FROM INSTITUTIONS TO THE COMMUNITY:

The Fundamor experience of transforming care for HIV-positive children and young people in Colombia

Purpose of the report

Insight into care transformation from an orphanage in Colombia: Fundamor, an organisation providing services for HIV-positive children, closed its institution and, with support from Lumos, moved children living there into family-based care.

Despite recent advances, Colombia still faces conflict and poverty. Services and support in many communities don’t meet people’s needs, and more than 11,000 children are living in residential institutions.

Fundamor was established when state support for HIV-positive people was in its infancy. Poverty and lack of healthcare led parents of HIV-positive children to bring them to the Fundamor institution. But in time, the leadership here saw that the children weren’t developing as they would in a family setting.

So they began the process of transforming their care. Since 2015, Lumos has worked with them, helping children and young people take a lead role in the transformation, and striving to make sure each child’s needs are met.