“We did not have any vacancies at the time of the pandemic. We traveled all over the country and looked for where we could place them. These influxes of children have subsided. There has been less interest in our places in recent weeks. And while I should be sad, I’m happy. I always perceive it from the point of view of children, “said Hana Kupková, chairwoman of the Fund for Endangered Children (FOD), which operates 15 facilities in the Czech Republic.
–
Most of the children who have been placed in kangaroos in recent months, whether at the request of a parent, a court, or the social department, have not had a happy ending.
–
“A few have returned to their families. But most of the children who came have already left us for children’s homes. When we saw for two or three months that there was no attempt on the part of the family to contact or rectify the situation, we preferred to take this step. Children can only be with us for a year, so this journey would still be waiting for them. But it is better and less painful to move them before they get completely used to us. Many children do not return to their own families, “described the practice of the chairwoman of the FOD.
–
But kangaroo aunts do not always say goodbye with a light heart to children who go back to their biological parents.
–
“These are cases where the child goes back to the family, but it does not necessarily mean the best for him. For example, one mother took back a child, which she had placed with us, saying that she could not handle it at home. That she is hyperactive and she is sick. I would rather dare to say that it is a hypochondriac, and in that case I am not sure that it is a good solution, “Kupková added.
–
They are most often neglected
At the end of August, the public was shaken by the case of two little girls (1.5 and 2.5 years old) who were found by police officers with a social worker living with their parents in a tent in Prague 11. Apparently they lived in a colony of homeless people with their parents for four weeks. according to witnesses, they were only looking for alcohol and drugs. After the police intervention, the girls were entrusted to a kangaroo: dirty, because, according to witnesses, they only bathed occasionally in the Hostivař dam, hungry and neglected.
–
Just neglected children get to the kangaroo most often. Not abused or single people who failed and gave up.
–
When we saw for two or three months that there was no attempt at contact from the family, the children went to orphanages.
Hana Kupková, Fund for Endangered Children
—
“We don’t have that many single children. We get a lot of neglected children. But they often repeat the scenario that the parents are alone from the children’s home and are not able to take care of themselves. They don’t pay their rent for half a year and then they are surprised that they find themselves homeless for hours. Children are often neglected, but they love them, they don’t beat them, they just can’t take care of them because they never grew up in a family. This is a significant part of incoming children, “said Kupková.
–
“It is in this that I feel a gross lack of follow-up services. For example, children from children’s homes should be able to spend their nineteenth year under the supervision of an orphanage in order to adopt the right habits and learn responsibility for themselves. For example, a helping hand through start-up flats is very good, which is proving successful, but there are still few of them, “added Kupková, who runs the kangaroo in Hostivice herself.
—
