A Family For Me

"Is there a family for me?"

What could we say to those boys for whom there was no prospect of reunification back with their loving biological family? We needed substitute families for them so we pioneered foster care placements within Romania despite being told that at that time no one would be interested in fostering abandoned or orphaned boys with years in residential care. This was the beginning of our 'A family for me' project.

Initially we recruited foster carers directly with radio ads, employing them as FICR staff but only ever placing the boys from Acasa into their care. As our relationship with the local child protection services deepened (through referrals from their emergency placement centres and later FICR's director being appointed to their commission) things began to change once again.…