Orphans into loving families in Vietnam

With Vietnam coming out of lockdown in April 2022, and having delivered the full training programme to the family placement teams from the two pilot orphanages, Care for Children’s goal now is to transition the project from Stage 1 (pilot) to Stage 2 (national roll-out). During the national roll-out stage, Care for Children will roll out its training programme to all government orphanages across the country.

But what does Care for Children’s training programme consist of?

Our training programme equips family placement staff with the knowledge and skills to run safe and effective family care programmes, whereby children are moved out of orphanages and placed into local families. This training is adapted to suit each country we work in. The key components of our training are: 

Necessity, suitability, matching and planning 

Children should be placed in families in line with the necessity and suitability principles. Matching and case planning are crucial. We train family placement staff to ensure that children are placed in family care only when necessary and suitable. Training emphasises the importance of careful matching and detailed case planning so that families can best meet a child’s needs. 

Preparation 

Both the child and the family carers should be prepared for the placement before the child moves in with the family. We train family placement staff to know what steps to take to prepare the child and the family carers, including the importance of life story work and sharing appropriate and relevant information about the child’s background. 

Support services 

Family carers and children should be given adequate support and access to services. We train family placement staff on the importance of the provision of emotional, financial and psychological support for family carers and the children in their care. 

Recruitment and assessment 

Loving, local families should be recruited and assessed as to their suitability to become family carers. We train family placement staff to find family carers who have the commitment and emotional engagement necessary to care for a child in their family. 

Capacity building 

Initial and ongoing capacity building of both family placement staff and family carers is an integral part of providing a quality family care programme. We train family placement staff so they can offer family carers both pre-placement training and additional bespoke training. 

Monitoring and evaluation 

Monitoring and evaluation of family care placements is crucial to ensure that children are safe and are receiving quality care. We train family placement staff to embed robust monitoring systems into their programmes to ensure that children are safe and reduce the risk of placement breakdowns. 

I hope this gives you an insight into our training, which is such a key part of our work in transitioning countries from institutional care to family-based care for orphans and vulnerable children.

Stay connected for more updates. Thank you so much for your support.