THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The unique Sanatha Balyam project - under which orphaned, destitute and abused kids are adopted during vacation time by families - is all set to be extended to private orphanages in the capital district. The project, which was inaugurated in March this year, had placed 28 children with 17 families in the district. But these children were from the three government-run welfare homes in the capital, including the Nirbhaya Home for sexually abused girls.
Now, the District Child Protection Unit is in the process of sensitising private orphanages to let their children be adopted by willing families. As a first step, these orphanages have to be registered under the Juvenile Justice Act. Private orphanages have long resisted attempts to get them registered under the Act. Nonetheless, 30 of the 97 private orphanages have submitted applications to be registered under the JJ Act. A two-day workshop was conducted for the heads of these 30 private orphanages last week.
“As part of our documentation process, we had collected the foster care experiences recorded by the 17 families during the summer vacation. There were psychological issues the parents had to grapple with while dealing with the adopted kids. However, in the end it was found that the adopted kids became emotionally attached to the families,” said Subair K.K, the district child protection officer.
At least five of the children who had been placed in foster care during March will return to these families during Onam vacation. In some cases, the care-providing families had gone out in search of the parents of their adopted kid. In one case, the father was found. But he had remarried and was not keen to taken on the child. But his sister, who did not have a child, was happy to accept her brother’s child. Mr Subair said it was not hard to find willing families if orphanages are willing to let their children be adopted temporarily. Last March, 73 families had expressed willingness.
