Retrak is a faith based NGO working with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) on the street in Africa with the aim of providing each child with an individual route back to family and community. This is achieved through reintegrating children with their own relatives or through placement with local foster care families, and with support to build the capacity of these families to meet the needs of their children. Some older children are supported to become independent in local communities. Retrak has been operating in Uganda for over 14 years and the lessons learnt were successfully transferred to Ethiopia in 2006. During this 3-year project Retrak’s goal was to further strengthen and grow the family-based programmes in both countries through: 1. enabling OVC to begin the transition from street life; 2. enabling OVC to be reintegrated into a sustainable family context; 3. building the capacity of Retrak projects; and 4. strengthening partnerships. This work was supported by the US government’s President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) New Partners Initiative (NPI) which aims to work with new partners to enhance their technical and organizational capacity, therefore Retrak received technical assistance from NuPITA (New Partners Initiative Technical Assistance project). RETRAK’S APPROACH Retrak’s work with OVC begins on the streets, entering the spaces where children live in order to build trusting relationships. In both Uganda and Ethiopia regular street visits are held in areas known to be favoured by street children. In addition, in Uganda football training sessions, open clinics and peer HIV education allow children to get to know Retrak in a safe and unthreatening way. Once children are familiar with Retrak they are invited to join in regular activities at the drop-in centres – safe spaces which are easily accessible from the streets. Here children begin to deal with their past experiences at home and on the streets. Since every child is different a range of activities are offered, including: counselling, sports, health care, night shelter, catch-up education, and HIV awareness and life-skills classes. In Uganda some children who need a more intensive period of preparation move on to a halfway home where they continue to receive holistic care. Children move back to family and community life mainly through reintegration with their own family. Care-givers are offered guidance and counselling and some basic support to help their child settle in and return to formal education or a suitable vocational training. When it is not in a child’s best interest to return them to their own family, an alternative is foster care with a local family. Retrak works through community organisations to identify possible carers, who are then screened and trained before they are matched with a child. Intensive counselling and preparation ensures that both child and carers are ready for placement and their new family life ahead. For both biological and foster families, follow-up visits with further counselling, training and income generation support ensure that the child and his/her siblings receive adequate care and attention, and that the care-givers and other household members have sufficient support. The goal is to build the capacity of every family to provide for their own needs in the long-term. ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT To build the quality and efficiency of Retrak’s interventions and the organisation as a whole, staff members have accessed regular training opportunities and policies and procedures have been developed. Retrak has worked with local and international, governmental and non-governmental partners to advocate for street children and to share good practice. Sustainable Reintegration of Orphans and Vulnerable Children into Family and Community Life in Uganda and Ethiopia December 2008 – November 2011 1
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Retrak is a faith based NGO working with orphans andvulnerable children (OVC) on the street in Africa withthe aim of providing each child with an individual routeback to family and community.
This is achieved through reintegrating children with theirown relatives or through placement with local foster carefamilies, and with support to build the capacity of thesefamilies to meet the needs of their children. Some olderchildren are supported to become independent in localcommunities. Retrak has been operating in Uganda forover 14 years and the lessons learnt were successfullytransferred to Ethiopia in 2006.
During this 3-year project Retrak’s goal was to furtherstrengthen and grow the family-based programmes inboth countries through:
1. enabling OVC to begin the transition from street life;
2. enabling OVC to be reintegrated into a sustainablefamily context;
3. building the capacity of Retrak projects; and
4. strengthening partnerships.
This work was supported by the US government’s President'sEmergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) New PartnersInitiative (NPI) which aims to work with new partners toenhance their technical and organizational capacity,therefore Retrak received technical assistance from NuPITA(New Partners Initiative Technical Assistance project).
RETRAK’S APPROACHRetrak’s work with OVC begins on the streets, enteringthe spaces where children live in order to build trustingrelationships. In both Uganda and Ethiopia regular streetvisits are held in areas known to be favoured by streetchildren. In addition, in Uganda football training sessions,open clinics and peer HIV education allow children toget to know Retrak in a safe and unthreatening way.
Once children are familiar with Retrak they are invited tojoin in regular activities at the drop-in centres – safe spaceswhich are easily accessible from the streets. Here childrenbegin to deal with their past experiences at home andon the streets. Since every child is different a range ofactivities are offered, including: counselling, sports, healthcare, night shelter, catch-up education, and HIV awarenessand life-skills classes. In Uganda some children who needa more intensive period of preparation move on to ahalfway home where they continue to receive holistic care.
