NGO tackles problem of institutionalised children

Poverty continues to play a major contributory role in the number of children being institutionalised in Tajikistan. Since gaining independence in 1991, an estimated 11,000 children have been placed in 84 state care centres - otherwise known as 'internats' - throughout the mountainous Central Asian state. "The issue of poverty is key to understanding this issue," Nigel Chapman, social work programme director of the German-based NGO, ORA International (Orphans Refugees and Aid) Tajikistan, told IRIN from the capital Dushanbe. And while poverty has not been the only cause of the rise in children's institutionalisation - as there were many poor families who did not place their children in centres - it has nonetheless been cited by parents as a primary reason for placement. "We often find that many families are headed by a lone parent as the other one is in Russia working, whilst the parent left behind to look after the family needs to work and cannot look after the children alone," he said. But it is the dramatic rise in these numbers that has proven most worrying. According to a report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in 2003, since 1998 the number of children institutionalised in Tajikistan rose by 32 percent, an increase largely attributed to economics. Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet republics, with over 83 percent of its population living below the national poverty line, while a full 17 percent of the country's 6.8 million population is considered destitute. Salaries average just US $11 a month, while the minimum wage is a mere $2, figures which make it hard to understand how people survive. According to Chapman, families without extended family support were more at risk of placing children in care. The main factors in placement were poverty; a misunderstanding by parents of actual conditions within the centres - often below those standards found during the Soviet era; the existence of few, if any, mechanisms to supervise the care system and divert children away from the internats; and a lack of creative alternatives either because they do not exist or are not organised effectively - such as referral to family support sources and NGOs, or more focused fostering and adoption procedures. Conditions within the internats are reportedly poor and heavily reliant on foreign aid organisations such as ORA for food and other support for the children. And with the number of children at the centres already far exceeding capacity, the education provided has also dropped. "In one large internat in Dushanbe they accommodate more than 800 children where there was planned space for around 250," Chapman explained, noting many of the older children received only one hour of teaching and the rest of the day were left to themselves. And while generally the physical needs of the children were met in terms of shelter, food and clothing, the systems of care were usually regimented with little attention paid to the child's individual needs. "Children sleep in large dormitories of about 40 beds with few personal possessions allowed." In an effort to mitigate such problems, ORA International Social Work Training Project (SWTP), which has been funded for the last two years by the Asia Development Bank as part of its Social Safety Net Restructuring project with the Tajik government, is almost nearing the end of its first phase. The overall goal of the project has been to address the growing number of children placed in institutional care within the country. The ORA SWTP has been the first of its kind in Tajikistan to look at the issue of deinstitutionalisation (as the area of work is sometimes called) and to promote alternative care options. Chapman noted that the issue was not unique to Tajikistan as every other former Soviet and Eastern bloc state had been dealing with the issue for some time. The issue of deinstitutionalisation, however, was seen as so important that it was placed high on the list of priorities by the Tajik government in its National Plan of Action for Child Protection, he said.