Provide Foster Families in Brazil

Dear Donor

We deeply appreciate your ongoing support for our project. Your generosity has made a significant difference in the lives of the children we assist.

Thanks to your contributions, we have been able to provide family foster care to children aged 0-6 whose rights have been violated. Also, your donations have helped these children find safe and nurturing homes where they can fully develop while their cases are being resolved by the courts.

We understand how essential it is to have adults who are prepared and supportive during these difficult times in a child's life. Your continued support strengthens us in our mission to protect and empower not only the children, but also their biological families, who face situations of violence and adversity.

Today, we would like to share the inspiring story of a family assisted by our project, who were able to reconnect with their child, creating new opportunities to rewrite their stories together.

Bruna, a poor, suburban black woman, at the age of 39 lost custody of her son Pedro. Bruna went to a health service, was medicated by professionals in the area and had her son taken out of her care. When the mother woke up, her son was no longer in her arms, but was being taken into one of the foster families of the Instituto Fazendo História (IFH). Pedro arrived at the IFH still frightened, with some crying and difficulty in bonding. Bruna and her husband Carlos (Pedro's father) began to make periodic visits to see their son at the IFH foster family headquarters. The visits, however, were quite challenging: Pedro cried a lot, Bruna got angry and Carlos gave up.

At first moment, the family was resistant to the orientation we gave them and responded in the way they knew how: through violence and distrust of care, since, in their experience, the place of care was also violent. They needed several consultations for them to understand that our work was to walk together with them, our desire was to support and give a qualified listening to them that had suffered several ruptures and violence.

After long appointments, work plans, financial support, and attention to their anguishes, fears, and pain, the family shows itself in a completely different way. They arrive before their son at the headquarter, do a breathing exercise, feed themselves, and then meet Pedro in a different way: Pedro today even falls asleep nestled in his mother's lap, something that seemed unimaginable at the beginning of our service's assistance.

We don't know if Pedro will return or not to his biological family due to the vulnerable time they have been through, but what we are sure of is that providing care in a warm, responsible and attentive way has an exponential impact. Bruna and Carlos will have a chance to maternize and paternalize in a different way this time, and our work is to make it happen with Pedro next to them

Thank you so much.

Best wishes,

Instituto Fazendo História Team