Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India – Mrs. Vasundhara addressed 40 participants who including District Child Protection Units from 13 districts. The training began with an insight from Mrs. Vasundhara on the basic constitution and went on to discuss the major changes in child protection legislation over the past two decades.
Mr. Ian Anand gave in-depth details on the Model Guidelines for Foster Care 2016 which include different type of foster care options and the roles and responsibilities of each of the implementing stakeholders. He shared action charts, toolkits and case examples from the state of Rajasthan.
The participants were then split into group discussions where they chose their topics on the foster care area they are interested in, which included HIV/AIDS foster care, orphans or semi orphans in institution care, and mental retardation (MR). Each of the groups came up with the policies they would like to see in foster care in the mentioned areas.
The motive of the training was to encourage the implementation of foster care at district levels throughout the state. The Vishakhapatnam District Child Protection Officer commented, “We have 200 HIV/AIDS children in my district. This training has motivated me to immediately go and start the work on-the-ground to implement foster care in my district and ensure all these children are placed in families for better care. Thank you for this opportunity.”
In another comment, the Ananthapur District Child Protection Officer mentioned, “Now as I go back, I am going to give a synopsis to my project director on the training and encourage them to take the initiative to move this forward.”
The one-day program was organized by Sarah’s Covenant Homes (a project of India Christian Ministries) at Ilapuram Hotel in Vijayawada, Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh.
