Family Reunification
Even though we knew our family-like residential care was a lot better than living on the street or in some of the other institutions around we still knew that a real family would still be the best option for our boys.
As the number of boys we worked with increased we started to encounter cases where some did have loving family members wanting to care for them but that for various reasons their family had become separated. Once again we were not prepared to allow such injustice stand - poverty should not be allowed to separate loving families!
On more than one occasion we were able, through special appeals, to purchase property that enabled each family to live together once again.
In response to these situations we also set up a family reunification project to track down the biological families of all the boys in our care, to assess whether there were suitable relatives that could provide a loving family for them too and to put in place whatever tailored solutions would enable the children to transition back into their own loving families.
Sadly family reunification wasn't possible for all our boys but we weren't satisfied that a lifetime in residential care was the best they could hope for.…