Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/985406
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 23 MAY 2018 5 NEWS MASSIMO COSTA CHILDREN have the right to grow up in their natural family, Foundation for Social Welfare Services CEO Alfred Grixti said, with the Foundation's main aim being to help solve familial problems, and to strive to keep children together with their families. Speaking to this newspaper just as a week-long conference of the Geneva-based Interna- tional Social Service (ISS), of which the FSWS is a member, is taking place in Malta, Grixti said, however, that if the con- ditions existed for a care order to be issued, the Foundation wouldn't think twice to do so. "In 2015, a project focusing on home-based family therapy started," Grixti said, "Through this, we work with families which have multiple problems, where there is an environment not ideal for children to grow up in." "Such families are on our radar, and monitored by spe- cialised people who go to the homes for two to four hours per session. We help them work out their issues," he said, "If an improvement is registered, we keep contact with them but re- duce the intensity – we aim to maintain a favourable situation for children." Grixti said that, at the mo- ment, there were 120 such fam- ilies in the therapy programme. On the other hand, only eight child care orders were issued in 2017, and seven in 2016, he said. He explained that the pro- gramme was used to recognise family problems and work to solve them, instead of having a care order separate a family. "If, on the other hand, no improvement is registered through the therapy, and we have tried everything, then we'd go for a care order," he said. Severe material deprivation One of the current focus points of the ISS, which is made up of national entities in 134 member countries around the world, is working to safeguard migrant children. "Around 100 million people in the EU are under 18 years of age," Grixti highlighted, "26 million of these are living in poverty – they are significantly materially deprived." He said that migrant children – some of whom are with their parents, but others who are ei- ther sent alone towards safety, or used as "forward parties" to check the situation in a par- ticular place or country – often end up lacking access to essen- tials such as nutrition, clothing and shelter. "This is a sensitive situa- tion in Europe – especially in light of the situation in Syria – which has been abused of by the far right parties. Such chil- dren might be abused sexually, or through labour exploita- tion." ISS also advocates for cur- rent issues, one of which is the implementation of the United Nations guidelines for the al- ternative care of children. "If you have children who have to be protected by a care order, one issue is deciding where they will be kept," Grixti said, underlining the extent of the sensitivity of this in Malta. "The UN's convention on children's rights specifically says that children should be kept in a family environment, not institutions." "According to the charter, any place housing ten children or more is classified as an in- stitution," he said, "In Malta, however, the situation is a bit of a grey area." "Half the children under care orders on the island live in Church homes, and the other half are in foster care. The Church homes have been re- designed and are now made up of small flatlet units." "Technically, since they live at the same address, they're in an institution. But we know that the children are looked after in the sub-unit of the flat, in a sort of family environment," Grixti emphasised, adding that the homes had all the modern amenities and were comfort- able. International surrogacy Another matter ISS is dealing with is international surrogacy. Surrogacy, a very controver- sial topic in Malta at the mo- ment due to its proposed intro- duction with the revised IVF laws suggested by the govern- ment, happens when a woman agrees to act as a surrogate and carry a baby for another wom- an who cannot bear children. "The issue can't be ap- proached from only a moral point of view – different coun- tries and religions make moral- ity relative, in some respects – European morality is not the same as South East Asian mo- rality, for instance." "So ISS is looking at the mat- ter holistically and trying to come up with standards which are acceptable for everybody around the world, and then get them ratified internationally, and eventually by the individ- ual 134 members," Grixti said. The ISS issued a UN man- date earlier this year to develop international principles and standards surrounding surro- gacy arrangements that are in accordance with human rights norms and standards, and par- ticularly regarding the rights of the child. The Foundation would be fol- lowing the promised consulta- tion on surrogacy "very atten- tively", Grixti said, and it would make an objective summary of what was said, pass the infor- mation on and contribute to the local debate. Safeguarding children's data The ISS is also devoting time to implementing the EU's gen- eral data protection regulations of the EU. "This affects us because one interpretation of the regula- tions is that we should destroy all information on our clients," Grixti said, "But imagine a child migrant whom we've assisted wants to eventually look up his family history – how she came to Malta and if she had any par- ents or siblings with her." "If we destroy everything, all this information will be lost," he cautioned, adding that FSWS would be going over rel- evant protocols together with the ISS and local data protec- tion commissioner to assure the authorities that all records would be kept safe and private. A seven-day ISS Council con- ference, hosted in Malta, start- ed on 20 May. mcosta@mediatoday.com.mt 'We're not child snatchers, we want to help families' Alfred Grixti, CEO of the Social Welfare Foundation says Child care orders are down since 2015 after a home-based therapy programme was put in place