International Comparison
It’s crazy to think that I have only one week left here in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In a way. I feel a lot like how I felt after my first semester in college. That paradoxical feeling of having just arrived here while at the same time knowing the place and people like you had lived there for years. You’re excited to be back home with your family, but you know you’ll miss the people you leave behind. Your one consultation is that the goodbye is not forever, you’ll come back. Although, this time it might be a little longer before I return.
For my last week’s journal entry, I’ve been prompted to think about the differences between the local approach to solving the social issue and the approach used in the United States. In thinking about this, I realized that I actually don’t know that much about the state of “orphanhood” in the United States. It is definitely something that I will research once I come back.
one big difference that I do know of,however, is the difference in preference for orphanages versus the fostcare are system. In the United States, foster care is pretty standard. Rather than gathering 60-100 children in one facility, they are instead scattered into many foster homes. The idea behind this system is that this will give the children a semi-normal life in which hey can participate in a family environment just like any other child. However, perfect stability is rare and often children are moves from family to family and thus, the stable family influence aspect is lost.
in Bolivia, on the other hand, foster care is extremely rare and even thought of as bad for the children. Instead, orphanages are the preferred form of care for the children. This, by all appearances, seems to be a more efficient option even though it may not be the healthiest. Of course, when you have 100 children, illness is beyond commonplace, it’s basically constant. And many foster care advocates would argue that it affects the mental health of the children as well as they do not grow up in a “normal” family environment. Yet, I would argue that it is too extreme to say that they are completely without a family structure. In La Ciudadela, the children are placed in “casitas” and have a “mama” during week days and a “Tia” on weekends that help. Provide some family structure. Additionally, they have eachother. They look out for eachother like siblings and many actually live there with their biological siblings. You could say, in fact, that orphanages actually provide a more stable environment than the foster care system. That is, of course, assuming that the director of this foster care system. That is, of course, assuming that the director of the orphanage does not frequently kick children out of the orphanage due to “lack of space.”
There is still plenty for me to learn about these two systems and I can’t wait to in more research once I get back.
chau!
laurel Bingman
P.S. I wrote this on my iPhone so please forgive the typos 🙂