Home for good

Home for good

Over the past year we are happy to announce that 13 children were permanently reunited through St. Anthony‟s Family Reunification Programme in conjunction with the Department of Social Development. As an example of a successful story we would like to illustrate the case of Musa who was successfully reunited with his family in December 2010.

Musa is a 13 year old boy who came to St. Anthony‟s in January 2010. At the age of 9 years he had run away from his abusive family situation and subsequently a foster care home, where he was placed, had broken down. He was brought to St. Anthony‟s not knowing who or where his biological family were.

The Family Reunification Team then set out on the task of locating Musa‟s biological family through the Family Tracing Project. After four months of research and visiting, the Team was able to locate both Musa‟s maternal and paternal grandmothers at eMondlo. It became known that Musa‟s mother and father had both sadly passed away. But all was not lost because staying with Musa‟s maternal grandmother were his two siblings whom he had not seen in over 4 years! In April 2010 during the Easter holidays Musa was reunited with them for the first time and had a very happy holiday as a family once again.
The contact with both grandmothers and siblings continued throughout the year with their relationship growing in love and affection and it became known that Musa‟s maternal grandmother and siblings wanted to be reunited with him on a permanent basis.

Working hand in hand with Musa‟s Field Social Worker to assess the case, it was decided to reunite Musa with his maternal grandmother in December 2010. Preparations were then made for him to commence schooling in eMondlo and he was enrolled at school in Grade 5.
Regular visits and phone calls have taken place since Musa‟s reunification through the Aftercare Programme and Musa is doing well. His grandmother is currently waiting for Musa‟s Foster Care Grant to be finalised and once everything is secure final disengagement from the Family Reunification Programme will commence.

Musa is just one of many success stories from our Family Reunification Programme which is made possible through the generosity of our funders and the dedicated work of our staff.