Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş made evaluations about the latest situation in the foster family system implemented within the scope of family-oriented service models.
THERE ARE 8 THOUSAND 140 FOSTER FAMILIES
Noting that the foster family service model contributes to the development of children in a safe and supportive family environment determined by the Ministry, Minister Göktaş stated that the foster family service model is a source of hope for children who cannot be cared for by their biological families.
"Our foster families not only offer a home to our children, but also nurture their dreams and hopes," said Minister Göktaş, adding, "Within the scope of our foster family service model, 2002 children were cared for by 500 families in 515, while today the number of children cared for by our 8 foster families is 140." "It reached 10," he said. "As per our understanding of social service, we are trying to create the same conditions for all our children," said Minister Göktaş, adding, "After they are placed in foster care, we monitor our children by making on-site visits every month for the first year and every 84 months from the second year onwards. "During the monitoring, we evaluate the psychosocial development of our children and their attendance at education," he said.
Stating that they do not leave the families alone financially due to this special responsibility they undertake and that they support them economically to meet the needs of the children, Minister Göktaş said, “We provide support to foster families with an average monthly amount of 8 thousand 895 liras, including insurance payments. We also provide care support to foster families who care for a child with a disability due to their disability. "Thus, the responsibility of raising children is shared between the state and foster families," he said.
“WE WILL CONTINUE TO PROVIDE A WARM HOME TO OUR PROTECTED CHILDREN”
Stating that they held various workshops and meetings to solve the problems faced by foster families and children who benefit from the service, Minister Göktaş said, “We continue our work to improve the quality of our foster family service model. In this context, we held the second of our "Child Protection-Based Foster Family Workshop" in January. We started to implement the outputs we obtained from this workshop. "We are strengthening our service for all our children, especially our adolescent and foreign children who benefit from foster family services, through thematic meetings in many provinces," he said.
Minister Göktaş stated that they recently organized a "Temporary Foster Family Workshop" and said, "With the temporary foster family model becoming operational, we will further expand the scope of foster family service in our country and continue to offer a warm home to our children under care and protection."
Meanwhile, Minister Göktaş stated that the foster family service model was taken as an example in Azerbaijan and that studies were carried out to adapt it to the country, and informed that experts working in the field helped to establish the foster family service in Azerbaijan.
