avsi beauty of the family

7/29/2019 AVSI Beauty of the Family

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The family, a beauty

to be conquered once againThe experience of AVSI projects

in Burundi, Ecuador, Romania


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To recognize and assist the family is one of the greatest services which

can be rendered nowadays to the common good and to the authentic

development of individuals and societies, as well as the best means of

ensuring the dignity, equality and true freedom of the human person.

Pope Benedict XVI, Valencia (9 July 2006)


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Index

Introduction 7

1. The experience in Burundi 11

1.1. Introduction 12

1.2. Background 12

1.3. The Centre 17

1.4. Ongoing case histories 20

2. The experience in Ecuador 25


2.2. The context and AVSIs intervention 26

2.3. Innovative and methodological aspects of work done 33

2. The experience in Romania 39


3.2. Background 42

3.3. Projects and numbers of families supported 44

3.4. First exploration: hiv-positive minors 44

3.5. Second exploration: preventing school drop out 48

3.6. Common work method 51

4. Family: reflections upon the experience 53

4.1. The reliability of the family ties di Eugenia Scabini 54

4.2. AVSI interventions with families within the framework of good practices

di Giovanna Rossi 62

5. Appendix - Instruments 67

5.1. Monitor ing and evaluation ofFamily Friend lygood practices di El isabetta Carr 68

5.2. Guidelines for a plan to monitor and evaluate the quality of actions

di Stefania Meda 79

6. Who we are 90

6.1. Method 90

This document is a collection ofBest Practices of programs with families, and has been made possible

thanks to the project co-nanced by the European Union titled Companionship for Development:

Alianzas trans-nacionales entre Actores No Estatales, Autoridades Locales y la comunidad institucional para

una cooperacin al desarrollo ms eciente. cod. DCI-NSA / 2009 / 205 - 463.

The primary objective of this project, started in November 2009, is to improve networking and exchange of

information and good practices among the Non-state Actors and Local Authorities connected with the AVSI

Network and in particular the following European NGOs:AVSI (Italy), CESAL (Spain),VIDA(Portugal), AVSI

POLSKA(Poland), FUNDATIA(Romania) and SOTAS (Lithuania).

The family, a beauty to be conquered once againPocket-edition n.11

Produced byBenedetta Fontana, AVSI

Authors: Benedetta Fontana, Raffaella Boschetti, Stefania Famlonga, Simona Carobene, Eugenia Scabini, Giovanna

Rossi, Stefania Meda, Elisabetta Carr

Copyright AVSI www.avsi.org anno 2011

Photo courtesyLuca Rossetti, Fabrizio Lava, Brett Morton, AVSI staff

Cover imageAVSI: Romania

Graphic Design Accent on Design, Milan

Codice ISBN 978-88-97485-06-3

AVSI USA

Headquarters:125 Maiden Lane, 15th oor New York, NY 10038

DC Ofce: 529 14th Street NW Suite 994 Washington, DC 20045

Ph/Fax: +1.202.429.9009 [email protected] www.avsi-usa.org

AVSI Italia

20158 Milano Via Legnone, 4

tel. +39 02 6749881 [email protected]

47521 Cesena (FC) Via Padre Vicinio da Sarsina, 216

tel. +39 0547 360811 [email protected]


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IntroductionThe family, a beauty to be conquered once again

Benedetta Fontana, AVSI

Referring to the Family as a beauty is in itself a stance taken.In our case this is neither an ideological nor theoretical opinion, but a declarationbacked by experience: this debate has made it clear, on one side, that the propagandaof a mentality contrary to the family disseminated by use of the media (movies, televi-sion, newspapers), even though with such powerful means could not prevent many

people from still having a positive experience of family. In front of such an impres-sively powerful ideological attack, it might appear inevitable for the family to ceasebeing interesting. On the contrary, there is a fact that we must recognize almost withsurprise: such an impressive apparatus has shown itself to be less powerful than theelementary experience that many of us have lived within our own families, the ineradi-cable experience of a good. A good that we are grateful for, and that we want to passon to the future generations in order that it might be shared.1In the case of the AVSI projects, this declaration becomes tangible evidence that callsfor action: put simply, where a family exists, working with end users (generally chil-dren and youngsters) brings innitely better results.This is the case, for example, of the OVC 2 Programme funded by American coopera-tion USAID in the Great Lakes region in Africa, which has shown how a family-centricmodel is a winning approach in care and education of children3. The same is provenby all the work carried out by AVSI in the ght against childhood malnutrition invarious countries, published in the paperback Nourishing People, Feeding Hope4,from which we learn, among other things, that a childs nutrition levels really onlyimprove when a family recuperates its capacity for total care of the child.Experience gleaned from a great many educational projects leads us to the sameconclusion: where families are involved and present, children participate better andmore, learn more and develop more completely. Families in this sense means as theyare, as we nd them and they come to us in different contexts, at times a mother on

1 Julin Carrn, The experience of the family, a beauty to be conquered once again: meeting organised bythe Milan Centre for Culture during the Milan Diocese Week of Culture 2009.http://www.tracce.it/detail.asp?c=1&p=0&id=526

2 OVC Programme Orphan and Vulnerable Children Funded by USAID and carried out by AVSI from 2005to 2010 in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya, providing medical and education assistance to 14,000 orphansand vulnerable children and their families, also through relations with and reinforcement of 114 local partnerorganisations. In 2008, in response to a request by USAID, the AVSI OVC project expanded to include theIvory Coast. OVC, the programme for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, thanks to encounters with each ofthe children has also come to stand for Our Valuable Children.

3 For detailed information about the OVC programme see www.avsi.org in the documents and press andpublications section

4 Paperback Nourishing people, feeding hope,www.avsi.org in the press and publications section


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her own, at others a father, a grandmother or a relative who is present, who becomesa resource.These premises have fuelled our desire to work on the family across different kinds ofprojects from urban and social development to malnutrition, from the developmentof farming to shelters, from educational to health projects. The underlying questionguiding our reections is given that the family can be a great resource, how can wemake the most of this, involving and supporting it? How can this asset be brought tothe fore, promoted and defended?The method, once again, is to start with our experience, understand, study, observeand evaluate it and then go back to this experience with an added value that is thevery fruit of this reection, in other words what we have learnt from our experience.

In this way, it will be possible to offer practical help, improving projects thanks to whatwe know: judgement and evaluation of a practice become an experience of knowledge.This publication tells of three AVSI projects that see the family as an asset that must beused to the full, and this positive outlook is a starting point for all these experiences,for rethinking social and educational intervention for children and youngsters. Thethree case histories were chosen as examples of much broader work done by AVSIworldwide, in 40 countries, always in contexts of great poverty and generally charac-terised by a breakdown of family links. The description of experiences on three conti-nents and in different cultural contexts (Burundi in Africa, Ecuador in Latin Americaand Romania in Eastern Europe) are intended in a certain sense to be representative ofall the numerous attempts that in completely different settings apply the same method,fruit of evaluation of the person involved (the beneciary, whomever that may be) seenas part of his or her primary relationships (family and reference community).These are experiences that provide a new vision of the family, a viewpoint thatenhances, seeks out and rebuilds family links where they still exist, suggesting newlinks and relationships that are reliable, trustworthy and as far-reaching as possible,open to new ideas and difference and ready to start over even after failure.The process of knowledge, judgement, evaluation and reection on practices wasguided by Eugenia Scabini5 and Giovanna Rossi6, university professors at the UniversitCattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. They enriched and completed the case histories byoffering their wide-ranging conceptual and cultural base, enabling us to rethink ouractions and relaunch the projects themselves with a new, broader outlook. The addedvalue is not just the rethinking and therefore the possibility to improve actions basedon judgement, but also and above all the ability to generate in the actors involved acapacity for reection about themselves and their lives, starting with their past actions.Furthermore, rereading of the practices by Eugenia Scabini and Giovanna Rossi gaverise to an important question:

5 Eugenia Scabini, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology, Universit Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan6 Giovanna Rossi, Full Professor of Sociology of the family, Faculty of Psychology, Universit Cattolica del

Sacro Cuore in Milan

How to monitor and evaluate, with which tools and which goals, the projects thatwork with families, so that evaluation increasingly becomes an experience of knowl-edge, possibility of judgement and critical systematic reection about the experience?Thanks to help from Ms. Stefania Meda, the book concludes with a short in-depthanalysis of the monitoring and evaluation of good practices in our work with families.This intends to also provide effective support for operators at work in the variouscountries so that, with the use of tools that can then be adapted to the different localrealities, they can monitor their actions in terms of effectiveness, efciency, sustaina-bility (but also replicability, ethical quality of the aims and social capital), highlightingthe real needs that the projects attempt to meet.


