Our Family-Based Care

Our foster carers are giving safe care to children who have traumatic pasts.

Tutela aims to reverse the trauma they have faced by empowering our carers to give positive family experiences that restore hope and enable children to thrive.

Six Ingredients for Our Family-based Care

  • 1. BELONG

    When a child gets placed with our foster carers, they are not simply filling a space in a home; they are joining a family. They learn to find their place in the family and over time, they look to their foster mum and dad for identity and security.

  • 2. PLAY

    Our foster carers make sure that their children have plenty of opportunities for playing - toys, games and role-playing are an integral part of home life.

  • 3. LEARN

    Education is a core part of Tutela’s values for the foster children. We provide extra tuition to plug the gaps in their learning and enable them to be confident in their studies. Activities such as art classes also encourage creativity.

  • 4. DREAM

    A girl in one of our foster families who is recovering from a very difficult past, loves to sing. She recently drew this picture to describe her dream of singing on a stage. Our carers take time to nurture such dreams and ambitions with the aim of seeing children pursue them.

  • 5. GROW

    The foundations of a secure family allow children to embrace a level of independence that is appropriate for their age. Family life in our foster homes gives children confidence to be a part of their society in positive ways.

  • 6. THRIVE

    Each child is unique with their God-given personality and abilities. What it means to thrive in life looks different for each child, as they achieve personal goals and milestones. A secure family base is so important, from which they can overcome their challenges.

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Our Foster Families

Our foster families are based on the outskirts of Maputo, in some of the city’s suburbs. Each family lives in a fully prepared home complete with garden and next door neighbours, and the foster children attend a local school and play with the children in their road. The aim is that each foster family is integrated into Mozambican life as much as possible. We believe in a Mozambican experience for Mozambican children.

Foster carers agree to take care of a maximum of six children in their family, which is a big responsibility, but they are given a full range of support, including a dedicated social worker, as well as regular respite time. The children experience a well provided home life and carers show them what a safe family is like.

We currently have two foster families in Maputo who are caring for a total of eleven children in what we consider to be a pilot phase to test our approach. The search to find more carers is now beginning - for big-hearted Mozambicans who are willing to follow in the footsteps of the the first two families and help change the fortunes of more vulnerable children.

Our Approach

There are four main elements that go into our model of care, which help ensure that the foster families create strong bonds together. Our model is based on a tried and tested approach that has been successful in South Africa and which we have adapted for the Mozambican setting. The elements are:

  • A careful selection process and good quality training of the carers

  • A well prepared home to live in

  • A thorough process for identifying which children need help

  • A full range of support to the carers and children in the foster home

Safeguarding

By providing good quality training to our carers, we are enabling them to offer safety and security to the children in their family. A significant aspect of this training involves safeguarding and knowing how to help children who have experienced trauma. We have developed a safeguarding policy that is sensitive to a Mozambican context and also considers all aspects of protecting children. Tutela is also a member of a safeguarding organisation in the UK called ThirtyOne:Eight that offers support to international organisations such as ours on the best safeguarding policies and practices. We review our practices regularly to keep a high level of safety for the children in our care.