‘Surrogate mothers’ step successful
22 orphans being raised in care home
KUWAIT CITY, Nov 13: The supervisor of the family nursery in the social care homes affiliated to the Ministry of Social Affairs, Iman Al-Enezi, said Kuwait’s experience in approving the step of the “surrogate mother” in embracing orphans of the homes over the past 8 years has been successful and has effectively contributed to increasing educational attainment and emotional stability of orphaned children, reports Al-Qabas daily.
She added, six surrogate mothers who were chosen with great care to take care of the orphan children. Before given the task of taking care of the children, they underwent personal interviews and psychological assessment tests, to identify their ability to keep pace with the lives of children in nurseries, and their potential to embody their positive role as surrogate mothers.
Al-Enezi said: “We have observed many positives about the presence of surrogate mothers, over the past eight years, as they are currently raising 22 children in what she called ‘independent’ homes within the Children’s Home Department equipped with all necessities required to help them live next to the children.”
She stated that among the positive aspects of their presence is raising the level of children’s educational attainment in schools, expanding the perceptions of assimilation and intelligence, in addition to introducing them to the customs and traditions of the Kuwaiti society and the ability to communicate with others and help them realize their future dreams.
Al-Enezi pointed out that the surrogate mothers spend most days of the week with the children of the home, and each surrogate mother takes in about 6 children around the clock for 5 days and goes out on vacation for two days.
She pointed out that the surrogate mothers are real mothers for the children of the home and provide them with full care, kindness and tenderness and pride the children all they lack and support them psychologically, morally, socially, educationally and healthily.
Conditions
Al-Enezi stated that one of the conditions for choosing surrogate mothers is that they should not be less than 35 years old, should be of Kuwaiti, Gulf nationality or ‘bedoun’, in order to master teaching children Kuwaiti customs and traditions and the correct local dialect, and to have a high minimum high school certificate and practical experience in Childcare or similar education.
She said that the “surrogate mother” is an important project that has a clear imprint on the development of children’s skills, and “many parties have supported the project financially over the past years, the most important of which is the Awqaf Secretariat, which supported the project’s budget and ensured the payment of its rewards and the salaries of the surrogate mothers.”
Al-Enezi explained that the family nursery provides children in the care homes a variety of different services that meet all their needs, starting with playgrounds, hand games, educational boards, the theater, in addition to the cinema hall.
She pointed out that nurseries contain a group of equipped and private homes for each surrogate mother and her children, including a set of rooms and contents that any family provides for their children.
Advantages of implementing the idea include raising the educational and academic achievement of children, high level of societal awareness of children providing moral support and social and psychological care although the Civil Service Commission has not yet given a job title for the surrogate mothers.
In order to overcome the issue and achieve the best results for children in care homes, the General Secretariat of Awqaf financially supported the surrogate mother project, providing the required needs and the monthly salaries of female workers within the project due to its importance.
Campsites identified: Kuwait Municipality has identified 34 campsites for this year, which starts from November 15 to March 15 next year, distributed over the governorates of Jahra and Ahmadi, where the northern region includes 18 sites and the southern region includes 16 sites, reports Al-Qabas daily.
The Municipality announced the spring camps sited will have service centers and security points and 4 branches of cooperative societies branches, in addition to 3 security points at the Jahra sites, and 3 branches of cooperative societies in the Ahmadi Governorate and a security point each in Julai’a, Umm Safaq and Kabd Roads.
The Municipality has called on citizens and residents to protect the environment im the open desert areas by maintaining cleanliness, as well doing acts that will damage and destroy the natural environment and harm wildlife and its aesthetic value.