2023-12-12 05:45:00
The Wallonia-Brussels Federation has more than a hundred “welcome house” type structures. Basically, the majority of them are designed to accommodate adults in difficulty and in precarious situations, and to keep them from the streets. But in recent years, a new phenomenon is gaining momentum: mothers with children who are fleeing violence in particular are finding themselves in these structures in increasing numbers.
Some of them, like “Le 26” in Charleroi, are today overwhelmed with requests. Today, the structure accommodates 34 women and 38 children.
Dominique Kiss-Pap is deputy director of this reception center: “We are saturated, like all other services are saturated.“
But beyond this observation, the sector is sounding the alarm: “Not all of our structures are designed to accommodate children.“, explains Louise Remiche, coordinator of ARCA, the Regional Association of Reception Centers, “but so we have social workers who are not trained, who find themselves with children, adolescents, who are themselves suffering. It’s very complicated.“
A recent report, produced by the Association with the help of researchers from ULiège, highlights the fact that children in foster homes suffer from long-term problems without adequate care: “The increasingly frequent accommodation of children in foster homes makes them new beneficiaries for whom the legal and regulatory reference texts only outline the direction of support.“
An observation shared by Dominique Kiss-Pap: “We don’t have any help services around. The youth assistance sector is saturated, health professionals are saturated, and this has consequences for us, for children. We would need child psychologists, doctors…“
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