It has been over six years since the government launched an initiative called ‘tubarerere mu miryango’ to encourage all children to be raised in a family set up. The programme kicked off the exercise to phase out orphanage facilities across the country as children there were either reunited with their families – for those that had them – or settling them into foster homes. This arrangement, according to officials, was to strengthen the child care and protection system, because it was believed that although the orphanages provided basic needs like food, shelter and clothing, adequate parental love was still lacking. In 2012, the National Commission for Children (NCC) conducted a survey whose results showed that there were 33 orphanages with 3,323 children, and that 70 percent of the children had at least one parent or relatives. Some of them were adults, their age going up to 45 years. As of today, 3,284 of the previously in orphanages have been reintegrated; orphans adopted into families, some back into their biological families and others into foster homes. The adults were helped to start out their life independently. According to the National Children Commission, which is championing the programme, currently, only nine children remain in two orphanage facilities; Future for Kids in Northern Province and Centre St. Antoine in Southern Province. Speaking to The New Times, James Nduwayo, the Tubarerere mu Muryango Senior Programme Manager, said that these children will have been integrated to families by March, this year. He added that 274 children are living in SOS Children’s Village, which is not regarded as an orphanage, but rather a transit family-like-home. This is because its setting is different from an orphanage’s; children are grouped into families at the villages before they are integrated into families, he added. Child abandonment From October to December, last year, 12 cases of child abandonment across the country were reported. In a child abandonment case, children are reported to the local leadership, where volunteer parents called ‘Malayika Murinzi’, or ‘Guardian Angels’ give them emergency foster care. The adoption process starts after at least six months of investigating the new parents. The adoptive parents are also called Malayika Murinzi. “We call upon the society to respect children’s rights by fighting anything that could abuse them, and we should all make sure that all children are being raised in families because it is where they receive parental love and proper upbringing.” Malayika Murinzi campaign was a continuation of the First Lady’s campaign, ‘Treat Every Child as your Own’, that was introduced in 2004. The campaign, established in 2007, was with an aim to reintegrate children into sustainable family based care and to create a protective environment for children without appropriate care, by promoting adoption and foster care. It was later handed over to NCC.
