Admission of a child

The child welfare authorities are always involved in the admission process. Before any child is admitted to FYO, careful and conscientious thought is given as to whether the children's village is the best source of long-term care in each individual case. As a general rule it is assumed that children who move into an FYO home will remain there until they are self-reliant.

This continuity enables the children to form lasting emotional bonds with their new family. At the home, the future FYO mother, the home director and the home psychologist consider how the child can be given the maximum support before he or she moves to their new home. The children already living in the family are carefully prepared for the arrival of their new brother or sister to ensure a harmonious integration process. Wherever possible, the child's parents are involved, and decisions regarding visiting rules and future contacts with the child are made jointly.

The home director has a special role to play in this process. As the mediator between the new arrival and the established FYO families, he ensures that the newcomer is accepted and supported by all concerned. A sensitive response to the child's situation and needs at this time of fundamental change in his or her life is decisive for the child's future development. The home director's other task in this context is to keep a full record of the child's pre-admission biography, listing all the details of his or her origins and background, as well as the developments that finally led to admission.

This information is of great value for making decisions about the child's needs and also to give the child a realistic picture of his or her past as they grow up. Ultimately all these preparatory measures serve the central goal of preparing the child, his or her relatives (wherever possible), the FYO family and the whole community for the process of admission. This in turn helps ensure that the new arrival is given a warm welcome in the home and especially in his or her new FYO family. As we treat this pandemic as a national disaster, the following glaring needs, especially for orphans, are observed:

The need for food supply: Orphans run greater risks of being malnourished and stunted than children who have parents to look after them; food has been found to drop by as much as 40 per cent in families and communities affected by AIDS.

The need for school fees: Children orphaned by AIDS are often the first to be denied education when their extended families cannot afford to educate them. In addition they may be denied schooling because of the stigma and the often irrational fear surrounding AIDS.

The need for clothes and shelter: Orphans in the rural areas inherit stick and mud huts, which from time to time need to be refurbished. The orphans are often very young to do so and the houses fall away leaving the children without shelter.

The need for security: -- especially in "orphan headed families". In most cases, orphans live in dilapidated houses--on the verge of collapse--not fit for human habitation by all standards.

The need for community responsibility: The need for the communities to take it upon themselves to look after their own. Funding: The Membership of FYO is entirely voluntary with funding coming from individual membership subscriptions, general appeals and donations from the; Government, Foundations, Trust funds, Corporations and, Individuals, Institutions, Churches, etc.