The Complexity of Issues on Kinship Care for Disabled Children (A case study on Sayap Ibu Bintaro foundation)

Abstract

Parental divorce, abandonment, and poverty cause many children separated from their biological parents, and extended family should be responsible for their care. However, the current challenges in Indonesia is that there is no regulation that regulates kinship care, making the caregivers fight themselves to raise and nurture their relatives' children. This study focuses on kinship care for disabled children which have greater challenges than that for normal children. Thus, the research aims to explain the various problems surrounding the kinship care. Through interviews and observations with the social workers and caregivers of Yayasan Sayap Ibu Bintaro (YSIB), complex problems in kinship residency for children are found, viewed from the aspect of caregiver resource, psychological problems experienced by caregivers, and vulnerability in foster children. This research concludes that caregivers' limited resource affects the psychological pressure of caregivers and vulnerability in foster children at least on nutrition, access to health care, and education. A formal and informal support system are needed to support the provision of resources for the upbringing of kinship care through YSIB's development program to strengthen the disabled children's kinship care, and to advocate for health services and financial assistance from the government's social programs, to empower communities to participate in parsing the various socioeconomic problems that exist in kinship care for disabled children.