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1The family, a beauty to be conquered once again

The experience in Burundi


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1.1. IntroductionThe Meo Centre (Mamans, enfants et orphelins) was set up in 2002, in Cibitoke,one of the seven Northern districts in the peripheral suburbs of the capital cityof Bujumbura, where AVSI has rented premises thanks to funds from sponsorshipand contributions by Friends of the Biella Aid Association, Comunit Biellese AiutiUmanitari. The centre was founded to meet the need for a shared protected placefor children, mothers and war orphans in the capitals suburbs. The children andfamilies chosen for sponsorship were identied as those in the Northern districts,some of the worst hit by the civil war (1993-2005), in an attempt to provide atangible response to the emergencies and needs of this area, in terms of food, healthassistance, education and psychological aid. Work by this centre therefore started

during a period of partial post conict, characterised by great urban decay, with highlevels of overpopulation due to the great inux of Burundian refugees who, time andagain, ooded into the capital as they ed from ethnic cleansing and to a completebreakdown of the family, social and community fabric in general and to structuresfor health, school and social psychological assistance that are totally inadequate forthe needs of a seriously traumatised people.

The Centre today: the Centro Meo Lino Lava (named after CBAU member Mr. Lava,now dead, who started up the enterprise and friendship scheme to support the centresactivities), has moved and, while still in the same district, is now housed in newpremises, completely rebuilt thanks to funds from Comunit Biellese Aiuti Umanitariand to collaboration with the Burundian authorities in Bujumbura, which granted

AVSI use of the building land.

1.2. BackgroundThe Cibitoke district is today a peripheral urban area, with a high level of generaliseddecay and poverty (68% of the population is below the poverty line according to the2009 UNDP estimate) caused mainly by the following factors:

High population growth (fecundity levels of 6.33 children per woman) General insecurity linked to ethnic conicts and violence Need for reconciliation between the parties that have been at war for all these years Post-war economic crisis High unemployment Continual inux into the city from the countryside with people looking for work

and repatriated refugees or people evacuated from one province to another High rate of adult illiteracy (47% > 18 years of age) HIV (affecting a large percentage of the population > 16%) Lack of adequate public services (health, education and social) and limited access Increase in the prices of basic products and services and low purchase power of the

population

Disorganisation in the countrys various public sectors and high levels of corruptionamong institutional gures

Lack of associations and of mechanisms for community solidarity Ignorance of human and childrens rights

In more detail, the families we work with usually live with no basic hygiene(open-air sewers, widespread refuse, lack of drinkable water), in cramped condi-tions for the number of inhabitants, with one room serving an average of eightpeople, leading to consequent promiscuity between adults and children. Roofsare often sheets of plastic that do not offer suitable protection during the rainyseason, leading to flooding of the living areas. Any toilets are outside and consist

of a hole in the ground under a straw roof, shared with neighbours. There isusually no electricity and any lighting tends to be provided by wood fires or,sporadically, oil lamps.

Families that are part of the sponsorship scheme have different origins. Manyof them arrived in the city during the war years, leaving behind their landand farming work to flee the ethnic massacres in the country, mainly from thenorthern provinces of Kayanza and Ngozi and from rural Bujumbura. The adultsin these families, often widows who lost their husbands in the war, thereforefound themselves without work and often forced to beg to survive, unable toreturn to their community of origin because of the loss of their land, generalinsecurity and the numerous disputes over land in the post-war era. The womenwork in rice paddies or sell small quantities of fruit and vegetables with dailyearnings never in excess of 40 euro cents. Other families come from the northerndistricts, most are widows or women whose husbands/partners have abandonedthem to form new families, leaving them to bring up their children alone. Theymainly sell fruit and vegetables at the market, buy and sell coal or grow smallquantities of crops (rice, lengalenga and tomatoes). A typical family consists ofa mother and maternal or paternal grandmother. Fathers, even when alive, areconspicuous by their absence in most families. The mother is the only adultresponsible for procuring daily food, educating and bringing up the children. Inthe case of children who live with a tutor (male or female) the family is usuallymade up of maternal or paternal uncles and aunts, grandparents or distant rela-tives of the family of origin and again the role of the woman is fundamental forthe childrens survival and education.

Families in the northern districts generally live in a culture of violence and non-respect of civil rules, linked in part to the only recently abolished obligatoryrecruitment of youngsters both by guerrilla movements and the regular army.The population continues to experience a sense of insecurity, there is no freedomof speech or thought and vendetta is on the increase, leading to an even tenser 13

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social situation. People are being killed every day in the northern districts, notonly for stealing but also for private vendettas, political motives and ethical issueswith strong links that are hard to decipher. Furthermore, gradual disarming ofthe population and rebels is far from completed and there is in fact an ongoingsituation of increasing possession of weapons. Despite this negative picture, thepopulation in question is, in some aspects, rich, having traditional knowledge,social links and work skills. The value of the family is the centre of a seriouslydamaged social fabric and there is little trust between individuals, even whenthese are neighbours or family members. The family represents an extra chanceof survival in life and in this sense the extended family is the local culturalanswer to the phenomenon of the high number of orphans due to the war and

the HIV epidemic. Often in fact, children are entrusted to aunts, grandmothersor sisters when parents are alive but unable to support large families. The roleof these family relatives is crucial for our work with families, to be considered a

central aspect for development and strengthening of the childs existing networkof relations. To date there are still many shortcomings in this direction andapart from a few cases of family reunification that we followed closely, we arestill studying how to better use and develop these family figures as resources toflank the original family nucleus. The main difficulties lie above all in relation tofamily rights contrasting with Burundian cultural customs that are often hostileto external intervention. One example of Burundian tradition that is still in forceis the family council, an informal body that meets to make important familydecisions, made up of wise men and elders, who often carry more weight thanthe apposite institutional bodies.

The Burundian family is patriarchal in structure and the females play secondaryroles to the males. The man, the head of the family, decides and manages thefamilys money even when he does not work and it is the woman who provides forthe needs and care of the children. The woman often submits passively and thereare a great many cases of domestic and sexual violence, linked also to the wide-spread problem of male alcoholism, the scarcity of ofcial reports due to a fear ofvendetta and the fact that Burundians hold the mother responsible if her under-age daughter is the victim of violence. The most widespread attitude is incrimina-tion of the victim with blame for the violence laid on the females behaviour orclothes. A woman repudiated by her community is turned out of her home andforced to fend for herself, often ending up completely destitute.

In answer to the widespread problem of the lack of a father gure in the familiesthat we encounter, the centre is a place for different kinds of family intermedia-tion. First of all, monthly meetings are held to raise awareness about the familyas a unit, education of children, etc., with the childrens parents/tutors, with theaim of increasing the presence and involvement of the men in question in theeducational path proposed by the centre for their children. As well as raisingawareness with the adults, we also hold periodic encounters with the boys whoattend the centre in an attempt to create educational exchange on issues such asrespect for the sexes, respect for women, the ght against sexual violence with theaim of focusing on changing the mindset of the new male generations in the hopethat they themselves will then take these messages into their families and create achain effect. We also seek out good examples of fathers and use their case histo-ries to try and involve more reticent fathers. Direct testimony is therefore a privi-leged tool that we are trying to make more use of and that has greater potentialthan other forms of intervention currently used.

