Chile

SESAME

INTRODUCTION:   

SENAME is a government-funded organization that aims to help all children whose rights have been violated and who have broken the law. 

MISSION:

-    Social integration of children

-    To help those who have had their rights violated

-    Help those who have violated the law

This mission will develop with the help of other social programs, both public and private, to support and protect programs that specialize and support the promotion and respect of the basic human rights of children. 

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

-  To strengthen the rights of children

-   To grant to children a personalized and quality integral service that protects the principles of equity, solidarity, and equality of opportunities

-    To help the damage caused in children by their maltreatment 

-   To strengthen the family as an irreplaceable nucleus for the integral development of the children

-    To incorporate private institutions and the community towards the development and maintenance of the rights of children who have both had their rights violated and who have broken the law

-     To contribute to the rehabilitation and social reintegration of children who have infringed the law

PLAN OF ACTION:

Observation and diagnostic:

            The organization performs a diagnostic analysis of sorts on the children to assess the situation which causes a child to break the law in the first place, taking into consideration their family situation and social environment.  This assessment determines whether to admit the child to one of the centers of SENAME or to return them back to their home (if they have one) along with the help of some organization in their community, which the staff of SENAME finds for the child. 

Prevention:

            Give help to the families of those children who are in socially dangerous situations – the  dynamic of the family threatens the children’s rights.

Protection:

            The foundation protects children who are in serious danger or who have parents who are either absent or incapable of caring for them.  They try to take into account the situation of the family so that they can best reintegrate the child back into society.  They try to give attention to each child since most of them lack this. 

            To this end, the center employs various ways to help the children:

-     Protection centers of simple residence

-   Familiar jobs

-    Residential centers for minimally and moderately mentally deficient children

-    Residential centers for profoundly mentally deficient children

Rehabilitation:

            The center serves to rehabilitate those children who have violated the law by providing counseling to those children.  The center also provides housing for the children during the day or for multiple days at a time, depending on the child’s situation. 

PROGRAMS AND SPECIAL PROJECTS of SENAME:

-   Programas de Tratamiento del Maltrato Infantil (Program of Treatment of Ill-treated Infants) -  Programa de Adopción*

-  Programa de Prevención y Rehabilitación en Consumo Abusivo de Drogas

- Programas para Niños de la Calle

- Programas para Madres Adolescentes (Program for Adolescent Mothers)

-  Proyectos Jurídico-Psicosociales (Legal-psychosocial Projects)

Centros de Diagnóstico Ambulatorio

WHAT ARE THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN THAT SENAME BELIEVES CHILDREN OUGHT TO HAVE?

Sename believes that children’s rights lie in the belief that children, like adults, have dignity and that their rights are both inalienable and equal to all other citizens.  They have the right to complete and harmonious development of their personalities, and to grow in the shelter of a family with happiness, love, and understanding. 

10 Basic Rights:

1. To be protected from all forms of punishment based on their beliefs or status of their parents.
2. All authorities must take the children’s best interests into account and adopt measurements with this in mind. 
3. Both the parents and the government have an obligation to feed and develop the children. 
4. The right to trial and to express their opinion freely. 
5. To be protected from all forms of abuse, both mental and physical, including neglect, exploitation, and sexual abuse.
6. To receive protection and assistance from the government in case they cannot find shelter or a place to live.
7. In their education, equal in opportunity, to maximize their possibilities and to develop a consciousness of human rights and to prepare them to take a place in a responsible, social society. 
8. To develop games and activities appropriate to the children’s age that allow them to participate freely in cultural life such as the arts. 
9. To be protected from economic exploitation—jobs that can be dangerous.  To be protected from making narcotics and being used to traffic them. 
10.  For those children who have violated the law, to develop an appreciation and understanding of human rights so that they can later be reintegrated into society. 

*INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION:

Preference of parents for adopted children is as follows, in this order:

SENAME serves to determine if child is eligible for adoption, and then it submits these children’s case to the Minors Court having jurisdiction over the child’s domicile.  They also help to match children with Chilean adoptive parents.