THE Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) is awaiting presentation of the country’s budget in order to fully move forward with its awareness programmes aimed at attracting more persons willing to serve as foster care parents. This was disclosed by Director of Children Services and Head of the CCPA, Ms. Ann Greene, who spoke to the Chronicle via telephone on Tuesday.
The agency had designated last November as Foster Care Month with a programme of events that was planned to heighten awareness and increase the number of foster care parents.
According to Greene, the situation with regard to a shortage of such persons remains the same at present, because the agency cannot yet move ahead with its awareness programmes, which require funding. Nevertheless, the agency is doing what it can at a community level.
Greene said staffers are going out to various communities to search for individuals who are willing to open up their hearts and homes to less fortunate children. All of the institutions are overcrowded, she observed, and children thrive better when they are in a family setting.
In an interview with this newspaper in the comparatively recent past, Greene had said: “We are trying to increase the number of persons we have as potential foster care parents. We want to get a core list of persons willing to share their homes and love for children, so they could take a child in their home.”
In that interview, conducted at the office of the CCPA at Broad and Charles Streets, Charlestown, Greene had said that the intention was to get the community to “buy in” to the idea, because foster care is something that Guyana knows little about, and is something which is “pretty new to Guyanese.”
Greene had disclosed, too, that there are about 700 children in institutions, and foster care is pursued as an alternative when a family fails and can no longer manage to rear children.
“A child is entitled to a family. If you (a child) can live with your own family, we will make that happen. If you cannot, then we will provide a foster care family,” Greene had assured.
Also present at that interview was administrative manager of foster care, Ms Colleen Khan, who had explained that foster care was a family-based option for children who could not remain with their biological parents. When necessary, she had said, the child would be temporarily placed with a surrogate family, while the agency worked to help the family with their issues.
According to Khan, the agency was encouraging people to enrol on its register by visiting the office and filling out a form. A home visit would then be conducted, background checks would be made, and foster parents would be required to do medical examinations paid for by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.
The foster care initiative was introduced in 2009, and last November marked the first time that a month had been designated specifically for its observance.