By Felix Matasva
Located about 42 kilometres South of Mutare, Eastern Zimbabwe, Kudavana Children’s Home has made positive impact in Mutare district through its work in supporting vulnerable children and families through facilitating reunification, fostering and adoption which has positively contributed to the well-being of orphaned and vulnerable children in the city.
The home’s dedication to the three-pronged approach has also contributed to Zimbabwe at large by providing children with stable and caring environments, a development that has proven that such practices are not exclusive to Western countries hence they could be successfully implemented in various cultural contexts and regions.
Kudavana Partnership Trust director, William Pepukai told Tellzim News that currently, the home has 46 children with a holding capacity of 50 Children from zero to 18 years and since 2021 they, have managed to facilitate reunification of six children, fostering of six children as well as adoption of six children.
“We run under the theme ‘Every Child Deserves A Family’. This we have set out to achieve through a three legged approach which is tracing and reunification, fostering and adoption.
“With tracing we go back to where the children came from and look for their relatives if they are still alive. If they are not, we look for close or distant relatives or even well-wishers and discuss with them about the importance of children being raised in families especially from where they come from,” said Pepukai.
He said if all agree, they would be referred to Social Development Department where documents could be processed for them to assume parenthood and said they were proud as an institution that some of their children who left the institution are now better off in life.
“We have children who are now adults and have followed successful career paths after going through our youth transitional programme where we fund their higher education. Some are now teachers, we are proud of a financial manager and others in different careers after graduating from various universities.
The children’s home is believed to be the only home which takes care of infant children in Manicaland as it has got a nursery which can accommodate 10 children (aged 0-3 years) at a time.
The other houses at the home accommodate children ranging from the age of three to 18 years.
After the child turns 18 years, they would be sent to a halfway home situated in Buhera where they can be taken care of until they reach 25 years. At the halfway home they can be send to school up to tertiary level under the Youth Transitional program.
In the context of child welfare, reunification commonly involves the return of a child to their biological or original family after a period of separation. It is aimed at reestablishing a stable and supportive family environment for the child.
Fostering can be defined as a temporary living arrangement whereby individuals or families provide care, support and a stable environment for children who are unable to live with their biological parents.
Foster care is often utilized when there are challenges within a child’s biological family, such as abuse, neglect, or any other issues affecting their safety and well- being. This is done while the permanent solution is being devised such as adoption or reunification.
Adoption on the other hand is a legal process by which individuals or couples assume parental responsibilities for a child who is not biologically their own. The adoptive parents will absolutely become the legal parents of the child, with all rights and responsibilities that are associated with biological parenthood.