In general the family enjoys great respect in the Burundian society, marriage is itsbasis and unmarried couples are frowned upon, the bride price (a sum of moneyor goods given by the future groom to the brides family) is a widespread custom


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and a woman who leaves her family to marry someone unable to pay the brideprice, is considered to have dishonoured her family and is alienated. This is thenorm for families having sufcient nances, while for the ones we work with thesituation is very different, as most of them do not involve marriage and thereforeoffer no protection either for the woman or any children born out of the relation-ship. Women in Burundi have no inheritance rights either and even when married,have very few rights compared to their husbands. Another aspect is that of younggirls in the northern districts who run away from home to go and live with older,married men who promise them a better lifestyle, only to abandon the girls on thestreets not long after.

This is all aggravated by prostitution. Many girls and some childrens mothers whoare part of the project end up as prostitutes to earn money to feed their childrenand, unfortunately, even parents themselves encourage their daughters to becomeprostitutes to help the family. Currently our efforts for greater family involve-ment in this problem concentrate on raising awareness, talk groups, counsellingby operators on home visits and sessions with the psychologist at the centre. Weare not yet providing more focused intervention aimed to concretelly help familiesto rebuild their unity and identity.

The families and children that we meet at the centre are therefore part of a generalpicture that sees family breakdown and the persistence of some negative cultural prac-tices, mentioned above, as the main problems to be tackled. We encounter manydifferent needs: Dietary. Inadequate or insufcient food with cases of malnutrition and resistance

to changes in existing dietary habits (e.g. fruit is practically absent because it is notconsidered important)

Psychological. There are numerous cases of children traumatised by the conicts Physical and/or mental handicaps and HIV-positivity Educational. There are numerous cases of non-attendance and dropouts Sexual violence on minors and young women and the impunity of aggressors Young unmarried mothers Women subject to domestic violence by husbands/partners Hygiene conditions linked to ignorance about basic hygiene rules Ignorance of human and childrens rights Traditional informal system for regulating conicts (e.g. the family of the victim of

violence comes to an agreement with the family of the aggressor, the latter paying asum of money or goods)

Ignorance of laws regarding fundamental human rights Lack of the spirit of small enterprise Entrusting of orphaned children to tutors who are not legally recognised Family abandonment and children becoming the heads of their families.

1.3. The centreThe educational approach for the centres activity is based on the ve points of the AVSImethod (page 90) and involves the children and families with direct participation. 406children and families are involved, assisted by seven social workers, who include: 1 centre manager who coordinates and supervises all the educational and recreational

activities and is responsible for personnel management 1 psychologist who gives counselling sessions and organises and holds psycho-thera-

peutic sessions and talk groups for the children and their parents/tutors 1 social assistant mainly responsible for micro-credit for the childrens parents/tutors 3 social workers who accompany children and families along an educational path of

individual development, with visits to families, schools and monthly meetings with

parents/tutors 1 social educator in charge of organising and supervising recreational and musicalactivity.

How the social operator works depends on the activities carried out, with socialassistants mainly reporting to the eld manager for everything concerning activi-ties carried out in the eld, while activities in the centre are organised and moni-tored by the centre manager. Every week I organize a staff meeting for discussionof our calendar of activities, denition of priorities and deadlines, troubleshooting


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and sharing of our experiences with the daily effectiveness of our method in tack-ling the problems of families and the children. Every month I also organise ameeting with all the staff to analyse difcult cases, looking for solutions togetherand assessing whether the way we operate is opportune for the case in question.

We use a participatory method with the aim of s timulat ing the partic ipation andresponsibility of each member of staff. We also organise exchange days on the5 points of the AVSI method to strengthen our sense of belonging to a commoncause, to make it our own and take on board the principles that guide us, so thatwe do not forget the reason behind our daily actions, above all for better manage-ment of urgency-related anxiety.Staff lack competence in terms of preparation, linked in part to the quality of their

schooling and education. The educational level in Burundi is generally low anddespite our operators having attended social science schools and university coursesin psychology, they have limited, outdated theoretical knowledge. It must also beconsidered that they themselves have experienced and suffered the consequencesof the conict with all relative trauma and that very often they have received nopsychological support to help them overcome this. Activities by the centre canbe divided into ve big sectors: education recreational, medical-health, food,psycho-social and development.

Number of children/families registered with the Centre: 416, including 20 menout of a total of 396 women, 224 boys and 192 girls

Total number of boys and girls attending activities at the Centre: 416 with spon-sorship and 400 without.

Educational - recreational Our library with educational support from the social workers To allow children to start reading, to stimulate their interest and curiosity for

new knowledge, to improve their level of comprehension and to organise after-school activities and remedial lessons

Group games based on the play therapy experience, through book creation Dancing and singing with courses held by the social educator to keep good

Burundian traditions alive, to create group spirit, to help them grow self-con-dence and personal capacities

Drum courses held by the social educator to recuperate the positive values ofthis Burundian tradition, to help free expression through recognition of a systemof rules and strengthen a sense of community identity and belonging

Theatre and poetry with the organisation of sketches, to make children awareof issues such as the rights of children, the school, peace and reunication,the ght against violence, HIV, etc. through active participation as protagonistsof everyday reality with shows put on in primary and secondary schools totransmit these messages to other youngsters and arouse their interest

School visits by social assistants to monitor childrens progress and problems Raise awareness with families about issues such as individual rights, domestic

and sexual violence, the value of the family, pacic resolution of conicts etc. tocreate opportunities for exchange and gain better knowledge of the families thatwe work with and their problems

Talk groups for children and families, held every month, to provide counsellingwith problems and fears of both parents and children. Group sessions are heldby the psychologist at the centre to gain better knowledge of the life of peopleand to put together a plan of action, and to nd a way of being accepted by thefamily in order to share an educational path for the children

Legal guardianship for children in serious situations a recent pilot activity for

informing them about their rights, orientation, the right to impartial defenceand raising awareness to help victims report their aggressors Exchange days with social assistants about the 5 points of the AVSI method,

to involve them in the work done and to praise their work with the childrenand families.

Medical - health Payment of medical treatment and transport for children and, in serious cases,

of their parents/tutors, when they are admitted to hospital, to help them accesshealth services

Distribution of health and hygiene supplies together with specic educationregarding the value and importance of hygiene as a preventive measure formany common diseases and to teach personal hygiene as a way of personalenhancement

Distribution of food and emergency supplies for families with critical health andfood problems in order to support the family during difcult periods.

Psycho - social Home visits by social workers who on average visit families twice a year unless

the child or family reports serious problems to get to know the family situationand understand what the needs of each particular family are

Counselling at the centre with the psychologist (an average of 93 sessions amonth) who is there for children to give them advice, support and moral guid-ance. The children can either request an individual session spontaneously or beguided by social assistants recommendations. During the coordination meetingthat I hold at the centre, we dedicate one day to difcult cases for betterorganisation of psychological support.

Development Granting of fty micro credits, individual and collective and support (small

enterprise, farming activity) for the creation of small income-earning busi-


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nesses, to stimulate a spirit of small enterprise and to create a path that leadsthe sponsored childs family to recover their condence in their own capacityfor self-support. The families are selected through prior assessment of the microproject presented to the social assistant in charge who uses an assessment sheetto note strong and weak points and any experience in the activity for which theyare requesting the loan.

1.4. Ongoing case historiesOn this subject we would like to mention two stories of children/families, examples of atypical family and its problems.

