Our Story

In 2020, 18 organizations from 7 countries and 4 continents launched the Family Power program to promote family- and community-based child care. Through monthly exchanges of experiences, participants shared ideas and challenges. This collaboration was so enriching that they expanded it to other organizations, resulting in the Mutual Learning Program. In 2023, the group adopted the name Family Power – Mutual Learning to continue their joint work.

Nuestra Organización

The Family Power Mutual Learning board includes Wilde Ganzen Foundation, Transform Alliance Africa, Daniëlle Children’s Fund, KidsCare, Hope and Homes for Children, and Kanankil Institute. Additionally, we are supported by extraordinary individuals who are as integral as the consortium itself. As part of this collaboration, we have extensive experience developing and facilitating training courses related to family—and community-based child care and collaborative and dialogical practices, among other things.

Wilde Ganzen Foundation is a Dutch NGO founded in 1957. It is dedicated to reducing poverty and inequality through community-led projects. The foundation supports community organizations in the Global South and their partners in the Netherlands, promoting local control over development. Its approach includes grant-making, technical assistance, and networking to support social change agents in the fight against inequality.

 

Transform Alliance Africa is a growing collective of organizations working in Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. The Alliance’s vision is an Africa free from orphanages, where all girls and boys grow up where they belong: in safe and loving families. Their mission is to catalyze the end of institutional care for African children by using their collective voices, knowledge, practices, and experience to strengthen families.

 

 

Daniëlle Children’s Fund Ecuador (DCF) is an NGO with extensive experience supporting children, adolescents, and their families in at-risk situations and promoting the right to live in family and community care. It provides preventive services and family-based care and works on deinstitutionalization. Since 2018, DCF has supported the Ecuadorian government in implementing the National Deinstitutionalization Strategy and has created child protection policies. Since 2017, it has trained over 1,200 professionals in alternative care and deinstitutionalization in Ecuador and other countries.

 

 

Kanankil is a Higher Education Institute based in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. In the Mayan language, one of the meanings of the word “Kanankil” is «in conversation, in dialogue with others.» Kanankil is an academic space that explores human systems as generators of meanings and languages from a postmodern perspective and through dialogical, collaborative, and narrative practices. It applies to psychotherapy, education, and community work, promoting learning communities centered around participation and curiosity.

 

 

Hope and Homes for Children is an international organization working to eliminate child institutionalization. Since 1994, it has closed 126 orphanages, helped over 17,800 children transition to family care, and prevented the separation of more than 268,000 children from their families. The organization collaborates with governments, local partners, and civil society in over 30 countries, driving reforms and promoting orphanage closures worldwide.

 

 

KidsCare believes that every child has the right to build their future and develop the talents they were born with. KidsCare Kenya is a registered trust established in 2010. It focuses primarily on supporting families caring for orphans and children with disabilities. With a team of social workers, KidsCare implements community-based home care programs, especially for families living in very poor conditions.