We are promoting a project for the better integration of young unaccompanied minors in situations of risk, through the creation of foster aunts and uncles. We intend to create a family of reference, to act as aunts and uncles in support of a better integration for the unaccompanied minor.

Among the main objectives of Baketik the following is particularly underlined: “to focus on and provide support in forgotten conflicts and to those forgotten in conflicts”. In the peace centers annual scheduling there is a programme of intervention entitled: “solidarity at the local level”. In order to develop the concept of solidarity it suggests, among its main criteria, that we “ask ourselves constantly who are the last in our society, and that we go in search of them, removing whatever obstacles necessary, so that they cease to be last”.

It is this union of concepts that has led Baketik to focus on the phenomenon of young unaccompanied minors. It is not difficult to imagine the suffering of these children and to understand their extreme living situation. Neither is it difficult to imagine the complexity that the adequate treatment of this neglect involves, the contradictory social reactions provoked or the effort that the institutions must make to provide an answer to this issue.

In this context Baketik wishes to respond while being fully aware that it is just that, a response and contribution that attempts to alleviate, partially, a very complicated situation whose global solution is beyond the pretensions of the initiative. If the final objective is to achieve the best possible integration of these young people, then this proposal is merely a step in the right direction.

Baketik has been developing a working hypothesis, which has matured into “Project Izeba”. It consists in the creation of accompanying family figures, which we could also refer to as foster aunts and uncles, who contribute to the better integration of young unaccompanied minors.

In this way the family support to minors in situations of neglect can count on other models: adoptive families, foster families and accompanying families. Its structure defines the objectives, the description of the project and the starting point are one and the same.