Currently, the number of foster families is 1,604, with 1,488 children placed in them. This was stated by the acting Minister of Labor and Social Policy Hasan Ademov at the National Press Club of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA), where the National Initiative “Adopt Me” to promote foster care was opened. The initiative is a joint project of BTA and the Social Assistance Agency (ASA).
Foster care is not just a job, not just an employment contract, it is a cause, an idea to create conditions for support and opportunities for development in early childhood, he pointed out.
As a crisis measure, foster care has its importance, but in cases where children have to stay in foster families for a longer period of time, the relationship between the child and the family, experiencing the love, warmth and empathy of the parents, is extremely important, noted Minister Ademov. He added that it is important for foster families to open not only their homes, but also their hearts and souls and to accept the fate of children as a calling and cause.
Family care is the foundation for building personalities who can then accept full realization in society, the minister emphasized.
The best way is to expand support for families before, during and after birth, so as not to reach a situation where children are sought to be placed outside the family, he added. In his words, professional foster care is by definition accepted as an alternative to residential services and institutional care. We must admit that there is something to be done in terms of promoting foster care so that society can accept it as something natural, the minister added.
Minister Ademov wished the initiative success. He thanked BTA and the Bulgarian Association of Social Workers, as well as everyone who works to promote the cause. From the point of view of public acceptability, this policy and initiatives should be increasingly popular, so that it becomes clear that this is a test of civilized attitude of society, as a test of democracy, he said.
We are at the beginning of Holy Week, and at this time our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for all of us, for others. Foster care is also such a feat - a sacrificial example. To sacrifice yourself, your time and your life for someone else, following the example of Christ. Such people resemble the Lord most, because they do his deeds. This was said by the General Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bishop Gerasim of Melnik.
Bishop Gerasim explained that foster families need support, which is not only financial, but also spiritual. The main concern should be for foster parents who sacrifice themselves for someone else, the bishop believes. It is easy to help someone close to you, your own children and relatives, but it is not easy to sacrifice your time and energy, even if sometimes you have to endure much more than you yourself have the capacity for. Then someone has to help you, and this is often not a psychotherapist, he noted. According to him, children endure the problems they face more easily than foster parents, because they are still young and vital.
We do not go door to door calling people to come to us, the temple is always open and you can seek advice, said Bishop Gerasim. Caring for people is every day and the clergy have a lot of experience. They confess and meet with a huge number of people every day, which makes them good counselors, he explained.
"The Orthodox Church is ready to spiritually support parents and foster children, because we are a community. Church means a community, not a building, not a specific place, but a group of people. It is very important to feel together. "These children are also our children and we should be grateful to these people who have taken on this responsibility to take care of them, to educate them and to raise them so that they grow up to be good citizens, Christians and human beings," Bishop Gerasim also said.