BHUBANESWAR: SOS Children’s Villages of India (SOSCVI), the largest child care NGO in the country which provides alternative care to children who have lost or are at the risk of losing parental care, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with District Child Protection Unit, Sundargarh, Odisha for designing and implementing Kinship Care Programme for 50 children, who have lost parental care due to COVID-19, in and around the district of Sundargarh.
Kinship care refers to the care of children by relatives or extended family members. SOS Children’s Villages of India (SOSCVI) has over five decades of experience in providing Family Like Care to children who have lost parental care.
As a technical partner, SOSCVI will help the District Child Protection Unit of Sundargarh in designing the Kinship Care Programme.
And, as an implementing agency, the NGO will impart the caregivers (foster parents from extended biological families or the next of kin) with parenting and child safeguarding skills necessary for them to provide quality care while upholding rights of the children. SOS Children’s Villages of India’s Kinship Care Progarmme facilitates long term care to children till they become self-reliant.
The MoU was signed by Nikhil Pawan Kalyan, I.A.S., District Magistrate and Collector, Sundargarh, in the presence of Sribanta Jena, Child Protection Officer, Sundargarh and Ms Pravati Dei, Assistant Village Director -Incharge SOS Children’s Village-Rourkela.
Upon the successful completion of the programme in Sundargarh District, this partnership with SOSCVI will be extended to take up similar programmes in other districts.
Commenting about the partnership, Sumanta Kar, Secretary General, SOS Children’s Villages of India, said, “It is a great privilege and an opportunity to serve the children of Odisha by reaching out to them with a rights-based Kinship Care solution. Our interventions are designed to safeguard the right of every parentless child to grow up in a familiar environment by supporting and strengthening the capability and income, thereby facilitating parental care among the extended biological or next of kin families, so that they can provide care, nutrition, health and education, till the child attains adulthood.”
In his comments, Nikhil Pawan Kalyan, I.A.S., District Magistrate and Collector, Sundargarh, said, “We are highly pleased with the tremendous work of SOS Children’s Village Rourkela. Having a partner with a lot of expertise gives us the confidence that the Sundargarh Kinship Care Programme will meet all criteria of success. We are committed to continuing our association with SOSCVI to fulfill the rights of children in the State.”
As per the agreement, Sundargarh district administration will identify children who need kinship care and will come up with a list of potential caregivers. SOSCVI will contribute to the selection of caregivers, and map the capacity building needs of caregivers, train them, and place the children with them.
The NGO will also provide a mentor to every child and the family taking care of the child. It will facilitate in the school admission of the children and arrange for supplementary educational support. There will be a house visit by the SOSCVI staff every month.
The caregivers will also get follow-up training twice a year. SOSCVI will assess and monitor the overall progress made by the programme once in 4 months, and suggest course corrections if needed.
The MoU also envisages setting up of a monitoring committee comprising District Child Protection Officer, District Education Officer, District Social Welfare Officer, and an SOSCVI representative, to review the progress against predetermined key performance indicators and document the experiences.
