Reunification and Reintegration

ACAEDF, as an organization, seeks to enhance and promote the African cherished values of social harmony, family cohesion and identity.  Thus, the institutional upbringing of children does not sit with the core programmes of the organization. We ensure that we work hard to achieve genuine reconciliation between the affected children/ parents before reunification.

The process starts with visiting home and interacting with parents of a would-be reunified child by officers of the organization; identifying the cause of the problem of abuse or abandonment; Providing appropriate counseling services to both the affected child/parents or guardians; allow exchange of visits with close observation to ascertain a new attitude of acceptance, love, before the child is finally reunited with parents.

After reunification, we also carry out periodic follow-up visits to the reunified children in their homes/communities. This enables us to ascertain their welfare and render appropriate assistance to them. The follow-up visits also assist us to properly assess situations as it concerns their safety within the community in order to prevent further abuse and ensure that their rights are protected.

Furthermore, through this effort, many children who suffered various degrees of abuse and rejection by parents/community are happily living again in their homes.  In many occasions, parents/guardians fascinated with noticeable transformation in the physical condition and attitudes of a reunified child believed that the organization possesses special ‘talisman’ who works on the behavior of children. The confession of Mrs. Udo Afahaeme, mother of Alice,( a re-unified child) reproduced below, is one of many of such confessions: “this my child was so stubborn which then made us believe he was a witch. What power did you use to remove that witchcraft spirit from her? This can’t be ordinary”.

However, after a child’s reunification, we go ahead to make sure that the child is fully reintegrated into the wider society. In other words, we make sure that apart from being welcomed and not being abused and stigmatized by his or her family, a child is fully and unconditionally welcome, taken and treated as a normal and ever y other child in the society without any form of stigmatization.

From the inception of the organization, we have so far reunified and reintegrated forty (40) children with their families and they (children) have also been fully reintegrated into their various communities.