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| Graphic: Luan Tashi |
There are more than 80 babies in Kosovo needing permanent homes. One half are in Pristina Hospital. They are the newest casualties in Kosovo's struggle to find a balance between post-war freedoms and old-world mindsets. Because of the enormous stigma associated with being a single mother, babies are being abandoned by women at an alarming rate.
"Pregnant mothers come from all over Kosovo to give birth at Pristina Hospital," says Gabrielle Rutten, the Head of UNMIK's Social Services Division of the Department of Labour and Social Welfare.
"They give a false name, give birth and then leave," explains Rutten. In addition to the 44 at Pristina Hospital, another 37 are being temporarily housed in small homes set up to care for them.
Kosovo is at a cultural crossroads. Much needs to be done to prevent the abandonment of babies-first by educating young people on safe sex, then by enlightening society on single motherhood. But until mindsets and hearts change, Kosovo's social welfare system must do what it can to make sure that forgotten babies are not forgotten by society.
Rutten and her team at Social Welfare want to take advantage of the important societal role of the family to get these babies into real homes. But while strong family bonds are an intrinsic part of Kosovo culture, the public is not aware that there are babies that can be adopted. The reason: in the past, many parentless children were simply institutionalized until they came of age.
They do not want Kosovo to become like some other countries where thousands of orphaned or abandoned children are condemned to a life of institutions and neglect. But international adoption is not an option for Kosovo, as this requires formal agreements signed between countries. Pending settlement of Kosovo's final status, the province cannot enter into international agreements by itself. Even when international adoption does become a viable option, Rutten says, Social Welfare will be looking first toward families within the diaspora from the same Kosovo community.
UNMIK is committed to placing babies with permanent, adoptive families. Meanwhile, the question remains: what to do until families become available? Everyone agrees that they must be taken out of the hospitals as quickly as possible. Since policy is not to continue using orphanages, the solution in the interim is foster care.
But here UNMIK battles the widespread notion that foster care has to be a long-term solution instead of a preliminary step leading to adoption.
"Foster care was known and used in Kosovo in the past," says Rutten. "But usually if a child entered foster care, he or she was with a family for the long-term. What is different now is short-term foster care. Social Welfare wants foster care to be a short-term measure while an adoptive family is being found."
So UNMIK, in cooperation with UNICEF, is launching a foster care campaign to explain this to the many families who still believe that institutionalized care is best for orphans, unless families can be found that will adopt them permanently.
"Even if families are not in a position to adopt a child for life, they need to know that they can still help a child by giving him a temporary foster home," says Rutten, who believes that no child now born in Kosovo should ever have to enter an orphanage.
As part of the new campaign, foster families have to attend classes and complete a screening programme. In return, they will receive a small stipend to help care for a child for up to six months. UNMIK itself is committed to placing each child with a permanent adoptive family within that six-month window.
But UNMIK keeps running into the cultural roadblock that says that children should not be moved from one family to another. "They would rather a child stay in a hospital, i.e. institutionalized, than be cared for by an interim family," comments Rutten who strongly disagrees. "Children should not be institutionalized. As long as we are here that will never happen, and we will never, ever start new orphanages," she reiterates.
If a foster family cannot be found, babies will be sent to one of several NGO-run homes with a maximum of ten children each. In January 2002, the doors will open to a fourth home for the babies waiting for adoption.
"From January forward we hope we will be able to house these babies in a more or less normal situation and at least get them out of the hospitals," says Rutten.
With the foster care campaign in full swing, UNMIK hopes it will not be long before all of them are in the arms of a loving family.
Stacia Deshishku
Social Affairs correspondent