LOBAMBA – Some owners of residential child care facilities are using funds donated to cater for the needs of the children for personal gain.
Some owners of these facilities were accused of taking larger percentages of these funds and used a little for the children they house in these facilities. These were submissions made in Senate yesterday, when the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM), Themba Masuku, tabled the Children’s Protection and Welfare’s residential child care facilities regulations. The regulations were tabled in terms of Section 253 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini 001 of 2005. Senator Princess Ntfombiyenkhosi was commenting on Masuku’s response regarding the monitoring and tracing of funds that were donated to these facilities.
The senator stated that since there was no government control in almost all the residential child care facilities, there were people who made taking care of vulnerable children a way of generating an income. Dlamini said some owners of these facilities had expanded and built more houses with the aim to have more children in the homes. She said the reason they wanted to have more children was to increase the money they got from donors. She alleged that most of the foster care homes had even recruited their friends to also run these facilities because of the money they made from them.
Dlamini said a large chunk of the funds donated by donors for the children were not used for the children but taken by the owners for their personal needs. The senator noted that these private facilities did not even report back to the donors that a certain child had left the facility but continued to receive the funds. “Some still take school funds for children who dropped out of school a long time ago,” she said. The senator said due to the money making tactics that had infiltrated a some people, they ended up grabbing children who were less needy so they could increase the funds solicited from donors. She said she was hopeful that the regulations would reduce or totally eradicate the greediness that was taking over.
Facilities
Another issue that was raised by the senator was that of religious beliefs that children in these facilities were exposed to. She said some facilities might expose children to certain beliefs, which may lead to some of them being forced to conform to certain religions and practices. The DPM, when responding, mentioned that government had one residential child care facility, while the others were either privately-owned or were by non-governmental organisations. “Government has only one foster home which is in Manzini,” he said. Masuku mentioned that these non-governmental facilities never disclosed how much they got from donors. He noted that the passing of the regulations would give his office the power to somehow regulate and trace some of the funds among other operations of the residential facilities.
He explained that the reason they were unable to regulate the funding was because these foster homes were registered under the company’s registration Act under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade. He said the regulations, however, would grant them the authority to ensure that all source of funding from these centres were above board. Masuku said that would counter terrorism financing that might hijack these facilities. Coming to religion, Masuku said religion would be determined by the home that those children would be staying at. The regulations state that a person who intends to operate an approved residential child care facility shall make an application to the minister, being the DPM, by giving details of the premises intended to be used for the facility. The application should have the names and qualifications of all care-givers and other officers to be employed at the facility.
They also stated that the minister shall upon receipt of an application, cause to be conducted such inspections or assessments by an authorised officer as may be appropriate to ensure that the facility and the premises of the facility comply with the National Minimum Standards for Residential Child Care Facilities as may be prescribed from time to time in the gazette. The applicant should have documents of ownership in the premises, lease agreement for the premises or any other documents indicating rights to occupy the premises, comply with the relevant health and building control standards set out in the applicable law. Where upon the recommendation by the authorised officer, the minister finds that the facility and the premises of the facility complies with the National Minimum Standards for Residential Child Care Facilities and the relevant health and building control standards set out in any applicable law, the minister may grant an approval for the establishment of the facility as specified.