When we met Julie tte (fict itious name) , her situat ion was dramatic. Both herfather and mother were dead and she was HIV-positive, living with her elderlygrandmother who was desperate about her granddaughters medical condition.The grandmother had lost all her children and had no other living relatives apartfrom Juliette. The girl had become deeply depressed on the death of her parents,she hardly spoke, was absent and apathetic to any stimulation. She attendedprimary school only periodically and as a consequence her progress was inter-mittent and poor. The social assistant at the centre started to follow this caseinitially by gaining the trust of the girls grandmother, meeting her often at thecentre, giving her information about the girls illness and explaining that lifeexpectation had improved thanks to existing therapies and that it is possible tolive positively despite the virus. The grandmother was then directed to a specificHIV patient health structure where she took part in awareness-raising coursesand where she received advice on how to tac kle the situation at home. The adviceand attention received permitted the grandmother to find new hope and notfeel alone in this difficult situation. After this, the grandmother asked the socialassistant to be allowed to set up a small income-generating project in order toimprove her living conditions and those of her granddaughter. She was thereforeloaned a small amount of money with which she was able to set up a stall sellingcooked peanuts, mangoes and sweets, which provided for her daily food. Juliettewas urged to socialise with the other children at the centre and little by littleshe started to play and open up. Today she is part of the centres dance groupand is well-integrated. Thanks to encouragement from the social assistants shehas improved her school results and has regained confidence in her capacities,looking beyond the illness.

Marie (fictitious name) came into contact with the centre when she was still alittle girl and had moved with her family from a province in the south of thecountry to the northern districts of Bujumbura in the nineties to escape from theethnic massacres ongoing in the country. When they arrived in the capital, they

spent several months in a refugee camp, where it was forbidden to speak, life wasdominated by fear and living conditions were very harsh. During her time in thecamp, Marie had lost all her positive attitude to life and her vulnerability was atits peak. Then, thanks to sponsorship, she came into contact with the centre in2001. The social assistants listened to her, supported her and encouraged her tostart to hope, to look to the future and take responsibility for change. Her familywas helped and Marie started going to ba ck to school until a traumatic event thathappened to her in 2006, when she was raped by a boy on her way home fromschool. A few weeks later she found out she was pregnant and did not know howto face this problem, especially because the Burundian culture sees the victim asthe guilty party instead of the one needing help.

The family would have had the same problem because this incident would havebeen regarded as dishonour and they would have kicked her out. At this point,the social assistant approached the family, building positive dialogue and tacklingthe problem with them and managed to get a positive result. Today Marie has a


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beautiful three-year-old son, thanks to sponsorship ha s started back at school andis now in fifth year high with good results.

1.5. Advantages and disadvantages of the centreThe centre represents a great opportunity due, in the rst instance, to the fact thatits shared protected area offers children and families positive educational experi-ences that would be impossible outside, making it easy for us to meet the familiesand establish a relationship with them, listening to their needs and difculties,thus creating a deeper and more personalised path of awareness that forms thebasis for a relationship. The centre is an oasis of peace for children-oriented activi-

ties, set against an external background of violence and is somewhere for childrento play, experiment, learn and receive a positive educational model. An experienceof order, attention and affection that will indirectly also affect the childrens families.The centre would like to be seen as a second home for the children and their fami-lies, with no intention of replacing the educational role of the family but workingwith the family to enhance this, seeing it as a positive resource for society itselfand as a way of giving back deserved dignity and identity. The disadvantages ofthe centre, on the other hand, are linked to the fact that it makes social assistantslazy, as they tend not to increase the number of home visits because children andfamilies can be invited to the centre, thus losing sight of the importance of visits inthe setting where the child lives and gains its experience. Home visits in fact giveus better understanding of the familys problems and a better idea of the realityexplained by the children and families involved.

We monitor projects set up for sponsored child-related activit ies by recordingthe number of children who received a given activity in a certain period of time(e.g. scholastic material distributed, number of meals distributed, etc.) while on aquality level the childs psycho-social evolution is monitored with visits severy sixmonths. The tool used is a sponsorship monitor form on which the social workerrecords the childs positive and/or negative changes and the familys initial situa-tion (see attachment). Meanwhile monitoring of family-oriented activities, apartfrom granting of microcredit for which we are able to assess short-term impact,is not carried out because we have not yet put in place a system that allows us torecord the results of our intervention, except in individual cases.

1.6. What we need in order to improveMany points have arisen from work in the eld that show us how we could improvework done by the centre. These are just some of the most important:

Human resources Specic and continual training courses for social operators and the coordinator

(psycho-social module, play therapy, value of life, etc.), together with specic micro-credit training for both the social assistant and the families involved, the possibilityof exchanging best experiences in countries where AVSI has achieved concreteresults for constructive sharing. More in general, investment in human capital tobuild a path that allows for personal and professional growth in their relationshipabove all with themselves and then with the sponsored families and children

Greater investment in the family as a resource for the centre and for the externalcommunity, as a nucleus on which to base responses to problems and the dailyneeds of its members, through improvement of reception and educational contentof activities at the centre

Assessment of the feasibil ity of using resources from other groups/local o rganisa-

tions, where the centre works with the aim of strengthening the local playerscapacities for greater sustainability of future work by the centre Improvement of our approach and method with families for creating a scenario of

free collaboration, responsibility and trust in the work carried out by the centre Involvement of men in family-oriented activities, husbands, fathers and brothers,

making them protagonists within the family and in the educational path of theirchildren, focussing on the young men as the turning point for a future genera-tional change extended to the reference community. Without their direct involve-ment the good results of our work are often at risk and not sustainable for thefamily itself.

Material resources More funds at our disposal for the creation of a nutrition centre. We currently

distribute two meals a week, but without a real educational path upstream tosupport this activity for mothers and children. Only 20% of the potential spacein the centre is used for this purpose

More funds at our disposal for the organisation of exchange days between theBurundian social staff and staff in bordering countries (Rwanda, RDC, Kenya)

More personnel working at the centre and also, starting with new sponsorship,an attempt to create more standardised local groups in order not to waste theenergy and work done in a very fragmented territory.

Knowledge, competences and capacities Creation and strengthening of collaboration with local partners to make best use

of their knowledge of local culture and family dynamics and creation of a path ofcommunity solidarity through involvement of volunteers from the community, butabove all with a view to future sustainability of the centre post AVSI

Strengthening of our relationships with local authorities to involve them in workby the centre

Streamlining of our work by inserting each project into a wider picture with inter-national players


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The experience in Ecuador

Collaboration with schools through direct relationships with teachers andheadmasters

The support of a nutrition expert who can guide us in dietary education Putting the questions and needs of the families themselves rst and not setting out

with preconceived personal reasoning Creation and activation of networks between families at the centre, through

encounters and experiences of the families involved, a model to show thatthey have brought about positive change thanks to our support and the centre,in order to encourage direct involvement of other families, which starts on acultural leve l that is closer to their daily difculties, to make the childrens familiesresponsible for and pro-active in their educational path and values put forward by

the centre Improvement in our capacity to involve families in psychological counselling.


