Who helps children without parental care after age 18?

Currently, 19-year-old Anna is living in a private residence after leaving SOS for the semi-independence phase, a process through which all children growing up in SOS.

Until the age of 21, when considered completely independent, some of the rent is financed by the SOS-Children' Villages, under whose care it is.

After that age, Anna herself will take care of rent and residence insurance.

Anna's a Physiorapy student and she works as a nurse. This has increased her confidence that in her own strength she will be able to secure residence, even though she says that having an inheritance from her parents would be easier.

Anna has no information about whether she has an inheritance from her family.

The SOS-Children' Villages have contributed greatly to the growth, education and education, Anna says, and therefore considers that for a short period the state should also contribute.

The state must take these things into account, that we grow and contribute to the state, but the state should contribute to children who do not have parents, or that have been abandoned”, Ana tells Radio Free Europe.

Despite SOS assistance and its work, Anna shows that there are difficult financial times at certain times.

Not all children can have my destiny, work. They find it difficult to deal with themselves because products and services are expensive. Even I, although I work, sometimes have problems because everything is expensive”, she relates.

Anna is among ten people over the age of 18 who are in the semi-independence phase of SOS.

Meanwhile, 39 children continue to live in the SOS Children's Villages.

Young child care adviser to the SOS Children's Villages, Bardhil Manelli, shows that these children, after leaving the organization, are financially assisted for three years.

But that amount, according to him, is insufficient.

The first “is with a considerable amount of income, but not enough. This amount in the second year goes down to 50 percent, and in the third year it declines to 25 percent. It's a gradual break for young people to become independent. But, generally, it's insufficient. What after age 21?

The semi-independence programme until the age of 21 applies only to the SOS-Children' Villages.

This organisation provides funds from donors, from organisations, from the Government and from different individuals.

The legislation in effect does not provide any assistance to housing, services, or forms of protection for such people after they reach the age of 18.

Up to this age, for children without parental care, located in a family shelter, the Government allocates 250 euros, while for those with limited capacity of 350 euros a month, says Lutfi Bislimi, official for family housing and custody at the Ministry of Justice.

Financial Assistance by age 26

The SOS Children's Villages have asked institutions to establish legal grounds so that this category of society can be supported after the age of 18.

Dudell says that many SOS children have no access to family heritage and that makes their future difficult.

Even the Coalition of Nongovernmental Organisations for Child Protection KOMF has demanded that the state ensure the protection of children without parental care as necessary, until they are 26 years old, until they are educated, empowered and independent.

Bislimin suggests they are in the process of changing the legal base so that this category of society can be financed by the age of 26.

The Social Services and Family Bill, regulating the issue, is soon expected to proceed to the Assembly for approval.

Until the adoption of this bill, he says the municipalities, through the Centres for Social Work, take care of these people and support them.

Centre for Social Affairs Director (QPS) in the Pristina municipality, Webi Mujku, says these persons are financially assisting them from the municipal budget.

Currently, he emphasises, only one person with limited capacity is funding, with 350 euros per month.

Mujk likewise says that material assistance to this category should be legal.

We're trying to overcome problems in these cases. Especially in cases where we have disabled children who couldn't afford to be a permanent solution to any family or institution”, Mujku says.

However, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pristina Fadil Maloku states that socioeconomic conditions in Kosovo are difficult, which affects the lives of these people, but material aid can create dependence on people after the age of 18.

“Help creates a kind of addiction, and does not develop a sense of independence. So, with the ban on assistance, they prepare for an independence, new solidarity that is on the horizon. After he is 18 years old, he is considered mature, and he should think about his life”, Maloku tells Radio Free Europe.

In Kosovo, 529 children under the age of 18 are without parental and abandoned care. Currently, 415 children without parental care are in the family home of relatives, another 51 children are in family shelters outside relatives, and 63 children are in residential shelters, in three organizations caring for these children.