I’ve been getting a few questions about what MRO has been up to amid COVID-19. I shared an update a few months ago, you can read it here. Our Family-Based Alternative Care (FBAC) Sector put together a great summary of their recent work and I thought I would share it with you for a few reasons: To give you a glimpse of what care looks like in Cambodia. A sense of how to pray for the team. And to get you thinking about how you can be praying for foster care programs in your home countries that have most likely been impacted by COVID-19 as well. I hope you enjoy learning about the various activities MRO is involved in, within the country of Cambodia. Here is what the team has to share:
Due to COVID-19, important face-to-face Family-Based Alternative Care (FBAC) Sector work had been postponed in the last few months for the safety of both Staff and Clients. This has meant there is essential work that has been delayed waiting to be addressed. With fewer COVID-19 cases present in Cambodia, this month, the FBAC team went out to tackle these activities.
Case Assessment
The needs of two families were assessed for possible Kinship Care supports.
One family was very low-income, based on referral by local authorities. The family is currently headed by a grandmother due to the mother migrating for work. So staff plan to provide supports through Kinship Care so that the grandmother can continue to care for her grandchildren within the family.
Family Tracing
Staff met with community members as part of a Family Tracing process to determine if there were appropriate relatives to reintegrate a child.
Emergency Foster Care (EFC) and Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Visit
Staff met with one EFC Family to issue Financial Retaining Supports and check in on how the Foster Parents and Children temporarily placed this EFC Family are doing. Then, Staff visited another family with four children supported as OVC under Kinship Care Supports.
Meeting with Residential Care Institution (RCI) Directors
Additionally, Staff met with the Directors of an RCI to understand their services and investigate the potential for partnership or placement.
Case Reunification
Case Reunification also occurred in another family with the partnership of DoSVY and local authorities. Two siblings were able to safely return back to their biological family, along with a Reintegration Package of food and bicycles to get to school. Staff also supported a second case of reintegration back to their biological family.
It has been a very full month for the FBAC Sector staff tackling these cases, navigating complex processes to ensure the safety and well-being of children in families.
If you have any questions about anything you read in this blog post or want to get more involved. Please let me know. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.