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2.1. IntroductionAVSIs activity in Ecuador, together with its local counterparts, has from the start(2001) been through a special programme, Pelca (Prescolar en la Casa, which origi-nated in Galizia and was taken to Ecuador by Don Dario Maggi) particularly in favourof the family.Using this programme, the aim from the very beginning was to help parents recog-nise and develop fully their childrens capabilities, through reections on daily lifeand on the more important themes for the growth and education of children. Thecontent of meetings with parents (mostly fortnightly, sometimes monthly or weekly)is the stimulus and incentive for what parents will continue at home. In the meetings,specic questions are discussed, such as child development and nutrition, but also

wider topics, such as family value and marital relations, which are often a source ofhuge problems. The meeting groups (6/7 parents per group) are stable, in order toencourage acquaintance and trust among members and the growth of positive rela-tionships between the adults.Since 2005 in Ecuador AVSI has run the AEDI (Integrated Education Action) programme,along with two local counterparts (Vicaria de Educacion in rural areas and FundacionSembrarin urban ones). Currently more than a thousand families are involved in theprogramme about 400 in urban areas and 700 in rural zones, for a total of 1700children and accompanied teenagers. It should be noted that, as of 2005, both inrural and urban areas and following the development of the Pelca programme (whichcontinues in its original form for about 600 local children), various kinds of involve-ment and activities have developed, all with the aim of helping and educating chil-dren by supporting their families. Such intervention includes: a dozen or so nurseriesand playgroups that have sprung up both in urban and rural zones in order to allowparents to go to work; after school groups - the educators means of helping chil-dren and parents to full the necessary obligations associated with school attendance;educational activities with about 200 adolescents; and some small productive activitiesfor parents.The urban and the rural contexts often have very diverse characteristics. In this docu-ment we shall refer to these two areas separately, with their specic differences, whichalso impact AVSIs intervention.

2.2. The context and AVSIs interventionBelow we consider the characteristics and specic difculties of the context faced bythe programme in past years, and the ways of responding that were found.

The mother fgure as frst point-o-contactIn our activities focussed on the family, our most important point-of-contact isundoubtedly the mother. In general, in Ecuadorian society, the fathers are not involvedin the life and education of their children. This void is found in all of the countrys

social structure. The entire responsibility for education lies with the mothers. As faras regards our work, we distinguish 3 groups of mothers and consequently of familieswith which we are concerned: Unmarried mothers, that is to say, young women who at the age of 13/14, out of

curiosity, in a search for affection and often in a bid to escape, begin to have theirrst sexual experiences. Among young people there is a general lack of apprecia-tion of the value of loving relationships and little education towards self-control.

About 15% of children in AVSIs programme are offspring of unmarried mothers.In such cases, it is the grandparents (extended family) who take decisions and areconcerned with the childs education. Our work, in general, is not directed towardsall family members without distinction, nor necessarily to the mother, but to the

person who takes care of the childs education. Through this person, in many cases,the other members are reached. Even when the mothers are not living with thefathers, very often they begin to inform him and so he becomes gradually involved.

Another category of mothers is that of mothers who are separated from theirhusbands: about 5%. In these cases, the mothers are the main breadwinners andwork hard. Our contact become an aunt or uncle perhaps more adult who looksafter the child during the day, but who does not live with him.

Another category, the remaining and most common one, is that of informal or freeunions, in a small percentage of which (about 5%) the father of the household is notthe natural father. In the majority of cases he makes no economic contribution, nordoes he have anything to do with his acquired childs education.

Over the years, we have seen that the rst step is to involve the mothers. Gradually,then, the dads begin to take part in the regular educational meetings of the mothers mostly out of interest and curiosity in seeing their wives change and especially ontheir days off (Saturday). This is the case of about 10% of our dads and is especiallyso when the children reach an age to start primary school. Sometimes, the fathers donot take part in meetings, but seek out educators during the week to share with themvarious types of family problems, often concerning the couple, as if they were seekingmoral support. This is the case of about 10% of our dads. Other times, especially inrural areas and where participation is high, they attend twice yearly evening meetings,where they feel free to speak of educational and family problems from a male point-of-view. In recent years, in the rural areas, their organisational and constructive contri-butions to initiatives has been highly valued, where working ability is necessary (e.g.to erect buildings for educational activities) and particularly in agricultural activities,under a programme to create family or community vegetable gardens, intended toimprove the familys and above all, the childrens eating habits.

As far as other family members are concerned, some of them become the necessarycontact for the childs education under the AVSI programme. Very often this personis one of the grandparents, when parents are absent for various reasons (emigra-tion, separation, work, very young mother). In this case, the grandmothers especially 27

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take part in meetings, and educational intervention is focussed on making sure thenatural mother does not lose educational contact with her child. In urban areas, forexample, this means the mother contacting the educator once a month. In the speciccase of children being looked after by grandparents due to migration or separationof the parents, the infrequent visits and family conicts often make it impossible forthe educator to maintain contact with the natural mother. So the grandparents oraunts and uncles who take care of the child become the key contact for educationalintervention.Grandparents, older married siblings, aunts and uncles and neighbours are thereforevery often supportive gures, though they do not live with the child, as also is thefamily abroad (emigrants). When the child is rst registered, the educator identies

and also registers this person or persons. Throughout the year, the educator encour-ages the family to activate this resource, especially in case of need such as healthproblems, daytime child care, economic support or emergencies in case of a violenthusband. Sometimes, these are the people who become mediators, enabling us toreach the family when contact is difcult. They can also be a source of precious infor-mation for better understanding of a situation, especially in small rural communities.It should be said that sometimes support gures are already involved in AVSI activities(often these are the same people who originally told the family about AVSI activi-ties and the possibility of involvement) and they are in touch with AVSI operators,taking part in normal activities. In other cases, they are punctually present for specialoccasions, e.g. at parties (maximum 3 times per year: for children, for mothers andend-of-year).The common mentality o womans ineriority to manParticularly in urban areas, there is a widespread mentality of female inferiority, whichis reected in many aspects of our educational activity.

Urban areas One of the most critical aspects of the urban context is the widespreadmacho mentality leading at worst to violence against women. Among otherthings, this deprives women in general of personal goals. According to the machomentality, the woman must stay at home, not only to carry out household duties,but also because of her husbands jealousy. Generally, men do not want their wife tocontinue studying (perhaps to avoid potential inferiority complexes) and/or work.On the one hand, this stems from a need to take care of the children, on the other,from fear of women becoming independent. It is acceptable for wives to work only foreconomic reasons (when the husbands income is not enough to maintain the family).This mentality, added to the common problem of alcoholism, above all, among men,often results in episodes of physical or verbal violence: as well as being assaulted,women are often insulted even in front of their children and accused of being thecause of all the familys problems. This phenomenon is so widespread that manywomen consider it normal both to be maltreated and to abandon their personal ambi-

tions regarding study and/or work.It is important to note that this problem of violence has become more recognised inrecent years, since women have only begun to open up and talk about it, once a rela-tionship of trust has grown up with the educators. To deal with this question, severalinitiatives have been taken: appreciation of healthy husband/wife relationships bymeans of formal testimony during end-of-year events and more spontaneous testimonyduring meetings, in order to give families a positive vision, that can be an exampleto other households; involvement of fathers (who are often difcult to reach theiremployment, though temporary and poorly paid, does usually exist) together withtheir wives, for example, to football matches, inviting the wives to cheer them, and tomeetings which are deliberately held on Saturdays so that fathers may attend.The idea is not so much to take sides on the question of violence or alcoholism,but rather to place value on already-existing positive aspects (the couple) that mightbecome an example to others, as a possible way of interacting. At the moment,however, there is still little room, and only sporadically, for this type of activity withinthe programme, due to the fathers lack of available time.Last year, moreover, parents training was concentrated precisely around this themeof the family and how it is supported. This may have contributed to the unexpecteddiscovery that the problem of mistreatment and violence was fairly serious among our


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collaborators too (90% of whom come from the areas where we operate). We there-fore decided to concentrate our attention on them, by giving them opportunities fortraining and study, showing them a possible horizon through readings on the subjectand meetings (3 per year) with friends. This year we also tried a Sunday outing forcouples (our collaborators and their husbands). This was a chance to socialise and toget to know each other, as well as for confrontation through experiences and groupwork around the theme of marital relations, etcFollowing this outing, for some months we have been considering whether the expe-rience should be repeated, without excluding (as in the rst outing) our collabora-tors (often unmarried mothers) who do not have husbands or partners. Our commonconsensus is that the question of marriage and its connected difculties cannot be

faced outside of the central question of the individual and of personal responsibility.

