The state of the Czech childcare system
For every ten thousand children under the age of three, the Czech Republic has sixty in institutional care. Compared to surrounding countries, this number is at least twice higher than the average, simply because the Czech Republic has yet to change its policy on childcare. Although numerous studies from all over the world show that a child's development is harmed in institutions, most children who are orphans or cannot live with their parents are sent off to children's homes rather than foster families.
"My name is Petra Simonova and I am now nineteen years old and work at a printing press. When I was fourteen, I was transferred to an institution for difficult boys and girls. At the age of seventeen, I ran away to Prague to the Fund for Threatened Children, where I stayed until I was eighteen. I now live in a halfway house. The institution for difficult boys and girls was terrible. The only thing they were concerned about was money. There were constant fights, quarrels, and when we wanted something we could forget about it because they wouldn't communicate with us, ever."
Chris Gardiner is from the UK and was a foster parent for seventeen years, after which he decided to devote himself to childcare in Central and Eastern Europe. He is now based in the Czech Republic where he is also President of the International Foster Care Organisation. He points to the difference between institutions and foster families - institutions cannot give children family love, care and a place to go back to when they come of age:
"A baby needs to be held, needs to know the same person, responds to the eyes, voice, smell of the same person day after day. UNICEF has done research worldwide that shows that the neurological development, the brain development, of a child is held back if it doesn't receive these signals from one particular caretaker. I have been in Czech baby homes and the physical care is good but simply with the staffing ratios and the turnover of staff, and the shift system, they cannot present to a child what a child in a family can have."
UNICEF research also shows that a three-year old child could already be one year behind in its emotional, physical, and intellectual development, if raised in an institution. Since over fifty percent of the development in our life occurs in our first three years, it is therefore very difficult for that child to recover what it was deprived of.
There are currently over 6,500 foster families in the Czech Republic. Last year, 2,500 people were willing to take in children. Experts are convinced that with the right campaign, even more Czechs would come forward.
But for the past three years, the Prague-based non-governmental organisation DOM has been working on a campaign to inform society and mainly politicians of the shortcomings of the Czech childcare system. It is one of many NGOs trying to persuade the government to learn from experience abroad, to develop the foster-care system and also try to reduce the number of cases where children have to go into care in the first place. At a political level, these efforts have not yet born fruit, even though calculations show that a change would significantly reduce child-care costs. Currently, an average of over 250,000 Czech crowns a year (a little under 8,500 Euros) is spent to keep each child in an institution. It would cost the state roughly a fifth of that sum to keep those children in foster families and if the remaining money were spent on skilled social work back-up or financial support, some families, where children end up in care, would not break up in the first place. According to the director of the DOM organisation, Michaela Svobodova, the problem is deep-rooted:
"People who are responsible at the ministries of education and social affairs have been working there for many years and their experiences come from the communist times. They can't imagine that things could be another way and they don't want to learn anything new. They always say that things are good the way they are. We tell them that it's a disaster that 20,000 children are growing up in institutions but they think that the Czech Republic is good enough and that institutions are very good!"
And while life for children in the institutions is bad, their experiences are even worse when they turn eighteen and are left to their own devices. They are destined for a difficult life. Chris Gardiner:
"The old certainties that were here in Communist times have gone; the old certainties that you will be found a job and somewhere to live - not brilliant either but they've gone. So, young people have to find their way in the real world out there and it's not an easy place for any young person to find their way. There are some good NGO's here who provide halfway houses and help young people on their way but many of them fall through the net and find it difficult to cope with life.
"My name is Alexander Kopal. I'm twenty years old and I'm a bricklayer on construction sites. I wouldn't say I like it very much because I have to commute quite a bit and the pay isn't great either. I live in a halfway house and what I like about it is that they prepare us for life. We cook, clean, do our laundry. Before I came here, I was in three children's homes. When I turned eighteen, I had to register at the district office of my new place of residence but I didn't know how to answer their questions and just said yes to everything because no one prepared me for the bureaucratic stuff. I don't know how to fill out forms, deal with money, and communicate with people. It wasn't until I came here that I started understanding how it works."
Both Alexander and Petra, who we heard at the beginning of the programme, live in a halfway house in Prague that's provided by the DOM organisation. They will be leaving the home in about six months. Although they are both employed, they are still worried about finding cheap housing in the city - possibly to share with friends.
Every year some 120 young people ask DOM for help. However, there is only room for seventeen, as it is almost impossible to get a building in Prague for a reasonable price. The selection procedure is based on a first come first serve basis among those who need the service most.
All residents have to work or study. Those who are not studying and cannot find a job work in DOM's shops where they learn basic social and work skills for a couple of months in order to gain the experience needed for a proper job. On average, residents stay for a year but this period can be prolonged, should they need more time to adjust to life or not be able to afford housing in Prague as students.
"We're now at one of our halfway houses in the Prague 8 district. There are ten little flats for ten people and it has a kitchen, a place where people can meet, and there are ten young people accommodated here."
Your organisation has two halfway houses here?
"There are about twenty around the country but here in Prague we are the only organisation, which provides these services and have two halfway houses. The other is for seven people in the Prague 2 district."
I believe we are now in the kitchen...
"Yes, this is the kitchen and the client who is on duty must prepare something for dinner and of course clean the kitchen after dinner and those people who are at home at seven eat together with my colleagues. We talk about what happened that day and it's really nice because we have candles that create a good atmosphere. When we see that somebody is sad, we ask him or her what's going on."
And what do your clients do after dinner? Do they meet friends or do they stay here?
"It depends. Some of our clients have friends, so they go out/ A lot of them stay here and visit each other and talk. Before the holiday we had a television, so they watched television [laughs], or they have consultations with the therapists who are here...
You have a gym upstairs?
"Yes. It's a big space that they use as a gym or we use it for seminars. Once a week we have meetings and do some psychological exercises there. We also spend time solving problems that are here all the time. Nobody wants to wash the dishes, who will cook, and other problems [laughs]."
And while some may think that simple chores like washing dishes or cooking aren't problems halfway homes should be concerned with, Michaela Svoboda says it's the little things in life that make a difference:
"It's good to teach them to do things perfectly because they are not given the chance to live a good life if they do not know how to do things perfectly. They have no parents who will take care of them, they have no property, no money; they have nothing. If they are not able to work, have an income, and perform their duties well, their lives will end very badly. I have been doing this job for fifteen years and I know hundreds of them. Many of them are dead, in prison, on the streets, use drugs, because they have no chance and must be strong and very good. So, it may seem that I am very strict but I am not. I like them very much but I also know that there is only one chance for them."
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child says every child has a right to family life. The Czech Republic signed it in 1991. Although it appears that NGOs are slowly but surely getting their voices heard, some 20 000 children are still having to depend on the good work of organisations like DOM.
