Ugandans Adopt

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adoption open day event

Ekisa Ministries attends the Adoption Panel.

The Adoption Panel reading through the assesment reports

In this blog post, Joseph Kasule,  a Social worker from Ekisa Ministries describes his experience of the Alternative Care Panel.

Joseph with a little one.

This was the first time I had ever presented a case to Panel. I work for Ekisa Ministries in Jinja. We provide specialized care to children with special needs; and our aim is to place children into families. It’s not easy to place children with such complex needs into families.

We were really happy when Viola, a single mother with the full support of her long term boyfriend Davis expressed an interest to foster Zeke a 12 year old boy who had been abandoned with special needs. I had spent 3 months assessing Viola and preparing a report for the Panel including a home assessment, references, and time counseling Viola, and educating Viola on adoption.  Viola also works for Ekisa Ministries as a full time physiotherapist and she understands Zeke’s condition and knows him well.It is very  important that the prospective adoptive parent has a full understanding of what responsibility she or he is was taking on.

Some of the Children with special needs at Ekisa Ministries, Jinja.

I presented Viola’s assessment to the Panel. It took a long time, as this is the first time a child with special needs had been presented to the Panel. No one on the Panel had direct specialized experience working with children with special needs. The Panel interviewed me first and asked me questions which had not been covered in my assessment. They then interviewed Viola and asked her about her desire to adopt Zeke, and if she was ready to take on the responsibility. Viola is 25, and a single female, so the guidelines in the law were over looked due to Viola’s desire to give an older child with special needs a home. Panel was very supportive of this desire; one member stated that the system had failed this child for 12 years and it was in the best interest of the child to be in a family. I was overjoyed when the Panel approved Viola as a foster parent and matched her with Zeke.

We were very impressed with the Panel and are looking forward to presenting more children with special needs and finding them loving families. Going forward, it would be good to find a special needs expert to join the Panel to help further the understanding of the complex needs our children face.

The Adoption Panel in session
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adoption open day event Video

Bonding, attunement and attachment in adoption.

Sarah Mirembe speaks at the get together

“Attunement is the perfect sync where my child will cry and I will know exactly why” Sarah Mirembe, child psychologist, Right to Improved Child Health (RICH Consult)

At our recent adoptive and prospective adoptive parents get together, we had an open forum where parents could share their worries and their joys about adoption. Sarah joined us and spoke on three key issues: bonding, attunement and attachment.

Adopting a child is an incredibly rewarding experience for many parents whether or not they have biological children of their own however, like most things, it doesn’t come without some worries. One of the biggest worries that parents can have is whether they’ll be able to bond with their adopted child.

Bonding or attachment refers to the emotional connection or the strength of the relationship between one person and another. In parenting terms, bonding is the relationship which develops between a parent and their child.

Bonding is crucial to the healthy development of an infant’s brain during the first two years of their life. It is most is successful when there is constant communication and contact between the mother or primary care giver and baby. In most cases, bonding is easiest when the child is adopted in infancy.

At Malaika Babies’ Home, once a child arrives they’re assigned one carer for the duration of their stay. This is so they can form attachments with their primary care giver and help to ensure healthy development. When an adoptive parent is matched with the child, there is a transitional period whereby the parent is able to spend time bonding with them before taking them home. This is also important for the child to transition the bond that they’ve developed with their carer. As all our children will have already formed healthy attachments this should be a time of great joy for both parent and child as they get to know one another. When the time comes to take their child home there should already be a strong bond developing between them which will only strengthen after more time together.

Carers at Malaika Babies Home

 

Could you give a child a loving family? For more information on adoption please send an email to adoption@childsifoundation.org or call 0776110304

To watch the rest of Sarah’s presentation, click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSS2dISFKPU

 

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adoption open day open day event

Adoptive Parents Coffee Morning

Families for Children hold regular coffee mornings and training session for adoptive and prospective adoptive parents. This is usually a moment where parents who are adopting or thinking about adoption, meet together for a cup of coffee to share experiences, challenges, common issues on adoption and  gain support from each other.

 

 

Adoptive and prospective adoptive parents listen  to the main speaker of the day during the last coffee morning get together.

A big number of  Adoptive and prospective adoptive parents showed up at the last  Coffee Morning that was held  on 23rd March 2013 s at CRANE/VIVA Offices in Namirembe.We had a great time getting to know each other, sharing experiences and laughing over our cups of coffee.

Please mark  20th April 2013 on your calendars. It will be the day when   a one day adoptive and prospective adoptive parents training  will be conducted from 9:00am to 3:30pm .A contribution by each  parent attending of  20,000 shillings only  goes towards their break tea, Lunch and certificates at the end of the training.

You are also encouraged to inform other prospective and adoptive parents and fostering parents about these events or forward these dates to them and encourage them to attend as well.

For more information: Email Roger Mbazira at families.children@gmail.com