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Under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (2011) a child victim shall be reunified with
their family as quickly as possible.
Administrative
Social workers employed by MoSD and residential care facilities work with officers in the
CGPU to identify family members of orphaned or vulnerable children and children on
the streets, and attempt to reunify them. Where it is determined that a child is not able
to be reunified or it is not appropriate to do so, the social worker will investigate other
family members to care for the child. Only where these measures have been exhausted
will the social worker decide to place the child in a residential care facility as a last
resort. Children may also be placed there in the interim while case workers locate family
members.
Where a child's family cannot be located or no one is deemed a suitable care giver, the
child will be placed in a care facility while determining whether that child is adoptable. It
is at this stage that more thorough investigations are conducted as to the child’s
parentage and previous care-givers whereabouts. If unable to care for the child parents,
if found, or next of kin will be asked to sign a consent to allow the child to be adopted. If
no parent or next of kin can be located and have not come forward in the three months
after the child was abandoned, then the child can be deemed able to be adopted
Currently foster homes outside of institutional homes, do not exist in Lesotho. The CPW
Act envisages private homes being registered with the MoSD to care for children in the
surrounds of a family home. This is not yet a reality. A part of the costing of the CPW Act
which is currently underway is to put a price on the implementation of private fostering
in Lesotho.
Non-governmental organisations like Kick4Life work with children living on and of the
streets. While it is not specifically a mandate of the organisation to reunify families,
social workers do whatever is in the child's best interest and within the organisations
financial capabilities.
Difficulties
Financial resources are limited in searching for children as it is not specifically budgeted
for by GoL. Transport is consistently lacking and it is often time-consuming to go
searching in geographically remote locations. Sometimes families can live several days
walk from a main road. Well-intentioned social workers often lack the investigative skills
to do this sort of work and police are often un-obliging in their assistance or unable
owing to similar resource shortcomings. Social workers and residential care facility staff
further, do not make proper use of the three month rule, whereby an abandoned child
can be considered adoptable if no family has claimed them within that time.