Keeping Children Safe

‘People often think that everyone always has children and vulnerable adults’ best interests at heart, but unfortunately this is not always the case, even in the world of development cooperation. Too often cases come to light where children, or vulnerable groups, have been victims of abuse, exploitation or neglect.‘ This is what Wilde Ganzen wrote in its invitation to us for a relationship morning. On Saturday 5th of October, this meeting was entirely dedicated to protecting children. We at SUON were immediately excited to participate.

After all, as a foundation, we believe it’s incredibly important that the children we support are safe. But how does this work when we are based in the Netherlands and are therefore not in direct contact with the children ourselves? What is our role and our own responsibility? We ask ourselves these questions regularly, so we hoped this meeting would bring us answers.

Results of the day

And answers we got. About how we could safeguard children as a foundation ourselves, but also how we might better support the Ubomi Obutsha Centre in this. This is not simply settled in a day and will be a process of steps. It is a subject that we would very much like to put further on the agenda in the coming period, first for ourselves, but hopefully also with the centre together. Because besides being important and a first priority, it is also just hugely fascinating to discuss about this together! So from here a big thank you to Wilde Ganzen for this kick-off and inspiration on this topic. To be continued.

A busy week at the centre

The Ubomi Obutsha Centre does everything possible to ensure that children can develop themselves every day. Every day and week is different and sometimes a lot of things happen at once in just one week time. Last week was such a week and we would like to take you through all these wonderful happenings.

The results

Sometimes children need extra educational support. Thanks to the help of a psychological clinic, these children were able to take psychometric tests. Their parents were also asked for additional information about their development. This helps in deciding whether a child should be referred to a special education school or not. This way, they get the right support where needed.

The Educare children went on a day out to Holmeleigh Farmyard, the local petting zoo. They went along with staff of the local Alkegen factory who support the work of the Ubomi Obutsha Centre. They had a wonderful day there!

The mentoring programme for the fourth semester started a little earlier with a baseline assessment of the 48 students. They will be helped to catch up in school and the assessment will help to gain insight into their progress. Also wonderful news is that with that, three new volunteers started at the centre!

The families of our Phase 2 (2nd year) Family Focus Programme were the lucky recipients of this year’s 3rd clothing distribution. Great that so many good quality 2nd-hand clothes were donated recently to support these families!

Three Educare facilitators worked on the third-quarter reports for the little ones in their groups. They also had engaging meetings with all parents to discuss their child’s challenges and progress. Great progress was made this trimester!

This all took place alongside all the normal day-to-day activities. However tired they are, the dedication and work ethic of the staff remains top notch and we are very grateful for all they do and for the support many of you give them! They are looking forward to a quiet week during the school holidays next week before making the final push to finish the year strong.

Would you like to continue supporting this great work? Then check out how you can do so soon here on our website.