In 2012, Kyrgyzstan introduced the foster care system to prevent minors from getting into orphanages. Since then, over 1.5 thousand families have been taught in the republic. However, only about 100 families are employed. However, hundreds of children are still raised in orphanages. CABAR.asia tells about why foster families failed to replace orphanages.
Foster mother
Gulnara Mambetalieva is 58 years old. She is a professional financier and had worked in the tax service for the last 25 years, and then she retired. Her husband and she have raised three children, who now have their own families. The spouses decided to adopt a child four years ago, but learned there were too many applicants and they had to wait for a long time. Back then, they were offered to take a foster parent training course.
After a while, Gulmira received two boys at the age of 10 or 11 from different families from the children’s protection centre after a while.
At first, it was very difficult, according to the woman. Children turned to have a temper, did not listen to adults, took stuff without permission, stole money, and spent it in a store.
The foster mother did not even think about abandoning the children. Once, she had to run an errand for two hours, and when she got back home the boys did something to the family car.
“They opened the hood and did something there. The vehicle wouldn’t start and had to be taken to the repair shop. I called the social security office and said I could not stand it anymore,” the woman said.
But the specialists of the social security office insisted that the boys could be rehabilitated, and patience was the key. And it really helped.
“My husband supported and helped me. We talked to the boys every day, explained what was right and wrong, said that they could not take anything without permission. Our adult children came to us and talked to them. It became easier with time,” Gulnara Mambetalieva said.
The boys live in a foster family for two years, call their foster parents as ‘apa’ and ‘ata’ (mother and father, respectively, in Kyrgyz). One teenager continues to contact his biological grandmother by the phone. The second one wanted to contact his mother, but she messaged him, “Sorry, but I can’t take you back, keep living where you are.” When the boy read the message, he did not want to contact her anymore.
The boys study in the regular school, completed fourth grade, take part in activities. Teachers, according to Gulnara Mambetalieva, speak positively about them.
The foster mother wanted to raise a girl. But she understands that she should not get used to the children because they can be taken by their biological parents or other relatives any time.
Many applicants, few foster families
According to the Ministry of Labour, Social Welfare and Migration (MLSWM), they keep working to increase the number of foster families every year for further raising of children who have a difficult life situation. Every year’s plan is to train 100-120 families.
According to the MLSWM, 157 children were raised in 78 foster families as of June 1, 2023. This figure always changes because children are placed to foster families for different periods.
In case of emergency, if a child is in danger or is abandoned by parents, the length of placement is from several hours to 24 hours; short-term placement is up to one month; long-term placement is over six months; periodical placement is for several days, weekends, vacations. Long-term foster care usually takes place when it is not possible to adopt a child or place him/her under guardianship.
Initially, there are many applicants, according to the agency, but during training some of them refuse to take part in the programme, others do not meet housing or documentation requirements. It also happens that social welfare agency chooses a teenager for foster parents, but they want a little child. But they cannot choose: this is a professional service that is paid for by the state.
“Sometimes, applicants think that once they become a foster family and take a child for raising, he/she will stay with them forever. But, according to the regulation, this is a professional family that raises someone else’s child until he/she is under protection of the social welfare agency,” said Bakyt Todogeldiev, chief of Office for Development of Services for Families and Children, MLSWM.
Foster children can reunite with their biological families over time. Therefore, to avoid any conflict of interest, candidates are asked to make a choice initially: either they want to adopt a child or become a foster family for a while. Although, there have been examples when foster parents want to adopt a foster child.
According to the decree of the government of the Kyrgyz Republic, monthly payments to the foster family amount to two minimum living wages per one foster child. And remuneration of labour amounts to 1.5 minimum living wages for persons of active working age.
As of the first quarter of 2023, the amount of the minimum living wage is:
5,732.5 som (65.34 dollars) for children aged 0 to 7 years old
6,624.85 som (75.51 dollars) for children aged 7 to 14 years old
7,263.27 som (82.78 dollars) for children aged 14 to 17 years old
7,501.97 som (85.5 dollars) for able-bodied population
For example, for maintaining two children aged 7 to 14 years old, a foster parent will receive 26.7 thousand som per month (nearly 305 dollars).
“Moreover, parents must submit a report with detailed spending of their payments,” Todogeldiev said. “Sometimes, they cannot do it. Some applicants want to raise children for mercenary reasons. They want to get the money or force children to do household chores.”
To avoid such cases, local offices always monitor whether every foster child receives all necessary public services, timely medical care, education, etc. In case of violations, a child is removed from the family, the contract is dissolved, and the foster family certificate is cancelled.
During the work of foster family system, according to Bakyt Todogeldiev, nearly 10 certificates have been withdrawn for abuse of children, ban on attending school, and other violations.
“We have long had such problems,” he said. “After some explanatory work, we have nullified such cases, but we keep on monitoring to prevent them.”
