National Care Reform Strategy for Children in Kenya seeks to phase out all children homes in a 10-year plan that runs from 2022-2032.
Their idea is to remove more than 45, 000 vulnerable children and orphans from the commonly known children’s homes and reunite them with their families and communities before the 2032 deadline.
The church welcomes and embraces this idea because many institutions do not provide a proper environment for a child to thrive unlike in a family set-up.
Studies, including those by UNICEF, show that most children in institutions actually have family members who could care for them if given the right support.
Written by: Benedetta Muema
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