Four years ago, Gemma and Enric found themselves in a room facing a sealed envelope that was going to change their lives. This couple from Lleida had decided that they wanted to become a host family and, after almost a year of training courses and waiting for the phone to ring, they finally called them. They met with a technician from the Generalitat who explained to them that they had a “proposal”, but they only told them that it was a child under six years old. And based on that they had to decide whether to take it home or not.
They said yes, and only then were they able to open the envelope. “There were two photos and some other information there,” Gemma remembers. He was 18 months old and came, like all children protected by the system, from a broken family. Now the little boy has been living with this couple and his two biological daughters for four years.
“It’s a roller coaster. There are fantastic moments and others not so much. I’m not going to lie to you, it’s not easy because they bring a very big backpack,” says Enric. Despite being so small, they already have consequences. “You notice it in the levels of frustration, in the unexpected reactions… Think that, many times, everything starts with pregnancies that have not been normal,” says Toni. He is also a host family. In his case, a girl who came into his life when he was 7 years old. Now he is 23 and still at home.
They are an example of the 780 homes that offer to host children in Catalonia, but they are many fewer than the system needs. The Generalitat estimates that 1,400 are required to achieve its goal: that there be no children under six years of age living in a residential center.
There are currently 1,256 children of this age in care, but only 280 of them live in foster care. The remaining almost 1,000 are in residential centers. A situation that, for the Minister of Social Rights, Mònica Martínez, is “unsustainable.”
The challenge is shared by almost all the autonomous communities (only Cantabria and Aragón have achieved it), but it is not easy. Especially since the number of children supervised by the Generalitat has practically doubled in the last decade, while foster families have stagnated at around 750.
For this reason, the Generalitat has promoted a plan to increase the number of foster homes. After months of debating with the families, they have designed a strategy to disseminate and raise awareness, but also to solve the problems of these volunteers. “We wanted to ask ourselves why there aren’t more,” says the councilor, who has specified that the Government will allocate 2.3 million euros to this task.
Hiring personnel to simplify procedures
One of the first actions will be the hiring of 25 people who will help expedite procedures and procedures, which is one of the issues that most concerns families. An example is the prior assessment report which, by law, must be carried out within a maximum period of six months, but can take more than a year and a half.
This affects, above all, the families who volunteer for emergency foster care and who have the children during these six months in which their situation is evaluated to decide if they can return to their biological families or should stay in the foster care system. guardianship. “This period is always extended, with everything that entails,” explains Imma, a foster mother and, also, president of the Association of Host Families of Barcelona (AFABAR).
She found herself in this situation. He took in an almost two-year-old girl and the deadlines were so long that he ended up staying with her. Now he is about to turn 10 years old and, from the DGAIA, they have just confirmed that the situation of his biological family is not optimal and they have asked him to take care of it until he reaches the age of majority.
“It’s something we have to solve now. Especially because there are families who cannot keep the child, but have already been with it for so long that a bond is generated. And breaking it can be very harmful,” says the counselor. Imma completely agrees and adds that warded creatures “have the bug of abandonment forever. Something inside them reminds them that their parents left them and that generates lifelong trauma.”
More aid and more flexible visits
Another of the highlights of the Generalitat’s plan lies in making the visitation regime more flexible. Since they have to be supervised by a technician from the Generalitat, they are always carried out during working hours, which complicates the reconciliation of adults and children. “It’s not just that I, every two weeks, have to ask for leave from work. But the girl must be absent from school. And that meant that an issue that could have been handled discreetly ended up becoming a reason for ridicule and bullying,” Imma laments.
Furthermore, they explain, visits are not easy experiences for the creatures. “They want to see their parents, it’s normal, but sometimes they come back very upset,” he adds. And it’s not just because of the separation, but, in some cases, seeing them is reliving traumas. As the Ministry points out, 18% of these children have been victims of physical violence and 8% have suffered the consequences of sexist violence at home.
“Some mothers appear with a black eye… And many times the visits have to be supervised by the Mossos,” explain Gemma and Enric, who belong to the Lleida family association (AFALL). They recognize that it is not an easy experience, but they assure that it is worth helping creatures in their situation. “These kids make you love them in a way you didn’t know you could,” she sums up.
The sacrifice is great, emotionally but also economically. Along these lines, another point of the plan is to achieve tax relief and advantages. Households have a monthly supplement that ranges from 500 euros to 900, but “it is not a money problem,” all those interviewed agree.
What they ask for and what the Generalitat is working on with the Ministry of Social Rights is that the care of these creatures can be used to contribute – in case it is so demanding that it causes one of the caregivers to stop working – and that they have advantages similar to those of large or single-parent families.
“It is incredible how much it costs to do any procedure. If it is already difficult to get normal aid, imagine when you ask for it for someone who is not legally your child,” says Toni, who believes that supervised children should have a series of supports, such as scholarships, already pre-assigned. “If you need them, you claim them and if you don’t, you don’t.”
The abyss after coming of age
Toni’s foster daughter is 23 years old. She came into his life 16 years ago and, although he never officially adopted her and she is now of age, she continues to live in her house. “It is a difficult situation and no one prepares you for what happens when you turn 18,” he laments. As they are of legal age, they are no longer under guardianship and the administration stops taking care of them. “No one looks at them or cares anymore,” says Toni.
For a period of time, these young people have an allowance of 600 euros, but it solves nothing. What’s more, it can make things worse. “They are mostly unstable kids. They do not need money, but support in studies and at work. “They are consumed by a trauma that makes it difficult for them to be constant,” says this foster father, who remembers that only 4% of foster children reach university.
Scientific evidence confirms that separation from the biological family has very harmful effects on the physical and cognitive development of boys and girls. These effects are greatly reduced if, instead of living in a residential center, they do so with a family. For this reason, the Generalitat seeks to ensure that there are no children living in a residential center, but rather in foster homes. But the ultimate goal is that all the little ones can end up returning to their parents.
Even so, according to current figures, this is only achieved in 10% of cases. Of the rest, the vast majority live in residential centers, without the stability or warmth of a home. In fact, Catalonia is the community with the most children in this situation. Only some, those who are luckier, end up living with families like Imma, Toni or Gemma and Enric.
“Hosting is engaging,” says Gemma, asked what she would say to families who are thinking about taking the step. “It’s hard, but it’s worth knowing that you’re helping a creature that just wants to be loved,” he concludes.
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