Foster Care Faces Strain
A
International criticism is mounting over
the disproportionate number of Czech
children in state-run institutions and orphanages, and local experts are
concerned that planned budget cuts will only further paralyse a system already
stretched beyond its bounds. The Czech
Republic has around
20,000 children in institutions – comprised of infant diagnostic institutes,
orphanages, educational institutions and facilities for immediate social care –
according to 2010 statistics from the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry.
B That adds up to one out of every 99 children
being institutionalized as compared with one in 287 in France, one in 257 in Hungary and one in 137 in Poland, prompting criticism from international groups like Eurochild and
UNICEF. The European Union and the United Nations are pushing for members to
deinstitutionalize children, and the Czech
Republic responded with a
National Action Plan for 2009-11 which seeks to promote social work allowing families to keep their children and
place other kids into foster care.
C Gracián
Svačina, 20, was placed in an institution at the age of 10 and is now studying
journalism at university, but said he is a rare exception, as many children who
leave institutions end up back on the street or with the abusive families they
were taken from. "Institutions taught me how to take care of myself, but
it’s not like having a family, where you have concrete relations with concrete
people – not in a house full of some strange governesses," he said.
"I can’t say if I had been raised in a proper family I would have made it
to Cambridge,
but I guess I would have more trust in people."
D Svačina
is one of the 0.6 percent raised in institutions that study at the university
level, according to Spolu dětem, a nongovernmental organization that works to
improve education in institutions. Adult life after an institutionalized
childhood is not an easy one. A 2007 survey by the Interior Ministry showed
that out of the 17,454 children surveyed, 9,751 had committed a crime - 6,542
of them after leaving institutional care.
E Under
the current system, even willing parents have to wait almost two years to get a
foster child, and only around 1,000 children have been evaluated as fit by
social workers to go to foster homes, according to Chris Gardiner, president of
the International Foster Care Association and the Eurochild representative in
the Czech Republic. There are few training and
counselling centres for foster parents outside of large cities, he said, and
because many institutionalized children have physical and emotional
disabilities, the lack of support has made foster parenting an unattractive prospect.
add up to – dávat součet
disproportionate – nepřiměřěný
mount over – zvedat se nad
prompt – vybízet, podněcovat
to promote – propagovat, prosazovat
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.
1
Pushing organizations to deinstitutionalize children
2
Gracián Svačina
3
Criticism over number of institutionalized children
4
Foster care
5
Adult life after an institutionalized childhood
2) Read the article and answer the questions.
1
What is the article about?
2
Compare numbers of institutionalized children in Europe.
3
Who is Gracián Svačina?
4
What is the adult life of institutionalized children like?
5
What are the problems of willing parents?
3) Explain the following words.
1
state-run institution
2
orphanage
3
infant diagnostic institute
4
commit a crime
5
survey
4) Answer the following questions.
What
possibilities are there for children without parents? What are reasons for life
without parents? Who and how can help children on the street?
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