Rural areas It should be pointed out that in Ecuador there is a difference not so muchbetween town and country, as between geographic zones (Costa and Sierra). In thecoastal region, women are inferior to a lesser degree. Despite this, in the Costa too, ourprogramme has had to face the problem of a widespread mentality of female infe-riority and the scarce involvement of fathers in educating children, only in partcomplicated by underlying machismo. At the start of the programme, for example,obstacles were raised to the mothers participation in training meetings and, apartfrom initiatives already indicated in the previous point, the problem was challengedon various fronts: Involving fathers in activities of creating or cultivating community or family vege-

table gardens, with the triple aim of: improving family diet, earning a little addi-tional income and bringing them closer to the programme and to understanding itswider signicance, not only concerning childrens education but education for all,improving family conditions and community participation

Deliberately avoiding hiring only female educators. This, as well as for logisticpurposes (some communities, due to their isolation and distance, are easier reachedby male rather than female educators), also for educational needs: a male educatorhas demonstrated, more than a thousand words, that men too can educate, with thespecial characteristics, naturally, of their sex. Furthermore, this has taught not a fewhusbands to trust their own wife

Creating training occasions where the fathers participation is explicitly required,sometimes alone, sometimes with his wife obviously in the evening, to encourageparticipation on questions especially connected with family and marital dynamics,on relationships both with wives and with children. The methodology tried todate has been dialogue following watching a lm or lm excerpts on the subject.The encounters organised in rural areas (the most populated communities) havegiven very interesting results, with the discovery that fathers want these occasions(perhaps not too often) because they feel considered for their own special character-istics. This has made us wonder whether sometimes we risk creating a vicious circle

by ourselves: given that fathers are not interested, we invite (and we endeavour tocreate favourable conditions) the participation of the mothers.

Lack o social connections outside o the amilyThe problem of male dominance, both in urban and rural zones, is compounded bythe almost total lack of social contact outside of the family, especially for women.many have no friends and only see their neighbours. It is not common to invite friendshome or to spend time with other families. Chances for meeting others are generallylimited to neighbourhood meetings, to communal work also for the neighbourhood,or to some sporting activity. Men have more contacts outside of the family, but theseare generally of a very supercial nature. Nobody, however, has a point of reference,

a person in whom to conde their worries and who will support them, that is outsideof the family. So many women live with their problems and worries, often in profoundsolitude.

Urban areas To address this problem and to encourage formation of networks amongthe families, 3 years ago in the urban area a meeting room was started (somewhereto meet freely and informally). This initiative, however, came up against several prob-lems, owing to lack of interest and continuative assistance. Later about 2 years ago aclub of collaborators/mothers was started, with selected mothers who were moreinvolved in project activities, to allow them a chance for human education and recre-ational activities together. Last year a small group of collaborator-mothers (5) wasselected for special training (cookery courses, costume jewellery, chocolate making).This group is currently setting up a micro-enterprise, assisted by the programme.In parallel with these initiatives and also within the educational programme offeredto families and with the aim of improving their social network, during the past2 years, some solidarity activities have been proposed (collecting food and usedclothes for poorer families in the neighbourhood), which have attracted great partic-ipation from the families. In recent months we have learned of a series of supportiveinitiatives among families in the form of specic help in case of need and in dif-cult moments (concerning food and clothing), discreet and spontaneous actions,conceived by the families themselves.It should also be noted that more and more families join the programme becausethey are invited by other families. Some other small activities were freely organisedthis year among mothers in the programme. In particular, a group of 7 mothersmeets regularly (every month and a half) to cook together, others prepare with theirchildren the manual tasks to be handed to educators at the meetings.

Another network level in the urban area is one functioning today among people whowork with AVSI, many of whom started as beneciaries, almost all originiating fromthe neighbourhoods where we work. A case in point are the 5 women who run thefamily nurseries or others who increasingly frequently meet outside working hoursto eat or study together.


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Rural area In the rural area, although training meetings for many mothers representa point of reference and a chance to exchange ideas, this does not seem sufcient toconsolidate social connections, especially as meetings are still seen in many cases ascarrying out a duty/requirement of the programme. From 2008, therefore, occasionswere created to challenge the womens freedom: for example, dressmaking courseswith the subsequent creation of a group of mothers who might use the newly-learnedskills to generate a modest economic activity for their and their familys benet. Out of76 participants at courses during 2009, currently about twenty mothers make up andsell their products, for modest prots. Some have formed a group to help each otherand they dene their most important gain as having formed friendships with eachother. This positive experience stimulates us to offer the same possibility of experienceto more rural communities.

Also, as of this year, in every rural community a parents group has been formallyconstituted (Group of Family Representatives). Families have democratically chosentheir representatives from the more active and involved mums and dads, whose role isprecisely to stimulate families involved and the rest of the community, according to an

improvement plan that is decided and agreed together.For our programme, the Groups of Family Representatives at this time are our mosteffective instrument for creating operative links between families and stimulatingthem to embrace aims and accept responsibility for the sustainability and continuityof the programme itself: propagation of the programme and awareness-raising amongother families, information about initiatives concerning hygiene and improving livingspaces, construction and maintenance of communal play and learning areas for infants,coordination and control of carrying out of various initiatives (vaccination campaign,prevention of childish ailments and promotion of family health, campaign for use ofregistry ofce).

2.3. Innovative and methodological aspects of work doneIn the light of the context and types of response described, the following points ofoperative methods, which are most innovative in work with families, can be discerned- points clearly connected and derived from AVSIs 5 points of method (page 90).

The amilies are protagonistsAn innovative and distinctive point of AVSIs work in Ecuador in these years is withoutdoubt the leading role entrusted to parents concerning the education of their own chil-dren. Over the years, as systematic evaluation has also shown, a change has graduallyemerged concerning the very aim of educational activity, that is to say, more attentionand responsibility towards children, up to a different allocation of time on the part offathers, expressed in sharing household tasks and free time.In the urban area, for those directly involved in the educative task, greater family unity,or a desire for it, can be noticed, right up to the decision to stabilise a relationship.In the rural zone, it should be mentioned that initially the programme had to facea very welfare state mentality, further encouraged by government social policies.There, emphasis was placed particularly on community initiative, voluntary workand self-management of activities, especially the construction and maintenanceof learning spaces (meeting rooms), set up at the suggestion and with voluntarycontributions of some families. In this sense, many parents were given a chance ofdirect and responsible participation, which then led to the development of a muchstronger feeling of belonging, to feeling personally involved in the construction ofthe programme.The educators as protagonists

Another innovative aspect of the experience is the involvement in working withfamilies of families, or family members, from the projects area of inuence. In theurban area, participation is almost entirely female, while in the rural area womencount for only 60%.In this sense, the most important methodological point is the clear invitation to educa-


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tional staff (especially those who directly guide families) to get involved, workingtogether, in a learning journey about themselves. Educating oneself to educate others.This, we have seen over the years, results in educators being more able to empathise withthe needs and difculties of the families being helped and therefore greater trust fromthese families. In practice, regular encounters are held (at intervals depending on theurban and rural zones), reserved for reading and reection on texts concerning the mainpillars of work with the families: education, charity and hospitality, marital relations,meaning of work, construction.

During this personal voyage, a growing desire forms for technical and professionaltraining tted to the job to be done. Through time, at least in the urban area, almost

all operators rst completed compulsory education (which 85% of women involvedhad not nished), then they signed up for university, or university extensions coursesrelevant to their work. In the rural area, too, where all educators hired had minimumsecondary education (bachillerato), 80% have completed or are taking university studies,generally using distance learning.

