Foster parents trained on care reforms 

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Foster,

As Murang’a county prepares to launch and celebrate Foster care day on October 15, marking a milestone in implementing care reforms that are being piloted by the Directorate of children services in the counties of Meru, Kiambu and Murang’a, foster parents have received a two day training on care reforms. 

The over 80 current and potential foster parents drawn from the 8 sub counties were sensitized on care reform and its pillars of family strengthening and prevention of separation, Alternative care and tracing, reintegration and transitioning to family and community-based care under the care reform strategy 2024 as enshrined in the Children’s Act 2022.

Notably, the National Foster Care Day is normally celebrated annually every first Tuesday of May, but this time round, Muranga county will celebrate it on Oct 15, being the first ever celebrated. Kiambu County on the other hand will celebrate the Foster care day on October 19 while Meru County celebrated theirs day on Oct 4.

Speaking to KNA during the training, Murang’a South Sub-county Children’s officer Susan Wambui observed that the purpose that the foster parents came together was to learn on care reforms and to also create a support group and form a network of like-minded individuals.

“Within a network, these foster parents will also be able to engage in income generating activities to support not just the foster children but their families as well,” she said adding that, “through foster care we are creating an umbrella/a safety net for the children which will ensure that no child relocates to a children’s home in the face of life changing event like death “

Being in a home set up will also preserve the child’s cultural identity. KNA spoke to some of the foster parents on their motivation to take up responsibilities of parenting children who are not biologically theirs and what it takes to be a foster parent. Margrate Wambui Njuguna who is also a village elder from Kimorori Wempa location is a foster parent to 5 children who have been under her care for five years now.

“When the government issued a directive that all children should be in school, I went round the village and stumbled upon 5 children living with their elderly grandmother who was working in a quarry for a meagre sh 9 pay for a bucket of ballast thrashed,” she said adding that, “the children had been out of school for three years and the whereabouts of their mother was unknown.”

Wambui reported the incident to the area chief who gave her a go ahead to ensure the children had gone back to school and with the help of well-wishers, the children reported to a nearby primary school. After three years she reported to the children’s office and was granted the authority to foster the children who are currently in grade 7,6,3 and 2.

“I felt moved by the plight of those children and I have been taking care of them ever since and now their grandmother is bedridden but the lessons I have undergone on foster care will help me nurture them until they leave my nest.” She urges other parents to give a deaf ear to the discouraging voices as a far as foster parenting is concerned.

“Let us all aim to have children grow in a family setup because as it is only in families that the children will receive the most suitable support to meet their unique individual needs thereby upholding their best interests as they grow up holistically as opposed to growing up in a programmed children’s home,” observed the mother of three.

She notes that the journey is not without challenges as the society is yet to embrace foster parenting and thus, they face a lot of stigmatization. “If your neigbour adopts or brings in a child to foster, encourage them and help to also instill positive nurturing skills in that child because it takes a village to raise a child,” she notes.

Mr and Mrs Geoffrey Kanyoni (not their real names) on the other side have been married for close to four decades but have not been able to have a child of their own. This, they say prompted them to take in their nephew who was months old at the time and since outgrown their nest as he is now an adult and working.

“We brought him up as our own and we are here again to go through the process of becoming foster parents to another child who is not related to us although in future we will explore the option of adoption,” they said. They lauded the government for the initiative of care reforms and foster care noting that through that process they will be parents despite not having a child of their own.