Children move back to family and community life mainlythrough reintegration with their own family. Care-giversare offered guidance and counselling and some basic
support to help their child settle in and return to formaleducation or a suitable vocational training.
When it is not in a child’s best interest to return them totheir own family, an alternative is foster care with a localfamily. Retrak works through community organisations toidentify possible carers, who are then screened and trainedbefore they are matched with a child. Intensive counsellingand preparation ensures that both child and carers areready for placement and their new family life ahead.
For both biological and foster families, follow-up visitswith further counselling, training and income generationsupport ensure that the child and his/her siblingsreceive adequate care and attention, and that thecare-givers and other household members have sufficientsupport. The goal is to build the capacity of every familyto provide for their own needs in the long-term.
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENTTo build the quality and efficiency of Retrak’s interventionsand the organisation as a whole, staff members haveaccessed regular training opportunities and policiesand procedures have been developed. Retrak hasworked with local and international, governmental andnon-governmental partners to advocate for streetchildren and to share good practice.
Sustainable Reintegration of Orphans and VulnerableChildren into Family and Community Life in Ugandaand Ethiopia December 2008 – November 2011
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EVALUATION FINDINGS In order to understand the success of thisproject and highlight areas to improve Retrakparticipated in a series of organisationalcapacity assessments and commissioned afinal evaluation in October 2011. The followingare the findings and recommendations ofthese assessments and evaluation.
Retrak exceeded all the targets set with two months leftto the end of the project period, working with over 2800OVC in total. Over 400 OVC returned to family andcommunity life and it was reported that 75% ofreintegration placements were successful with childrenremaining at home. Children’s overall wellbeingimproved during their time with Retrak and continuedto do so after placement with families.
The services Retrak provide are very relevant to the needsof children and their families; and children’s participationand involvement in decision-making throughout theproject is excellent.
Retrak’s success is due to the innovative model andapproaches which are applied in preparing andreintegrating OVC on the street, as well as staffcommitment and technical support from NuPITA.
l Transition from street life: The objective of enablingOVC to move away from street life was achievedthrough outreach services and activities at the drop-incentres. 2789 children received psychosocial, health,educational and other basic services. Children andfamilies reported that the project improved thebehaviour, emotional wellbeing, health and educationalstatus of the children.
However, the fact that children continue to experiencestigma and discrimination on the streets is an ongoingchallenge.
l Reintegration into a sustainable family context: 407children, formerly living on the streets, were reintegratedwith their families or placed in foster care. Theimprovements in the behaviour, educational status
and health condition of reintegrated and fosteredchildren was remarkable. Data on children’s wellbeingshowed that children placed in families are providedwith sufficient food, live in adequate shelter, haveresponsible adult care-givers, are safeguarded fromabuse and neglect, are not in need of legal protection,are mostly happy, get along with peers and otherpeople and participate in suitable education, skillstraining or work. Providing adequate follow-up supportis a challenge since children are reintegrated all overboth countries, often at a large distance from Retrak’scentres.
Whilst Retrak has established a successful foster careprogramme in Uganda, formal foster care is a newapproach in Ethiopia and there is very low publicawareness which is making progress of selection andmatching of foster carers very slow.
l Capacity building of Retrak projects: Retrak hasdeveloped and improved child protection policiesand financial and HR policies and procedures. Inaddition Retrak staff attended ample trainingworkshops on various topics which are highly relevantto Retrak’s work including psychosocial care, HIVprevention and counselling and testing, staff supportsupervision, leadership and strategic thinking skills, andmonitoring and evaluation. Technical support fromNuPITA was instrumental in this regard. The organisationalcapacity assessments undertaken with NuPITA showeda great improvement from the start of the project tothe end, in all seven areas: governance, administration,human resources, financial management, organisationalmanagement, programme management andproject performance management. There is regularsystematic project monitoring which takes placethrough meetings, reports and internal evaluation.Planned improvements in the monitoring system(including further use of child wellbeing data and theimplementation of a tailor-made children’s database totrack children’s progress) will be valuable in this regard.
There is still a need for more specialized skills in the areaof trauma counselling and managing stress among staff.
