Against this background, UNICEF set out with its partners to examine the potential for an alternative
to institutional care. This addressed two key issues:
a) how to provide an effective family-based alternative to child care
b) how to manage the stigma surrounding unmarried mothers and their offspring, which seemed to
underline the huge level of abandonment.
The driving force behind the approach was the Alternative Family Care Task Force, established in
2002, and involving UNICEF, The Khartoum State Ministry of Social Affairs, the Khartoum Council
for Child Welfare, MSF France and the NGO Hopes and Homes for Children.
The Task Force established a number of stages to the development of an alternative family care
policy.
♦ Stabilization of the conditions in Maygoma orphanage
♦ The design of acceptable alternative family care programmes
♦ Changes in attitudes, procedures and laws relating to abandonment of babies and children