Wanted: Foster parents

Over the last month we have presented a series of stories on children in need of adoption, but while adoption is the goal in some cases, a more common measure is foster care. Today a campaign was launched to get more families involved in the programme…and News 5’s Jacqueline Woods was there.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

Are you ready to give your heart to a child? That’s the question being asked by the Human Services Department that hopes to attract new foster parents for ninety-eight children.

Ava Pennil, Director, Human Services Department

“It doesn’t mean that you have to raise a child until a child is eighteen, it can be respite. You can take a child home for the weekend, for a Sunday, for over a vacation period. Children need to experience positive family environment.”

Human Services Department Director, Ava Pennil, says the foster care campaign will run for a year and will target specific groups to recruit the special service.

Ava Pennil

“It’s very important that we target churches and we get the message out. Churches are an organisation that gives the message of Christ, and we need to take care of our own, all of us here have a responsibility to each and every one of us. We will also be targeting large organisations like B.E.L., which have a large population so we probably recruit foster care from there as well.”

This morning the campaign was officially launched and many foster parents attended the ceremony to give their support. Also on hand, were some of the two hundred and eighty children already in foster homes.

Irene Vernon, Foster Parent

“Patience is the most thing that you need with them, because you have to realise that these children come out of a home that they didn’t get love. And so you have to give them that love and them they will listen to you.”

Louis Blake, Foster Parent

“My wife is the one who does the most of it. I am just the backup. Supported all the way round. My two children support it as well.”

Jacqueline Woods

“So the entire family is involved.”

Louis Blake

“The entire family.”

Ava Pennil

“A foster parent calls for you to give love, to give attention. And sometimes it even calls for you to look a the bigger picture and say, you know, this child really belongs back at home, and you have to release that child back to the parent. So it needs somebody that, not out of personal interest, it’s not to satisfy your own personal need, but rather to give love to a child and when it’s time to let go you are ready to let go.”

The department financially assists with children who require special medical attention, however, it is the responsibility of the foster parent to meet the general needs of the children they want to help.

Ava Pennil

“And we do that because we don’t want families coming for the financial reward. We want families coming that are willing to give of themselves to the child.”

Children, who have been physically and sexually abused, abandoned, and orphaned are in need of foster care or adoption but not all of these children will get the opportunity to be raised by a loving family. Minister of Human Development, Sylvia Flores says the challenge is to see how government, NGOs, and the community in general can respond and meet the needs of its most neglected young citizens.

Sylvia Flores, Minister of Human Development

“The budget is very small and as I speak, overall the budget of the Human Development is very small. We do get funding from UNICEF, PAHO, to be able to run these programmes, but not adequate enough to be able to meet all these needs. And that is the challenge to government, or any institution for that matter that tries to meet the needs of its people. It will never be enough, and that’s the greatest challenge we face. And so when we find families who are willing to foster these children, it’s an opportunity for us to meet our needs, not only as a government, but as a society.”

Pennil says they have data that shows children do better in a family environment than in an institution. So if you are ready to give your heart to a child, contact the Human Services Department at telephone numbers 227-7451 or 227-2057. Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.

A publicity campaign will run throughout the year promoting involvement in the foster care programme.