In Piti, a 12-year-old girl received brightly wrapped gifts from her huge extended foster family while her 75-year-old foster mother smiled gently watching the scene.
Across the U.S., there are 107,000 children in foster care waiting to be adopted, ranging in age from less than a year to 21. Through tragedy, abuse, or neglect more than 250,000 American children enter the foster care system every year. While more than half of these children will return to their parents, the remainder stay in the system. Most of these children are living with foster families, but some are forced to stay in group facilities, such as the detention home at Guam’s Department of Youth Affairs.
On Guam, there are nearly 300 children who need a loving home. Although caring and kind people have stepped forward to help, there are still fewer than 30 foster families on Guam. The mother of a large family herself, first lady Christine Calvo has been working with social service professionals and community advocates to encourage more local families to foster children in need.
You don’t have to have a lot of money or be a child-care expert to become a foster or adoptive parent. The reality is that you don’t need to own your own home, be wealthy, have children already, or be a stay-at-home parent to adopt. National child advocate Michael Piraino has called for action to help children in foster care find permanency. “None of these children are waiting for a castle or a mansion. All they want is another chance. All they’re waiting for is a break. It was not their choice to be unable to live with their biological parents. It was not their choice to be removed from their families and enter the foster care system. These children deserve a second chance at a happy, healthy permanent home.”
Most adoptions from U.S. foster care are free. Minimal costs associated with them are often reimbursable. In addition, there are many different types of post-adoption resources, such as medical assistance and financial adoption assistance, based on the special needs of a child to help support and sustain adoptions from the U.S. foster care system. Guam Foster Care and Adoption Guidelines are available by contacting the Department of Public Health and Social Services at 671-475-2653 or 671-475-2672.
You don’t have be a foster parent to help children in foster care. There are lots of ways to put your valuable abilities to work raising awareness and advocating on behalf of waiting children. Becoming a mentor or tutor for a child in foster care is a great way to make the difference of a lifetime for children in need of permanency. There are lots of different ways to mentor children of all ages. Volunteering to work with disadvantaged kids at our local public schools would be a great place to start.
Many children in foster care have very little to call their own. Everything from back-to-school supplies, toys, and suitcases are needed by foster care organizations around the country. Whatever you can give will go a long way, whether it’s a donation of money or supplies directly to an organization or organizing a fundraising or donation drive.
This Yuletide season while other kids were worrying about what gifts they were going to get for Christmas, students of Okkodo High School collected more than 50 gifts for the island’s foster children and presented them to first lady Christine Calvo. Mrs. Calvo thankfully received the gifts for the Rigålu Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports Guam’s foster children and their foster families. For more information on the Rigålu Foundation or to find out how you can help, please call 671-475-9475.
The Guam Foster Families Association will be holding its next general membership meeting Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012 at 10 a.m. Contact them on facebook or via email at [email protected] or [email protected] for more details.
Dr. Vincent T Akimoto, MD, is a family practitioner based on Barrigada, Guam. He also graduated from Sr. Bernadita’s first grade class at Mount Carmel School in Chalan Kanoa, Saipan.
