Educating Caregivers working in orphanages

2022 has been very exciting for us! The Caregivers program has gained an important momentum where we jumped from assisting two to five orphanages.

We had 80 participants and over 200 hours of workshops and individual mentoring. 

Each institution had to pass 15 workshops with a duration of 45h. The end goal is to receive and learn:

• Tools to manage the stress of the position
• Generalities of the adolescent development
• Knowledge and importance of creating an affectionate bond for the healthy development of the adolescent
• Strategies for effective communication and tools to achieve it
• Tools to recognize and handle violence and abuse

We are currently working on a manual, together with the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescence and Family, which supports the institutions in their process of hiring caregivers. The manual will describe profiles they need to search for, exact job descriptions and also suggestions of the employee structure, depending on the size and type of institution.

The manual will also contain a short training to prepare the caregivers for their roles.

Until the next report, stay tuned for more details about the manuals that will help orphanages and other substitute homes in their process to hire, and train future caregivers.

Happy holidays!!.

Links:

• Our website

According to the attachment theory, bonding emotionally with parents and/or subsidiary figures who are in care and protection of the child is of crucial importance for human development.

In an orphanage, a caregiver is that subsidiary figure that plays one of the main roles in the psychosocial development of institutionalised youth, but the issue is that they do not have the tools, education or mental preparation to play such an important role.

Statistics show that in orphanages 65%-85% of the youth may have disorganised attachment relationships with their caregivers. Living in an orphanage without the proper care can leave long-term consequences after as soon as 6 to 12 months. Higher rates of low mental performance, attachment problems and stereotyped behaviours are found in relation to the absence of proper care.

The type of work carried out by caregivers is psychologically and emotionally demanding. Working long hours, in many cases without a fixed schedule and many times with having only one day off. While in theory they should be in charge of a maximum of 4 children/young people, in reality is between 6 to 15 children/young people. On top of that the average salaries go between $400 and $800.

All this exceeds the capacity of the caregivers, leads them to burn out and develop hostility towards the children and young people in their care. It also contributes to the statistics of abuse in orphanages, where we have found that in 8 institutions 30% of children in orphanages had experienced physical or sexual abuse, 45% of the children were emotionally abused and 70% were emotionally abandoned.

We created a school for Caregivers to help them understand their protegees better, learn how to relate and how to handle the stress that comes with the job.

Stay tuned for more about the program,

Sincerely,

Your TaV team

Links:

• More about Transicion a la Vida