Pedro Domínguez from Jaen took in a four-year-old boy as a single-parent family.
Now, when the youngest is already 16, he is increasingly clear about the correctness of his decision and the positive aspects of family diversity.
“Emotionally, when he arrived he was indomitable.
He was unfocused, nervous.
And, today, he has a wonderful adolescence.
With good grades, he respects the house rules, the schedules... he even has his girlfriend! ", Domínguez indicates that, now with his partner, they are one of the thousands of families that resort to fostering minors. .
In Andalusia there are more than 2,000 minors who urgently need family care.
They are children and adolescents up to the age of 18 who have arrived at residential protection centers after the Andalusian Government has withdrawn guardianship from their biological parents for having incurred negligence, abandonment, physical or psychological abuse and even sexual abuse.
“We want to appeal to people's commitment and sensitivity.
Currently there are hundreds of foster families that are radically changing the lives of these minors, but we still need many more,” explains Natalia Prieto, a social worker from the Jaén-based association Apraf-a which, along with the Andalusian ones Aldaima, Alcores e Infania, have launched the campaign
I just want a home
, to address the need to guarantee a family to children and adolescents who are waiting in protection centers.
“Suddenly a little person comes to you, in our case a very special little person, with a lot of energy who sometimes asks you things that make you a little confused.
Thanks to that, our children are learning from other realities.
For this reason, we always encourage, we believe that we must bet on these children and give them a home,” explain Granada residents Olga Liñán and Nelson Quintero, who take in a six-year-old little girl who lives with her two biological children.
There are different types of foster care: emergency care, up to six months;
the temporary, up to two years;
and the permanent one, until the minors reach the age of majority.
“The first option is always that the minors can return to their parents, which is why a period of two years is given to see if the parents can solve their vulnerable situation;
Then the members of the extended family have preference and, finally, foster care comes into play, where ties and even visits to the parents of origin are maintained," emphasizes psychologist Elena Sánchez, another of the coordinators of the Apraf association. -to.
The greatest difficulty that these foster care associations encounter is preventing the little ones from entering protection centers.
“They are centers that are already very saturated and where they have to live with adolescents and young people up to 18 years old, and that is not usually easy,” explains Natalia Prieto.
The contrast with this situation is given by the resistance of families to take in children over six or seven years old.
María Albert, social educator from the Alcores association, responsible for the project in Huelva, remembers what the minor who had her home told her about the protection centers: “It was an uncomfortable place, it was very big and loneliness persisted despite “workers should be involved in their well-being.”
The
I just want a home
campaign has traveled through the eight Andalusian provinces to raise awareness and spread the importance of the role of welcoming families.
Families must be assessed to obtain suitability.
Subsequently, they must undergo a short training course explaining what foster care consists of, its modalities and issues to take into account regarding children in foster care.
Finally, a psychosocial study and interviews are carried out on the personal and health situation of the applicants, their motivations, abilities, as well as visits to the home of the future foster family.
There must be an exclusive space for the boy or girl to sleep and be, but it is not necessary for them to have their own room.
“The relevance of the role of these families lies in the need for these minors to be able to spend as much time as possible in a home and have their right to grow up in a family assured,” says Karima el Harchi Biro, president of the Granada association Aldaima.
But the most important thing that the organizations that promote this campaign want to convey is “how foster care can have a radically positive impact on these minors and change their living conditions in their present and future, providing them with love, home and different opportunities.”
“They are normal children who have adapted to a survival environment because they grow up in a hostile environment,” concludes Lorenzo Pérez, social worker and disseminator on child protection.
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