welcome you all and ask all of you for a few seconds of silence to thank God,
each one of us according to one’s own faith, for having safely conducted to
St. Michael’s His Excellency, Mrs. Annan and his entourage.
Family Homes Movement (F.H.M.) has been working with children in need since 1985. In 1997 it turned its attention mainly to demobilized child soldiers and children associated with the fighting forces in collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Social welfare and Gender. The specific goal of F.H.M. has been and is to make possible for children to live in a family environment. The natural family comes first, and, if that is not possible, the next of kin, or an adopting family from their child’s cultural background…. Even here in St. Michael’s, an interim care center, with all the appearances of an institution, the children are grouped in family size unit under a “mother.” Not more than ten to a unit, all ages and both sexes are present in each family. I want to avail myself of this opportunity to express to you my appreciation for the competence and dedication of your staff at the UNICEF.
Not all children, when they come to us, can be reunified immediately. Family tracing teams are constantly at work, although not always successfully. Beside the difficulty of finding the family, at times a reconciliation process and even a cleansing ritual ceremony has to take place, because in the traditional society some crimes carry the burden of social defilement. Other children are heavily traumatized and it would be pure folly to introduce them to the civil society immediately. Some had to be brought down from the lofty rank of colonel, to the more realistic one of “child.” A time of adjustment is needed. The whole process is very complex. So far, 2,000 children went through the center. At times, in the ups and downs of the war, the rebels have recaptured some. At the first occasion they took their chance and came back, moved by the new loyalty that had been developed in them, the new bond, attracted by the new family that had been offered them, where they could feel wanted, protected and secure. It is a role that St. Michael’s will have to play for a long time in their life.
F.H.M.
has just signed a contract with UNHCR to extend our services to separated
children returning from the refugee camps in Guinea.
Our projection is that during the year 2001, about 2,000 children will
avail themselves of the facilities of St. Michael’s.
500 of them will be going to join our Alternative Care Program.
“Will the time ever come when these children will be appreciated for their resistance to evil, rather than for the evil they have been forced to commit, and for their capacity to endure and return to normalcy?” Children, whose life experience was enough to shatter the life of a mature person, come to us with the only desire “to go to school!” The greatest crime of this war was certainly the moral and physical destruction of so many children. I strongly believe that, in their condition of defenseless dependency from distorted, criminal minds, their guardian angels must have been constantly at work to shield them from evil. God has cherished them in their trials. I am sure that time will come when we shall not hear any longer the cruelties perpetrated, but rather of the heroic act of so many people, children included!”
(From Xaverian News)