ACCORDING to Childcare Director Ann Greene, while institutions to care for children might be lifesavers in many cases, they are not places that children should remain for an extended period.

For this reason, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, through its Childcare and Protection Agency – led by Greene – wants to send the message that family-based care is better than institutional care.

With Foster Care Month coming to an end today (May 31), the Agency will be looking to see how many more persons will come forward to be foster parents, banking on hopes that their many awareness activities during the month would have yielded some fruit.

“The whole purpose of the month is to honour the foster parents and to raise awareness. You have to be special to be a foster parent; you’re taking in people’s children and then you have to care for them just like your own,” Greene told Guyana Chronicle on Monday.

She stressed that foster care is only temporary care. The ultimate goal was for the child to be reunited with his/her family. However, there are also occasions when, due to extenuating circumstances, Childcare officers would be forced to remove a child from his/her biological family and place him/her in institutional care.

During the month to observe foster care, Greene said the officers spared no effort in saying that foster care existed in Guyana and that there were children in institutional care who needed a family.

“We’d like to have more foster parents because we have children in the institutions who are in need. Institutions are life savers for children but it’s no place that a child should stay long; children are entitled to family-based care,” she stated.

“The officers are still looking to get buy in from the community. At the end of the month, we will look and see if persons are coming in to be foster parents after all the awareness we’ve done,” Greene continued, as she noted how foster care can sometimes turn into adoption, which forms part of the permanency plan for assisting the child.

During the month, subject Minister, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, spent time honouring foster care parents, and even arranging for the long-serving ones to be rewarded in some way.

Minister Persaud joined approximately 200 foster children and foster parents in a movie day at the MovieTowne Cinema, organized by the Childcare and Protection Agency. The activity was intended to promote healthy bonding between foster parents and foster children and recognise their efforts.

Minister Persaud believes that children are blessings from God— little souls who need to be cherished, nurtured, and guided in the right direction. With the proper parental attention and control, they can grow up to lead productive lives and make rich contributions to their families and country.

Meanwhile, Greene, on Monday, conducted a special training with a relatively new set of family services officers who are specialised in family support services.

“When families break down, ‘Social Services’ have to step in, but we have to work towards preventing such family break down,” she explained.