The Coordinator of Kids With A Vision Foundation (K-WAVF), Mrs Grace Solomon, says orphanages are not conducive for orphans to grow in.

Solomon who stated this at a conference on fostering in Jos on Wednesday, said that orphanages were supposed to be transition points to train a child for a little while and then place him/her in the best family care.

She also said that orphanages were supposed to be like caretaker to look after the slot children for a little while, but not permanently.

“This is the first foster care conference we are having for the organisation, we mobilised people to come here today to know about foster care.

“It is high time we educate members of the society to understand the importance of fostering.

“This is because we want people to open up their houses, their homes and their arms to love these children.

“We want people to understand that there is a blessing in fostering these children and there is blessing in taking up a child who is not your biological child to give him life and be a pathfinder for him for the future.

“For God’s sake, the child is not supposed to be in the orphanage, children don’t belong in the orphanages, they have the right to live like every normal child,” she said.

The coordinator said that after giving the children food, shelter, clothing, education, health and pyscho-social support, they still had trauma to deal with.

According to her, a child who goes to school and returns to the orphanage is like in a prison yard,adding that such child does not have a friend to visit or go to for normal outing.

“We are even afraid for them, it is as if we are over protecting them because they are government children.

“If we don’t reduce or take them out of the orphanges, the fear of the future may come back to us like a boomerang.

“That is because we will still be dealing with trauma and other personal or psychological issues.

“If you tell a child don’t steal and you don’t expose the child, if he goes to wedding or supermarket and sees something interesting, he might have the tendency to steal because he has not been to a supermarket before.

“If you dont free them and give them the opportunity to interact, they may end up being armed robbers and may end up bringing back those ills we are running away from,” she said.

Mrs Sandra Chikan, Vice President North, National Association of Orphanages and Home Operators,said that the importance of the conference was to shift the mindset of the people concerning the model of care of children in orphanages.

Chikan said that the best model of care they had understood as operators of orphanages were fostering, adoption and kingship care.

She said that each child needed a family and a sense of permanency and that the conference was calling on communities to see what they could do to take children out of orphanages.

She lauded K-WAVF for putting together the conference which she said would go a long way in achieving the goal.

Prof Ezekiel Best, K- WAVF Board Chairman,said that he accepted to chair the board because of the passion he had for the children and impact the organisation was creating on the lives of children.

Best said that in African context, raising children was not a one-man business, hence the need for the invitees to make their contributions on how to care for the orphans.

-NAN