Family Preservation
Children develop best in caring families…families strengthen in vibrant communities … communities secure the future through their children.
References & Research
Funding Haitian Orphanages at the Cost of Children’s Rights (Lumos Report)
"Orphanage-based care is not in the best interest of children. Even with the best quality care in an orphanage, young adults struggle to live independently upon leaving care, facing unemployment, lack of housing, and are often unable to afford to finish school."
In Our Lifetime How donors can end the institutionalization of children (Lumos)
"Outcomes for children in institutions are extremely poor, yet paying for a child to live in an institution is significantly more expensive in most cases than supporting a child to live at home with their family."
Strengthening Family Care (Better Care Network)
The separation of children from their families can result from many causes, including the death of one or both parents, abandonment, displacement due to armed conflict, trafficking, or simply the inability or unwillingness of the family to provide care.
Whole Children, Whole Haiti (Bethany Christian Services)
Those working to change policy and strengthen IBESR have patience and a strong vision for a realistic, achievable future for Haiti. They are building capacity, accompaniment, and planting seeds of change.
Haiti: out of 757 houses for children, only 35 meet the standards (October 12, 2018)
“The Institute of Social Welfare and Research goes to war against childcare centers and orphanages that operate outside pre-established standards. "There are a large number of children who are regularly victims of sexual abuse and physical abuse," denounces the director of IBESR Arielle Jeanty Vildrouin.”
Family-Based Care: A Better Way for Children than Orphanages -
(August 4, 2017)
The effort involves messaging on two fronts: ... getting the word out to families that they may have better options to allow them to love and nurture their children than sending them to an institution for food, shelter and education.
... helping private donors realize that they can make a difference in children’s lives by financially supporting healthier and more cost-effective child care options than institutions, Senefeld said.
Ten Years Later: Lumos Foundation’s Push into Global Child Welfare - The Chronicle of Social Change
(March 24, 2016)
“Could they be helping to do economic strengthening with those families so those families can keep their children?”
Lumos has been meeting with the government of Haiti, which has now established a national action plan to get children out of institutions and to establish community-based services.
Changing the Way We Care
“Donors who support orphanages care about children in need. We do, too. By redirecting valuable philanthropy toward keeping children in families instead of orphanages, we can support more children and keep more families together, with less money.”