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l Strengthening partnerships: Retrak was successful indeveloping strong partnerships and linkages at local,regional and international levels with bothgovernmental and civil society stakeholders. Retrakhas influenced policy and practice in both countriesthrough membership of key networks and workinggroups which has enhanced the implementation of theproject in both countries. Referrals to other service givingorganizations were highly beneficial to the children.
Overall, Retrak has demonstrated good practice in theapproach employed to transform the lives of OVC onthe street. Its approach is child focused, centred onrelationship building, promotes self-determination and isholistic. Lessons learnt and successful cases that evidencegood practice are documented and shared throughworkshops, training, networks and publications; includinga Retrak conference held in Addis Ababa and attendedby over 100 practitioners and policy makers from acrossAfrica and beyond. However, Retrak’s model andapproaches could be shared in a training toolkit so thatother organizations could replicate the model. Retrak iscurrently working on a set of materials to this end whichwill be launched in 2012.
Recommendations from this evaluation will beconsidered by Retrak and acted upon over the comingyear. Plans already in place include:
l developing programmes to target female OVC on thestreets;
l building staff capacity to provide further traumacounselling;
l deepening local partnerships with local street childorganisations to share good practice;
l developing work with families to provide greaterpreparation and support; and
l expanding work with communities to reduce stigmaand provide greater support to families.
Care-giver, Ethiopia
UNICEF representative and partner3
IN ADDITION• Retrak was invited to present at the First International
Conference in Africa on Family Based Care for Children,in Nairobi in September 2009
• As a follow-up to the Nairobi conference, Retrak hosteda conference in Addis Ababa focusing on family carefor street children in October 2011. Over 100 practitionersand policy makers attended representing 12 countriesacross Africa and from as far afield as Australia & Brazil.
• At the end of 2010 Retrak undertook research into thesituation of girls living on the streets in both Kampalaand Addis Ababa. The findings of this research are beingused to inform plans to begin work with girls during 2012.
• Over the past year a group of child care workers withinRetrak have been documenting good practice byproducing Standard Operating Procedures for outreach,family reintegration and foster care. The material onfamily reintegration is being used to develop a trainingcurriculum which will beimplemented in 2012.
• Retrak has signed formalpartnership agreements withlocal organisations in Ethiopiaand Uganda, as well as Kenya, to build their capacity andshare good practice in workingwith street children.
This Retrak project was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agencyfor International Development (USAID), cooperative agreement GHO-A-00-09-00006-00. The contents of this project reportare the responsibility of Retrak and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Landmark House, Station Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, SK8 7BS, UK • Telephone: +44 (0)161 486 5104
Email: [email protected] • Web: www.Retrak.Org • Charity No: 1122799 • Follow us on:
During the 3 year project (up to October 2011), over2800 OVC provided with a minimum of one careservice, including:
● 1011 OVC receiving shelter and care;● 1889 OVC receiving health care;● 1090 OVC receiving education and vocational training;● 376 receiving protection and legal aid services;● 2328 OVC receiving psychosocial support; and● 80 receiving economic strengthening services
In total:● 2789 children accessed services at Retrak’s drop-in centre;● 407 children were reintegrated or placed in foster care;● 377 children were followed-up in their families; and● 1933 caregivers were supported in their families orthrough community workshops.
Retrak has made improvements in all areas of theorganizational capacity assessments. The overall capacityscore increased from 2.1 in year 1 to 3.6 out of 4 by theend of the project.
In Uganda, Retrak is a member of the Ministry of Gender,Labor and Social Development’s OVC Technical WorkingGroup which has recently developed the next NationalStrategic Program Plan of Interventions for OVC. Incollaboration with UNICEF and two other NGOs, Retrakhas been at the forefront of the formation of a FosterCare Work Group in Addis Ababa, with the aim ofworking with and strengthening the Ethiopian government’sestablishment of foster care.
Retrak is also a member of the Kampala Street ChildrenNGO Network which aims to ease referrals and ensurethat good practice is shared with minimal duplicationof work. Through this network Retrak assists the workdone by the government at Kampiringisa NationalRehabilitation Centre where many street children areplaced, by providing medical care, counseling andpsychosocial support. Towards the end of 2010, Retrakjoined together with UNICEF and 3 other NGOs to countthe number of OVC living on the streets of Addis Ababa.Nearly 11,000 children and young people were identifiedon the streets.
