The Foster Care Service (FCS) has been developed and implemented in Moldova since 2000. It is a family type service, aimed to guarantee the chance to raise in a loving family to those children left out of family care.
In this period, both Central and Local Authorities (CPA/LPA) together with the NGOs, have done their best to make more popular and to develop this service so that today the number of foster carers has reached 370 families, who had taken in placement more than 500 children. It’s a rather big issue. Yet it’s not enough to ensure a safe and protective family environment to all children needing parental care, and who cannot yet enjoy this right.
A small part of population knows about this service. That is why, authorities, together with their partners launch periodically informational campaigns to raise awareness and to identify new foster carers so that more children left without parental care, at regional level, can find a family to live with, until their status is definitively established.
Thus, in the beginning of October, P4EC together with the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family (MLSPF) and the LPAs, have launched a national campaign to promote the Forster Care Service: "Have your heart set on fostering. Open it to a child". The Campaign’s actions will be developed till December of the current year. Among them will be organized awareness actions and dissemination of different materials about the FCS, including by bills, which contain useful information on the backside. Thus, we proposed to ensure to get informed a larger public.
The Campaign is supported also, by the Foster Carers of the Districts of Calarasi and Ungheni, which have already experienced this service and can share publicly their life stories.
Asked about the reason determining them to become foster parents, many of the applicants say: "in fact, we want to do good (…), salary is a weak incentive, the economical reason is not dominating. Often love for our neighbor is the best driver, or there are families that see their role as child educators, offering care including to children who are not their family members".
We report bellow, some of the questions one can ask about the Foster Care Service.
What is Foster Care?
The Foster Care is a social service addressed to children deprived of parental care, whether they are orphans or cannot live with their parents. The FC assumes temporary care of one or more children placed in an alternative family.
There are 4 types of fostering: emergency placement, short-termed or long-termed period and finally, respite placement, that stands in child’s planned placement in a foster family, for a week, regularly, so that parents who have children with special needs can afford a rest and guarantee, in the same time, child’s maintenance in a family.
Depending on the reasons why children need foster/parental care, it can last from several weeks to several years, to return to their birth family, to be adopted.
Who can become a foster carer?
One can become a foster carer whether he/she: is single or married, rets a house or has its own place to live in, is or not employed.
The most important is to love children and to be able to efficiently communicate with them, to help them overcome difficult periods of their life.
The main qualities for a foster carer are: patience, willingness, and availability. Moreover, it is very important that one is prepared to share his own house and life with a child.
The Service Specialist will assess the applicant and its family in order to make sure they correspond to specific criteria to provide this service. That is: life conditions, foster carer’s social situation and his/her condition to understand how prepared is he/she to cope with this mission.
Foster parents are paid for their job – they have a work record book and a possibility to accumulate job history. Foster carers are provided payments and salaries from the budgets of the local public authorities, supplemented by special sources, grants, donations, and other legal sources. Every child is provided a one-off payment upon placement, annual payment, and monthly payments, and a one-off payment upon turning 18.
What are the steps to do to become a Foster Carer?
All interested to become Foster Carers are invited to address to the Department of Social Assistance and Family Protection or to get in contact with the community social assistant of their residence District.
Soon after that the applicant will be invited to a discussion with the social assistant, where they will be offered detailed information about this service. During the assessment, the applicant will benefit from initial training in fostering and will receive useful information about children in placement.
A foster carer will never be left alone in the process of providing this service. He/she’ll be supported by a team of DSAFP specialists, we’ll be involved in continuous training and supervision meetings.
In these 15 years of FC Service implementation in Moldova, it was developed in 30 districts, while from various reasons, in other 7 administrative territorial unities, the Foster Care Service still lacks. And also, in the District of Orhei, where 30 FC unities are active and in Chisinau where are registered 36 FC, were developed all types of placement.
There have been registered remarkable results in the implementation of this service, in the following districts: Ungheni – 30 FC unities, Floresti – 26, Calarasi – 30, etc.
The District of Calarasi is one of the 11 Districts supported by the P4EC in the implementation and promotion of this service.
We’d like to present forward the story of the village of Bravicea of Calarasi District, where e met more foster