When experiencing a divorce of parents and not receiving the necessary attention and care in a family, ability to attach emotionally is traumatized in the majority of children living in social care centers. The study presented today on movement of foster families in Latvia, which is the first of its kind, proves that.
The study confirms that the life in an institution have a negative impact on both mental and physical development of a child. When children come to a childcare centre at an early age, their skill to create a natural, healthy, and stable attachment that forms personality of the child is hindered. Most of the children in the institutions were detected learning skills, mental development, or other disorders. Foster families have also confirmed that they observe a variety of health problems in children.
Authors of the study emphasized that each child, but especially children under three years old, required a family. “A child you can get really personal love, attention, and nurturing in a family only. A child learns in the family, what home is, how to take care of oneself and others, and how to set up his or her own family afterwards,” underlined Dace Blaževica, Chairperson of the Board of Foundation “Social Service Agency” at the presentation of the study.
The Ministry of Welfare has begun work so that specialized foster families would be formed in Latvia starting from 2018. A specialized foster family are specially trained people, who provide care appropriate to age, personal development, and social skills of a child. Implementation thereof requires both improvement of education and support services for foster families and close cooperation among various state, municipal authorities, and non-governmental organizations, as well as stable and predictable financial and social support to the families who take care of foster-children.
“Foster families perform not only a function of family. Often they are also caregivers, teachers, and social support. Every child has his or her own story and experience, and twofold patience, understanding, and special assistance are sometimes required. Therefore, it is planned to improve extrafamilial care, increase financial support gradually, and to create a stable system of social security,” said Minister of Welfare Jānis Reirs.
“Almost one and a half thousand of our children are living in children’s homes at the moment. More than 200 of these children are less than three years old. We do not see and hear them, because they are there, in the children’s homes, without voice and without any opportunity to defend themselves. Therefore, every of us must achieve so that no infant would end up in children’s home and every child of that one and a half thousand children would have an opportunity to grow up in a family-oriented and a loving environment. The state must support foster families and we, entire society, should be open to those children. They are our children,” emphasized Iveta Vējone.
First Lady of Latvia Iveta Vējone delivered an invitation to Minister of Welfare Jānis Reirs to the meeting on the occasion of the Orphans Day, which will take place at 2 p.m. on November 4 in the Riga Castle. President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis and First Lady of Latvia Iveta Vējone invite foster families, adoptive parents, guardians, and their supporters for a meeting to thank for their work, allowing the children left without parental care to grow up in a family-oriented environment, already for the second year in turn.