October 2016 Zimpeto Child Reintegration Program Update

Our reintegration team have been busy the last months. A number of new children have been accepted into the centre, two of them suffering significantly from infectious diseases.

We have been able to reintegrate over 15 children back into their families and have built approximately six small houses to help these families have room to be together again.

Due to the continuing financial support of IMC, a family of four children were able to be to be reintegrated. We were able to build a bedroom for the children, repair a small a small one room house that the grandmother and great grandmother live in, lay a cement floor, repair the leaking roof, and add a door.  We have provided surplus donated adult clothing for the grandmother in order to assist her in creating a small business of selling the clothes to provide an income.

We are paying for all school costs and school materials for the four children, and are providing regular food boxes until the grandmother is able to establish her sales business.

The oldest girl continues to learn how to sew at the centre through the sewing program. The oldest boy is gardening at the centre.

Although this could appear to be creating financial dependency, we have found that by working with the families during transition, the family is strengthened and better equipped to manage and integrate the children back into the home environment. The team will continue to visit this family monthly to assess their needs.

The reintegration team continues to visit and revisit reintegrated children and to offer support where necessary. Additionally, they visit families of centre children to ascertain if the home situations may have changed, and thus could enable the children to be reintegrated.

One of the most crucial parts of reintegration is transport. There is a lot of driving back and forth to families. The recently newer second hand car has been a great blessing and is the reason the team can accomplish so many home visits.

We have been acknowledged by social welfare to be efficient in our protocols and have managed to meet most if not all their requirements. This is a first for reintegration and is due to the hard work of the team and the financial support of IMC, which provides necessary materials for families that results in positive outcomes for reintegrated children.

[Last preach - before being reintegrated to grandmother’s house!]