Orphans into foster families in Thailand

So far this year, the Care for Children team in Thailand has had a busy season. We started out the year with a National Foster Meeting, bringing together senior government officials, orphanage directors, social workers, and family placement workers from 20 government children homes.

As our relationships with these groups develop, these meetings are growing increasingly fun and productive. There was a lot of lively discussion in these sessions as we looked for ways to strengthen the foster care programme and place more children in families. We had the chance to hear from a young woman who had grown up in foster care, followed by the stories from the wonderful couple who had been her foster parents. The young woman who shared her story is now grown-up and has her own family, but she still returns to visit her foster mother and father on a regular basis and their current foster children call her 'big sister'. Hearing this woman speak about the importance of her foster family and seeing the person she has become reminded our team of the importance of this work for individual lives.

The training team has been busy visiting and training staff from nine new project sites, where we will be able to serve children in exactly the way their specific communities need. We were encouraged that the government requested Care for Children to expand the foster care training program to include these nine additional children’s homes. We will only be able to transform the way children grow up if we do it together, and greater interest from the government indicates a growing awareness of the need to open up opportunities for all children in state-run institutions to be cared for in a family-based setting.

Once again, thank you for your support and staying connected to our work.