Foster family is one of the options of temporary placement of children. However, there are no foster families in some districts, so minors have to be placed to orphanages and boarding schools in case of emergency.
Some are closed, others are opened
According to Bakyt Todogeldiev, there are 137 boarding-type facilities in Kyrgyzstan, where nearly 11 thousand children are placed. Among them 4.9 thousand children are considered left abandoned, although all have at least one parent. Only 5 per cent of foster children are full orphans. However, the law of the Kyrgyz Republic has no concept of “social orphan.”
For comparison, 117 boarding-type facilities of all forms of ownership were registered in 2012.
“Public institutions optimise and reduce the number of orphanages, yet there is the increase in the number of private boarding-type facilities,” he said.
Transformation results
According to Gulshan Abdyldaeva, chief specialist of the Office for School Education and Book Publishing Policy of the Ministry of Education and Science, the ministry of education and science supervises only five orphanages and comprehensive boarding schools for orphans and children abandoned by parents, 14 schools boarding-type schools for children with disabilities (with visual, hearing, speech disorders, psychoneurological problems) and 31 comprehensive secondary schools and vocational school for gifted children. The ministry of education plans to rename the latter and remove them from the list of boarding-type facilities.
After passing of the Children Code of the Kyrgyz Republic in 2012, the country started to optimise boarding-type facilities and children were placed to them not by parent’s request, but by court decision or by referral from social welfare authorities. The number of children in boarding-type facilities has declined much, two orphanages were closed, and 10 boarding-type facilities were optimised and transformed.
“If there had been over 10 thousand children in seven orphanages and boarding schools supervised by the ministry of education and science before transformation, now there are only 470 children in five orphanages. Special schools had had over 5 thousand children, and today they contain only 2 thousand 281 children,” said Gulshan Abdyldaeva.
According to her, boarding schools have generally transformed into educational complexes. In Dmitrievka boarding school, for example, a school and a kindergarten were opened. In Voenno-Antonovka boarding school, a comprehensive school was opened. The alumni were returned to their guardians or biological families, some children were referred to Panfilov and Chui-Tokmok boarding schools, and some orphans from orphanages were placed to foster families.
However, monitoring of compliance of children’s rights carried out in 11 public facilities by the Ombudsman Institution jointly with the “League of Child’s Rights Defenders” in 2022-2023 showed that five boarding-type facilities were not transformed or optimised. Although, all deadlines were missed.
For example, Ak-Suu orphanage was closed in 2018, children were returned to biological families, and four children, who did not have any relatives, were placed to a foster family. However, a boarding school was opened instead in 2020. Recently, its principal was fired for humiliation, using bad language and manhandling of teachers.
“All children were placed there by parents’ application. And we have many such facilities,” said Nurzhamal Dzhakubova, president of public foundation “Institute of Childhood”, expert in protection of children.
According to Gulshan Abdyldaeva, the question of Ak-Suu boarding school will be discussed, and the facility will be optimised again. Other boarding-type facilities will also be discussed.
One step forward, two steps backward
According to Bakyt Todogeldiev, 136 children from boarding schools were returned to biological families in 2022, while nearly 400 children were placed to boarding-type facilities. Some children were abused in their families, some were abandoned by parents who left for labour migration. Some migrants leave their children to third persons. In 2022, officers of MLSWM identified 88 such children.
“It’s better to place them to boarding-type facilities than leave them at third persons. In the latter case, we have no control over them. In boarding-type facilities children will have access to educational, medical and other services,” chief of office of the ministry of labour said.
MLSWM, according to him, is not able to optimise its facilities because their customers need special care, and most parents cannot afford it.
Local services needed
Being raised in a family is the child’s constitutional right, otherwise, an alternative form of guardianship must be provided, said Nurzhamal Dzhakubova. According to her, closure of boarding-type facilities is a global trend. Psychologists and economists have long proved: boarding schools require much budget money and affect child development negatively.
“I was a member of the boarding school monitoring group and we saw how some children wandered from one orphanage to another starting from the baby home and did not develop,” said Dzhakubova. “This is how their lives get broken. When will this child go afterwards?”
According to her, children are placed to boarding schools for a variety of reasons: parents leave for work, grandparents are unable to raise children, single mothers have financial issues, parents get divorced and organise their life.
“This is due to the shortage of services for families and dependency approach of parents themselves. Material need, living conditions cannot be the reason for placing children to boarding schools. But it should be the signal for providing assistance to such a family,” the expert said.
The absence of social services regarding family and child support, shortage of social workers locally is one of the most acute problems of early detection and provision of help to families in difficult life situations.
She said that the provision on foster families was improved and supplemented several years ago, but the system does not develop properly.
In turn, Bakyt Todogeldiev admitted that Kyrgyzstan cannot become a country without boarding-type facilities so far.
“But it’s a matter of time. We keep working on preventing children from being placed to boarding schools, on improving living conditions of the people in the republic,” he said.