Foster care is a situation where children are looked after by individuals who are not the child’s biological parents. There are plenty of reasons why children go into foster care. These reasons may range from family neglect to a crisis such as parents’ deaths and court orders, and sometimes parents can request such services for temporary times. Whatever the foster reason is, it is vital to provide foster care services to children to meet their needs. This article will look at what role foster care plays in turning children’s lives around. LIRS will also explore the various reasons why most children need foster placement.
Reasons Why Children Need Foster Care Services
Notably, each family situation and circumstance is different, and in some cases, the parents are not usually at fault. However, there may need be of children to be placed in foster care based on the current situation during a particular crisis, either temporarily or permanently. In some cases, children can be fostered from birth until they reach the adult age of 18 years. It is the responsibility of the government and the foster caregivers to meet their varying needs as long as needed.
Some of the reasons children need foster care include:
Family Crisis
As noted, families can be going through a crisis, hence the need to place children in foster care temporarily. Parents can request the help of local government intervention before things get out of hand. Also, in cases where the children have lost their parents through death, eviction, job loss, or war, it can impact the ability to fulfill the needs of the children hence the need for foster care. In cases like refugee camping, parents can request foster care services from the government before they get back on their feet again.
Neglect
Neglect can vary from emotional, physical, medical, and financial negligence. If the parents can’t meet the children’s needs are not being met like having access to medical attention, food, a clean home, or education, we can then say children have been neglected. The situation can be deliberate or involuntary where the parents are unable to meet the needs due to their financial status or mental illness. Either way, there’s an urgent need for intervention to cater to the developmental needs of the children in question.
Abuse
Whether emotional, physical or psychological, all forms of abuse can bring long-term effects to the children subjected to the abuse. Therefore, it’s wise to get supportive and positive environments to help the affected children. This can be through foster care to help the child get over the abuse they went through at the hands of their parents or guardians.
Severe Behavioral Issues in the Children
As noted, not all reasons for foster care are caused by the parents. In some rare cases, parents can ask for temporary foster care for their children because they are unable to control their actions or behaviors. So if the parents don’t feel safe for them to be around other kids, they could ask for foster care services.
Unsafe Living Environment
A child may have to go to foster care if their home is no longer safe. This could be due to violence, parental mental health issues, or criminal behavior around the child. These situations may need the government’s help to look for foster parents for the children until the problem resolves.
So, How Can One Foster An Afghan Refugee Child Detained At A Government Institution?
Notably, no one chooses to be a refugee, but circumstances force individuals to be refugees due to wars and attacks. The greater percentage of refugees are children who are left alone separated from their parents without the fault of their adult family members to care for them. With the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, many families have turned to refugees with no place to turn to, most of them being children. Although there’s no easy way of adopting refugee children, a few guidelines will help you provide foster care to the affected children.
Everyone has an obligation to help out people in need whenever they are in a position to. The Hague Convention on Inter-country adoption has put in place requirements that each child must be placed in their country of origin before the officials can consider international adoption.
Mostly, the children become refugees outside their country of origin. Therefore, the adoption process will be under the new nation’s laws. With the Taliban takeover, the adoption process in Afghanistan has become complicated since most families are focused on getting their members to other countries for safety.
In Washington DC, there’s an organization set to help out the refugees resettle. Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area is the organization behind the rescue of about 68 families and more than 294 individuals resettle. Notably, they stated that people interested in fostering the detained Afghan children should fill out an interested form, and they will be licensed to be foster parents to the kids.
The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service have also taken it upon themselves to welcome and support the newly arrived Afghan families and cater to their particular needs. They have urged volunteers to sign up for people willing to help the refugees. You can learn more about how to foster a child detained at the border.
In Summary
With the Taliban takeover, there has been a large number of displaced families and individuals who are running away to other countries for safety hence a large number of refugees. With so many children left and separated from their parents and families, there has been a need for foster care until the situation resolves. This is because foster care will provide the child with a safe and stable environment where the foster care providers will be able to cater to their particular needs.
Also, foster care helps the children develop a positive mentality about life and other things to release the trauma they have gone through in the past. If you are ready to make a difference in an Afghan refugee child’s life, you can volunteer today to foster one of the children.
