Innovation: Granny and Orphan programme

Bulgaria

AI Domains:

• Participation in society (social connectedness)

• Independent, healthy and secure living (care for children, financial security)

The World Health Organisation’s Global Commission on the Social Determinants of Health report contended that how long and well we live is influenced before we are born, how we grow through early childhood years and adolescence into adulthood. They firmly argued for equity from the start of life in order to lay the foundations for health and well-being

The Worldwide Orphan Foundation has been working in Bulgaria since 2004 developing a range of early intervention programmes to address the developmental progress and health and well-being of children in several orphanages. In 2010, the Bulgarian government adopted a new vision for the care of orphans and at-risk children by mandating that the country’s 130 orphanages should be closed by 2025 and be replaced by a more developed system of foster care, family reunifications and small group homes.

The majority of children in Bulgaria’s orphanages are Roma, one of the country’s largest minority groups, and many such children experience the effects of attachment disorder and developmental delays. The Granny and Orphan programme matches disadvantaged orphans with older women – grannies – who have a wide range of life experiences and wisdom to share with young children. The grannies are vetted, trained and supported to provide one-on-one support to children through sharing activities such as art, music, reading, games and sport for four hours per day five days a week.

The grannies work under the guidance of a psychologist and are required to keep a journal recording the activities and progress of each child. For their efforts, the grannies receive a modest stipend that can be a useful addition to household incomes. The programme has over 100 grannies working with more than 200 children in 11 orphanages across Bulgaria and a similar intervention programme operates in Vietnam. Both are small-scale innovations that have the potential to have a significant impact on a relatively modest sized groups but have potential to be scaled up over the life course.

There are still millions of children who face great disadvantages. Among that group of disadvantaged children are orphans in Bulgaria facing the prospect of their childhood years in an institution lacking resources. The plight of young children in the post-communist states of eastern Europe led to a range of responses from international charities. The Worldwide Orphan Foundation, an American charity founded in 1997 by the renowned paediatrician Dr Jane Aronson, is committed to improving the life chances of orphans around the world so that they can learn to play, grow and lead productive lives.

There is good evidence from neuroscience to show that early intervention work with children at risk of severe disadvantage can make a difference to their developing brain in terms of developing a weak or strong foundation for future learning, behaviour and health. The Granny and Orphan programme provides a good example of a social innovation that mobilises the skills of older women for the benefit of children experiencing severe disadvantage.

In relation to active ageing, the Granny and Orphan programme clearly provides specialist care to children and through the payment of a stipend to the grannies contributes to their financial security (technically it is not employment). However, the core of the Granny and Orphan programme is building social connectedness with and for children who are particularly disadvantaged and without which they will not have the social skills to live and thrive in society.

Websites

Programs for Elderly

WWO