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No place like home

An outdated system of social care is condemning generations of Czech kids to institutionalized childhoods that leave them unprepared and vulnerable in the real world

By Hilda Hoy
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 2nd, 2007 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Irenka, 9, has lived in a Prague 8 children's home with her two brothers since their parents went to jail. Statistically, it's likely she'll stay in such homes until she's 18.
Nine-year-old Irenka’s shy, sweet smile can’t hide the sadness in her young eyes.
Both her parents are in prison, serving sentences for theft and petty crime. Her mother is addicted to drugs. Since January, Irenka has been living at a children’s home in Prague 8 along with her brothers, Daniel, 7, and Alexandr, 6. Their grandmother sometimes visits, but doesn’t want custody.
Like many of the children living here and in similar homes, Irenka will probably spend her childhood moving from one institution to another. Families looking to adopt almost always want babies, and red tape can delay the process for years. Foster homes are limited in number. On her 18th birthday, she’ll be turned out to fend for herself.
Irenka is one of approximately 22,000 children growing up in institutions across the country. These include homes — run by the state or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) — for abandoned children, orphans and those taken from parents by social workers. They also include specialized institutions for mentally and physically disabled children.
Relative to the population, the number of kids who end up in institutions is far higher in the Czech Republic than in most other European countries. The high rate is a hangover from the communist era, when the state held a tight grip on family welfare, says Petra Vrtbovská, director of the Institute for Substitute Family Care, or Natama, in Prague.
“The communist regime was very quick to take children from their homes for quick re-education,” she says. “I think this [mentality] is still here.”
Once in institutions, children frequently stay there until they are 18, leaving them scarred for life, she says. “We are very backward [and] don’t have a network of temporary foster care. … There are many countries that would never place children under 6 in an institution.”
In the Czech Republic, institutions are the norm. There are only about 4,720 foster homes across the country, according to the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry. Unlike in North America or Western Europe, where foster home arrangements are temporary, Czech foster homes are semi-permanent arrangements, so children needing immediate care are sent to institutions.
Out of 32 European countries studied in 2005, the Czech Republic had the highest rate of kids ages 0 to 3 in institutions, says Marie Vodičková, director of the Fund for Children in Need (FOD).
“Placing kids into institutions is seen as a solution when parents can’t provide for them,” Vodičková says. “Children are very easily placed in those institutions, but their way back to their families is much harder.”
A rising tide of children’s aid groups are speaking out against government policies they say are making institutionalized childhoods far too common.
The Tereza Maxová Foundation, a group that’s aided needy Czech children since 1997, announced last month it is dramatically shifting focus.
“Step by step, we’d like to stop material assistance and work more intensively … on prevention,” said spokeswoman Terezie Sverdlinová. “There isn’t enough promotion of foster families. … Instead of [the state] helping and supporting the family, the kids are taken away.”
Lack of unity
Few would disagree that Czech children’s homes provide for the basic necessities of life.
At the home where Irenka lives, run by Vodičková’s FOD organization, she shares a cozy two-bedroom flat with her two brothers and one other child. They’re tended around the clock by two rotating “aunties.” A playful golden Labrador named Art lives on-site. There’s a playground outside and ample green space.
But no matter how nice an institution is, it can never be a substitute for a family environment, Vrtbovská says.
The system, from the government down to local social workers, has yet to grasp this, she says.
Bureaucracy is also slow to reform.
Three separate ministries administer institutions, depending on the children’s ages. To further confuse things, social workers are managed on a regional level, and decisions about family welfare are made by local courts.
“The Czech Republic has been repeatedly criticized for this lack of unity,” admits Jiří Sezemský, spokesman for the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry.
 “In the Czech Republic, a family-based care system is not fully developed, nor is cooperation with families in need. The reason is, among others, the insufficient number of social workers and insufficient support of foster families.”
Work is under way to change this, he says.
No way back
Ten-year-old David and his baby sister Brenda have lived in the same Prague 8 home as Irenka since March. Their parents lost custody of all 11 of their children when they were evicted, says Daniela Bittmanová, a social worker at the home.
That’s the case with at least 60 percent of the home’s children, she says.
“Maybe [the parents] don’t beat their children. But they’re just not able to take care of them,” she says. Very often, these parents come from disadvantaged backgrounds or have mental problems.
David and Brenda’s parents want them back, but Bittmanová doubts they’ll be able to convince the authorities. And, because hardly anyone will adopt Romany, or Gypsy, children like David and Brenda, a future in institutions awaits.
The system breeds a vicious cycle, Vrtbovská says. Unable to deal with the outside world, up to 80 percent of children who grow up in institutions end up homeless, using drugs, stealing or worse.
Children from institutions are maladjusted to normal life, she says. “An animal born in a cage in a zoo will never be able to go back to nature.”
The Tereza Maxová Foundation hopes targeted social aid will make a difference, spokeswoman Sverdlinová says.
“When you support the broken family at the right moments, children don’t necessarily have to end up in the orphanages,” she says.
Last October, the Czech aid system drew reproach from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. The court awarded 10,000 euros ($13,700/281,000 Kč) to a couple from south Bohemia whose five children had been placed in two separate institutions.
“Neither [the parents’] capacity to bring up their children nor the affection they bore them had ever been called into question,” the ruling concluded. “The underlying problem was a lack of resources,” which did not warrant separating the family.
Naďa Černá and Hela Balínová contributed to this report.

Hilda Hoy can be reached at hhoy@praguepost.com


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