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| Khalid Kamal ... promoting it as a home for brief stay rather than a permanent one |
In an interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA), Khalid Kamal said that Dhreima had achieved a lot in the last five years in comparison to similar institutions regionally or
globally.
“The foundation has specified the standards and conditions for hosting abandoned children. It has also conducted tests for the families applying for hosting a child as well as home visits for them to assess their viability for sponsoring the new child. Further, security organisations have been involved in the process to make sure that the potential parents are really qualified to host the child,” he said.
The official explained that applicant families to host a child should be Qatari nationals to guarantee that the child remains in Qatar and enjoy the services offered by Dhreima. The family should be a husband and a wife and they should sign a written affidavit to care for the child and sponsor him accordingly. The host parents should not be less than 25 years old or above 45 years of age. Normally, they should enjoy good reputation attested by an official entity.
Host families should sign also a commitment to let the child go to school when he/she comes of age. In co-ordination with Dhreima, the child would be informed by the family about his/her real status. Kamal stressed that in hosting a child priority is given to the families that have former experience with children.
He said that acceptance of Dhreima’s follow-up of the children at the host families is a pre-condition for allowing a family to host one. “In the meantime, host families can request the assistance of Dhreima in bringing up the child. Host families cannot select a certain child to sponsor but only specify whether a boy or a girl, and they can take part in giving a name.”
Dhreima can host also children of broken families, for instance due to imprisonment, ill health or handicap, according to the recommendation of a specialised committee in this regard.
However, Dhreima believes that family is the best place for a child to grow up within. “We do not want to crowd children inside Dhreima, the normal environment for a child is within the family, not orphanages and lodging houses,” said Kamal.
Throughout the years, Dhreima managed to marry off more than 12 orphans, employed around 12 others and delegated some others to pursue their studies abroad.
