Getting creative and dirty – what a great way to spend the school holidays! IGF’s resident children were kept occupied during the recent school holidays with a range of activities. A number of children remain at IGF during school holidays, while others return home to spend time with family.
The children that remained at IGF had fun making clay pots and figures, had some dance classes, did some drawing and painting, singing and so much more. The children are also learning basic things that other children normally learn at home with their families. There is a small garden that the children are able to tend to and watch their vegetables grow. Some of the older children help with the on-site sheep, goats and pigs, making sure that they are put safely into their enclosure at night and let out during the day. The older children learn cooking skills, and there is always plenty of time to play.
There has been discussions in Australian media in recent months about cutting support to organisations running ‘orphanages’, where children are sometimes taken from their parents under false-pretences, where children are kept for orphanage/poverty-tourism purposes, and so on.
IGF doesn’t operate an orphanage, but provides full-time residential care to ‘at-risk’ children. Some of these children have been abandoned, abused, or for other reasons not able to be cared for by family, while some are orphaned. IGF works in close partnership with local police and child protection authorities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children, and also seeks to maintain contact with the families of children in care, with the aim of restoring family relations and returning the child to their families when safe.