Attention to the operator/amily relationshipAs far as the relationship between the family and the operator is concerned, the mostsignicant aspect is that it is single and stable over time as a reference point foreducation. We try to keep the same educational referee for more than a year, but often,especially lately, having differentiated activities according to age and type of involvementin the programme, at the beginning of the years activities (September in the urban zoneand April in the rural one), the child has to change educator.The contact educator is responsible for work with the family as a whole. Apart fromencounters with the contact educator, intervention can take place at various levels withthe family. For example: study grants, health assistance, housing tness, nurseries, after-school, family vegetable gardens and animal husbandry. Decisions concerning additionalintervention (timing and modality) are always taken by the contact educator, the groupof educators for the area (pre-school, school and youth) in the urban area, or the groupof educators for the geographic area in the rural zone, the area or zone coordinatorand, depending on the activity, the people directly involved (e.g. the health promotionoperator, for health cases). The more complex and difcult family cases are discussedin Monday morning meetings with the whole team of family educators, in the presenceof area or zone supervisors or, depending upon the case, of programme coordinators.Case analysis discussion is a valuable opportunity of sharing work accomplished or to bedone, as well as a way of lending objectivity to observations made, thus removing themfrom the potentially dangerous sphere of subjective interpretation.Should families change educator at the start of the new year, the former educatorinforms them of this before the summer holidays. In the urban zone we have noticedthat families normally resist this change of educator, but then accept it and trust the neweducator. In reality there is a period (the month of September or longer, depending upon

how close the friendship was) when mothers maintain close contact with the formereducators and see them in their free time and outside of the usual meetings. The formereducator also takes care to maintain the relationship and gradually introduces the motherinto a relationship with the new educator. In this process, it is very helpful if the educa-tors are conscious and transmit this to the families that they are part of a commoneffort, with shared aims and criteria, together with people linked by friendship, etcInformation is gathered and passed on from one educator to another using a collec-tion system, with a dossier for each child (from this September in the urban zone, foreach family), containing initial data and evaluations along the way.Until little over a year ago, especially in the urban zone, the level of information gatheredusing available instruments was fairly low and consequently during the passage from

one educator to another much was communicated verbally and left to the educators freeinitiative. This year in consideration of the evaluation process under way, we have beenable to improve information collected initially from the family and its registration duringthe educational process, concentrating on qualitative and human development infor-mation. This should help to facilitate personalisation of the educational work and thepassage of information concerning the education process, from one educator to another.In the rural zone, over the years, an organised system of home visits has been perfected.For each home visit, educators coordinate together the best modality, choosing from: visitfrom the contact educator only, visit from the area coordinator alone or accompanied by


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the educator, visit from two educators who both have contact with the family (e.g. a pre-school and an after-school one). These visits have proved to be an important resource forgetting to know people and for being known. Educators note how regular visits to eachfamily make a substantial difference to the relationship, as they allow educators to enterthe family on a more personal level and to better understand relationships. At the sametime, parents and children fully welcome this visit, feeling that they are appreciated andunderstood in the very place where those socio-affective and cultural dynamics originatethat then support the entire educational effort.

Activating key resources in the territoryBoth in rural and urban areas, a very important aspect of AVSIs work is their collab-

oration with the local Church.In the urban zone, this is the local Parish Church, where there is an Italian congre-gation called the Piccole Apostole della Scuola Cristiana. For 4 years, AVSI hasbeen running after-school activities with this Church, sharing costs and coordina-tion of activities. Another important collaboration is that with the Congregationof the Sisters of the Sagrado Costado, particularly for immediate intervention inemergency needs of the family, as for example, food. This Congregation also runs ahealth centre with which AVSI is associated and a professional training centre withwhich we have worked in recent years on relevant projects. Both congregations servethe Parish. Our programme encourages children and parents to take part in parishactivities that share the objectives and criteria of our activities. The parish priest, forexample, has taken part in some activities with parents, has led some special litur-gical occasions for parents in our programme (e.g. the via crucis). We are careful topass on to families information concerning parish life and many of AVSIs employeesare directly involved in it.The same happens in the rural area. Here our local counterpart, who expressesthe pastoral activity of the diocese, has implemented very close collaboration withthose parishes where the programme is active. The educators work is dened asPastoral-educational and the local parish priests know and take part in programmeevents. The two nurseries currently run by the Programme are both parochial, undera convention signed with the government Education Authority. This conventionallows the parish priest to take active part in selecting the educator and her assistant,in management decisions and in training meetings with parents. Operators in ruralzones are generally selected with the collaboration of local priests, who suggest someactive or noteworthy people in the community. This does not prevent Protestantfamilies from having access to the programme. The three parishes offer accommoda-tion for the programmes ofces.The Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference itself has supported the programme in therural zone with two computer workshops, a dressmaking workshop and a naturalscience laboratory with equipment, instruments and teaching material for studyingbiology, chemistry and physics at primary and secondary levels.

Also, in the area of rural education, there is close collaboration with directors ofthe two Rural Schools Networks, covering about 35 schools, with whom trainingevents and round tables have been organised, open to all teachers in our zones ofactivity. It should be mentioned that, when our programme began in the rural zone,as far as contacts with educational institutions were concerned, we found thatparents had a totally passive and submissive attitude regarding all educational deci-sions. The families were therefore assisted in their family-school relations, thanksalso to the relationship of the programme with these institutions. The constant riskhere is that parents prefer to delegate the programme to resolve conicts with theschools. It is actually very difcult to change this attitude of inbuilt fear of govern-ment authorities, especially in the more depressed and isolated rural zones. The

programme therefore takes great care to follow and support all parental initiativeswithout taking their place. We have seen, in the rural area, that participation in theprogramme has really developed this sense of protagonism: e.g. organised groups ofparents have presented ofcial requests to the Province for reopening or expandingrural schools, with positive response from the authorities. Among other things, thisshows increased awareness of the importance of children nishing their compulsoryeducation and therefore being able to continue their studies.In the urban zone, on the other hand, the school situation is rather more complex,due to overall problems in institutions accepting childrens requests for attendanceand a consequent territorial dispersion of primary school children. We have chosenin recent years to concentrate on a personal and direct relationship between familyand institution, giving parents better knowledge of the educational system they aredealing with, as well as of how to follow their childs educational and didacti cal devel-opment. Following problems noted over the years in children attending after-schoolactivities, last year we decided that the after-school session with educators was notobligatory, but an alternative for families that, because of work or other problems,could not directly help their children with school homework. The choice was givento other mothers who wanted to help their children personally with homework ofa new type of afternoon meeting, with the children and their homework books, inorder to guide and support mothers in this educational task.In the area of health, in the rural zone, collaboration with public health centrescontinues to grow. Collaboration takes place on a logistic level in organising trainingsessions for mothers on prevention and health promotion and in coordinating amedical check-up of children at least every quarter. Doctors also go to visit elderlypatients or adults who cannot travel, on the basis of information from AVSIs healthoperators. Our intention is to work on developing this network and to get operativeresponses to questions taken up by the programme, e.g. the need for vaccinationcampaigns and free medicine promised by the government but not yet, or not yetevenly distributed among health centres.Collaboration with local authorities in urban and rural zones is carried out asneeded. For example: in the rural zone the local authority donated the land on


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which a school support centre with 6 classrooms currently functions, it offered ususe of the assembly room when the programme could not yet accommodate allparents in the community, it gave us free use of two mechanical diggers to shift andlevel earth for the sports eld under construction.Particularly In the urban zone, other institutions that AVSI has collaborated withwere other churches, when the family belonged to one, (e.g. Protestant churches)or special institutions in cases of emergency (childrens homes or juvenile court)or necessity (primary school, to nd a place, as they are very scarce here). Also,in the urban zone, many families are involved in football clubs or neighbourhoodcommittees, as well as dance clubs (in the latter case, about 7%). In these cases, theparticipation of such families in AVSI activities was certainly a great encouragement

for them to try themselves in this type of activity and a benet for other families onthe programme. Such families set an example and encourage others.


