Umlazi Imbizo to address foster care issues
The Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, will on Saturday, June 11, take Project Mikondzo to Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal Province.
Project Mikondzo is a Social Development service delivery initiative which seeks to increase the Social Development footprint in the most impoverished communities of South Africa.
Community dialogues held recently in the area by the department revealed that there was a high number of foster care complaints resulting in many orphaned and vulnerable children not fully receiving child protection services. Community members were concerned about delays in obtaining foster care orders.
In 2014, Minister Dlamini established a foster care committee to investigate challenges experienced by children in foster care. The committee has finalised its preliminary report and some of its findings include that:
a) some foster parents are unsuitable to take care of fostered children due to ill-health and old age.
b) there is a higher prevalence of children and families who do not know the whereabouts of biological fathers in most of provinces.
Foster care is an alternative care placement of a child who has been placed in the care of a person not the parent or guardian of the child as a result of an order issued by a Children's Court. A fostered child may be placed in the care of a person who is a family member, a non-family member or someone who is in a registered cluster foster care scheme. By end of March this year, there were 470 682 fostered children who were receiving the foster child grants.
Members of the media are invited to attend and the Imbizo planned as follows:
Date: Saturday, June 11, 2016
Time: 12h00
Venue: Menzi Sports Ground in Umlazi - KwaZulu- Natal Province.
RSVP:
Jaconia Kobue
Cell: 073 026 1111
Email: jaconiak@dsd.gov.za
Justice Ditshego
Cell: 079 497 7426
Email: justiced@dsd.gov.za
Enquiries:
Lumka Oliphant
Cell: 083 484 8067
Email: lumkao@dsd.gov.za
