CPA seeking perspective foster parents

…over 600 children in system

In observance of Foster Care Month, the Social Protection Ministry (MSP), in collaboration with the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA), held a media workshop with the aim of raising awareness of the foster care programme, while looking to increase the list of prospective foster parents.
The programme was launched under the theme “Open your hearts, open your home and foster a child.”
Speaking to media workers on Saturday, Director of CPA, Ann Greene, said the workshop is aimed at sensitizing the media about the newly introduced mentorship programme as a value support system for young people in foster care. Greene further noted that family-based care is what is needed for children, and the agency is trying to provide that for those children.
Meanwhile, manager of the programme, Colleen Khan, stated that foster care is considered an alternative care option for children who are abused and need to be placed in a safe and stable environment. Foster care also provides an appropriate family lifestyle for children who, for a variety of reasons, cannot live with their biological parents.
“It’s the agency policy to ensure that that child has a foster care placement in a residential care,” she told the gathering. As such, the agency is asking for persons to get on board with the programme and sign up to be a foster parent.
Khan added that as at the end of October 2017, statistics showed that more than 600 children were placed in residential care, and 167 in state care.
The foster care programme was introduced to the Guyanese public in 2010 by the then Human Services Ministry.