Belarus Trains Parents to Adopt Foster Children
FrontLines - February 2009
By Larissa Komarova
A poster encourages taking an orphaned child into a family.
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Chausy, Belarus—Fyodor, 13, and his sister Raya, 16, were recently taken from their family by government authorities after their mother had been denied parental rights for child neglect and other problems related to alcohol.
Had that happened even a year ago, both teenagers would have ended up in a state institution. Through USAID’s Supporting Orphans and Vulnerable Children project, however, Fyodor and Raya, whose last names are being withheld, are now living with a foster family.
According to the Ministry of Education, more than 30,000 orphans and children in Belarus do not live with their parents. About 80 percent are “social orphans”—children whose parents are unable or unwilling to care for them. Despite government efforts to find foster care placements, over 50 percent of these children reside in government-run institutions,
such as boarding schools and orphanages. The USAID orphans project, implemented by the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF), is developing alternative care models in Belarus to increase the number of children brought up by their natural families or in a family-like environment.
Until recently in Chausy, a small town in the western part of Belarus with a population of 25,000, nearly all orphaned children
were routinely placed in the local orphanage. Very few were adopted or taken in by a foster family.
With financial and technical support from USAID and CCF, the Chausy State Child Protection Service launched a public awareness
campaign on alternative care and training for foster and adoptive
families in July 2007. With its “You too can take an orphan in your family” slogan, the campaign
sought to motivate citizens to adopt or to consider foster care.
Local child protection specialists
report that new training in Belarus—originally developed by the Child Welfare League of America and Illinois Department of Family and Children’s Services—provides a framework for the recruitment,
preparation, and selection of foster and adoptive
parents.
The model has been particularly successful in Chausy. Child protection experts note that parents trained in the program
are committed
to the principle
“I am there for a child, not a child for me”; understand the importance of a child’s contacts with his or her biological parents; and are more willing to work collaboratively
to resolve problems.
The family with whom Fyodor and Raya were placed, and others,
shed a commonly-held belief in Belarus that it is better to take in a child at a very young age. Now there is real hope for older orphaned children.
In Chausy, the number of orphaned children in alternative care has increased 75 percent. Since the campaign began last summer, the number of inquiries from citizens about adoption and for the recruitment,
preparation, and selection of foster and adoptive
parents.
The model has been particularly successful in Chausy. Child protection experts note that parents trained in the program
are committed
to the principle
“I am there for a child, not a child for me”; understand the importance of a child’s contacts with his or her biological parents; and are more willing to work collaboratively
to resolve problems.
The family with whom Fyodor and Raya were placed, and others,
shed a commonly-held belief in Belarus that it is better to take in a child at a very young age. Now there is real hope for older orphaned children.
In Chausy, the number of orphaned children in alternative care has increased 75 percent. Since the campaign began last summer, the number of inquiries from citizens about adoption and foster care has increased six-fold and training enrollment is on the rise. Fifteen of the 37 parents who completed training during the past year are now adoptive or foster parents; there is now a waiting list of families who have completed training and are willing to take in a child. Today in Chausy, these children
are no longer placed in state institutions—they have a choice: adoption or foster family care.
USAID is currently working to disseminate Chausy’s experience
to other communities across the country.
★
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