The experience in Romania


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3.1. IntroductionThe AVSI foundation presence in Romania is particularly connected to theproblem of infantile AIDS. It started in 1994, after obtaining authorisation fromthe Romanian government to rehabilitate and expand the paediatric pavilion of theDr Victor Babes infectious diseases hospital in Bucharest, which at the time washome to about 60 HIV-positive children.In 1996, AVSI encouraged the establishment of a local organisation, and theactivity of Fundatia Dezvoltarea Popoarelor (FDP) started up; this no-protgovernment organisation endors the AVSI method (the 5 points of the method)and is the privileged local partner for AVSI actions. FDP immediately initiateddistance support projects in Cluj for children in special schools and institution-alised children. 1998 marked the start of the social and educational projects inBucharest for HIV-positive children, both abandoned and in the family. In thesame year, following the meeting with some families that periodically broughttheir HIV-positive children to the Victor Babes hospital for care and treatment,an operation started up to support special needs children (AIDS and disabled)in the Roma village of Iazu, municipality of Cojasca (a village about 45 kmfrom Bucharest, in the Dambovitaregion). After this, several projects to supporteducation were created (starting from preschool, then primary and middle school,

followed by secondary schools and recently support for Roma youth attendingUniversity). In Arad, Fundatia and AVSI began their presence in 1999, at rsttaking action in a situation of abandonment of very young children and babies:0-3 years old. The operation in the city of Arad then continued, with activitiesfor families at risk; this involved professional training for unemployed adults andgetting them started in jobs.In fact, in the last few years, beginning from the changes of the local reality, alsodue to Romania recently becoming part of the European Union, and consideringthat the beneciaries met some time previously had grown and have differentneeds compared to a few years ago, it was decided to favour the work orien-tation and professional training sector. In 2007, the rst project started at the

national level, nanced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which started up jobtraining activities in all four zones of the country, where FDP is present: Bucharest,Cojasca, Arad and Cluj.Today, Fundatia Dezvoltarea Popoarelor is an authorised supplier according toRomanian law in the eld of education and professional placement.Starting from 2008, it began structuring itself to access European Social Funds,presenting a number of nancing proposals with national and international part-nerships to develop services in the sector of school drop-out prevention, job place-ment and development of social economy. The Cojasca, Arad and Cluj work pointswere recently given autonomous legal status, becoming actual branches of Fundatia(respectively: FDP Dambovita branch, FDP Arad branch and FDP Cluj branch).

Right from the start of our experience we tried to support the family. A big jobwas to look for families who had abandoned their children (e.g. institutionalisedHIV-positive children), to try and re-place the children with their natural families.This work has never stopped, although it has not had great results. Even now, for theHIV+ youth we have accepted into our shelter homes, we favour the possibility ofretaining that relationship, even the smallest with their original families, attemptingto valorise the possible and even the impossible. When we werent able to reintegratethe minors in their families we looked for different solutions: this led to the experi-ences of the shelter homes with substitute families (that accommodated a total of 21children) and foster families (that accommodated a total of 7 children).In particular in the city of Arad, we also worked with families in difculty, atrisk, with targeted actions to prevent abandonment. We were therefore able toconclude that targeted actions to prevent abandonment are very important. Oftena family abandons their child because the family is alone and does not realise howimportant the parents are for the childs development. We saw how educationalaccompaniment and a small material support (sometimes not even necessary) canhave a great impact.

We real ised that to support the family, it is essenti al to also initia te orienta tion,work placement and professional training projects. So new activities were initiated to 41

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respond to this need. Now, Fundatia develops a series of work support activities infour regions in Romania, also thanks to projects funded by the European Social Funds.

As regards the educational projects, in particular in the experience of Cojasca(Dambovita region), from the outset the parents were involved in the educationalactivities of their children: they participate in school eld trips, celebrations (e.g.childrens birthday parties), work groups so they can play key roles in change andnot just be passive subjects.

3.2. Context In the country villages in particular, there are problems such as: poverty, alco-

holism, domestic violence, uneducated parents, often illiteracy, together withthe lack of a steady job. It is hard to keep a job, especially in the rural areaswhere seasonal jobs are more frequent. This can be observed both in the Romacommunities (for example in Cojasca), and in the other communities, such asthe country ones of Jucu (in the Cluj region) and in the Arad region. It is alsohard to keep a steady job due to the low level of professional qualications.Many families only have government subsidies as a stable income (about 20euro a month for each child)

One particular phenomenon, unfortunately common in all eastern European coun-tries, is child abandonment. There are many reasons for this, for example poverty isone, but the main reason is a question of mindset, because it was considered (and isstill a common mindset now) that the government can look after a child better thana poor family. Families that abandon their children are often disorganised; in somecases women are alone, with social problems that include no job, no home, healthproblems (including psychological illness) or sometimes parents in prison

Other causes are now joining these, lets say historical reasons, due to recent migra-tion phenomenon. It is estimated that there are about 350,000 white orphans inRomania at this moment. Many of them are given to grandparents, older brothersand sisters, distant relatives or neighbours by parents who have gone to otherEuropean countries looking for work. Basically this new phenomenon concerns 7%of the infantile population

To handle this emergency, in the last decade, the national child protection authority(a kind of ministry of children) proposed some emergency measures to close largeinstitutions (note that in the nineties, about 100,000 children were abandoned ina population of about 22.5 million inhabitants). One of these was the establish-ment of a special gure maternal assistant, i.e. a person who decides to becomeparent by profession. To this, a person does a training course to obtain a profes-sional certicate as maternal assistant, and with this, on the basis of a contract thatinvolves a fair sum of money, the person can accommodate one or more abandonedchildren. Unfortunately however, very often the economic interests predominatedbehind this choice and it did not hold up over time: in fact, we saw that fami-

lies with this kind of motivation, or that were not suitably accompanied by localsocial services during the accommodation experience, often gave up the childrentaken in after a while (hence causing further trauma to the minors). Other reformsconcerned the restructuring of mammoth spaces: many institutions (some accom-modated hundreds of children in rooms of just 20-30) were dismembered andorganised into smaller modular spaces: this enabled the social services to begintalking about accommodation homes and no longer about institution (as a result,apparently we can say the children were slightly less institutionalised but in actualfact, the only real difference to the childrens situation was material). In the past fewyears, these reforms halved the number of abandoned children (now estimated asabout 45,000 minors), enabling Romania to reach an important target, necessary for

its integration into Europe. Regarding this, another important reform ordered by theEU related to adoptions: to encourage national adoptions, and put a stop to whatwas considered real child trafcking, it was opted to go for a drastic solution andprohibit international adoptions. This prohibition was supposed to be temporary,until legislation that could clearly protect the interests of minors could be put intoplace but unfortunately we are still waiting for that: Romania is still a country whereinternational adoption is not possible, despite the trends of thousands of childrenliving in institutes

A high percentage of Roma children do not attend school: for economic difculties,parents lack of education or because of social marginalisation. Marginalisation ismore frequent in city areas because having Roma students is a risk for many schoolsthat could therefore be called school for gypsies for that reason. When a schoolis stigmatised with that name, very often the parents of non-Roma children ask tomove their children to other schools in the same city

It is not known exactly how many Roma children drop out of school, compared toother children, because there are no certain, ofcial gures (and often, the Romapeople try to hide their ethnic background). Still, it is estimated that attendance atpreschool (for the Roma 17%) is about four times lower than the national average,and about 17% of Roma children do not attend any type of school

The lack of consistency of the education system, marked in recent years bynumerous functional changes caused by repeated reforms to the teaching system.This aspect leads to teachers losing motivation, made even worse by the lownancial incentives

Lack of concern for the health of their children, generated on the one hand by lackof education of parents and poor nancial resources and on the other by the crisisin the health system. Many doctors and nurses look for jobs in European countries;this migration phenomenon of the healthcare labour force has in some cases causedthe closure of hospitals due to lack of medical and paramedical staff

One problem that is often ignored, with very meagre gures, is abortion, but it isestimated that Romania is one of the countries with the highest

avsi beauty of the family

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