Agency urges more Asian people to become foster carers
04.06.09
One of the UK's leading fostering agencies is urging more people from Asian communities to become foster carers to look after vulnerable Asian children and young people in care in the UK.
Pathway Care Group, which has offices throughout England and Wales, called for action as this year's Fostering Fortnight gets underway. The event is an opportunity to highlight the work of foster carers, clarify confusion about the role, and draw attention to the need to recruit more Asian people into the role.
According to official figures*, 59,500 children were in the care of local authorities in the UK last year, 3,500 of these were unaccompanied asylum seeking children, many of them from Asian backgrounds.
Conor Rooney, of Pathway Care, said: "Children and young people in care including those of Asian-heritage are missing out on family life and the opportunities most of us take for granted.
"While we need more foster carers from all Asian communities we especially need more Muslim Asian people to take up the role particularly in major towns and cities in England and Wales. The numbers of lone Muslim asylum seeking children needing foster care has risen over the last five years because of the numbers of Iraqi and Afghanistan children fleeing conflict in their countries and seeking asylum here," he added.
Pathway Care is eager to ensure that Asian children who come into its care are placed with foster care families who can offer the appropriate cultural, ethnic, religious, and linguistic support.
Mr Rooney, said: "It's vitally important for the development of foster children to provide them with a good home with the appropriate cultural, ethnic, religious, and language background. This benefits the welfare of the child and the foster carer, and improves the prospects for a successful placement.
"Because there's a particular shortage of Asian and Asian Muslim foster carers, it means that children are often placed in a family which doesn't reflect their cultural heritage. Placing children with foster carers from a broadly similar background allows children to grow up with a sense of personal, cultural and religious identity and helps them to develop self-esteem," he added.
Parveen Shah, a British-born Muslim from Birmingham, is a successful business woman, single mum of three, and a foster carer with Pathway Care. For almost six months she has cared for Saleem (not his real name) a 16-year-old Iraqi Muslim. She is urging more people from Asian communities to consider a career in foster care.
Parveen, said: "I decided to become a foster carer after reading about the lack of Asian carers and I felt I had a responsibility to help. My family and friends have fostered so I was aware of what was involved. As a mother and someone with two spare bedrooms I felt I had the skills and resources to help vulnerable children who needed somewhere to live.
"Caring for Saleem has been a wonderful experience but not without its challenges. We're a cultural match we're both Muslim and eat halal meat but we don't speak the same language which has been difficult. Saleem attends a special school, where he is taking English Lessons, so I'm sure his English will improve.
"Saleem fled Iraq because he was being targeted by militant groups, who wanted him to join them in fighting in the war. I am committed to making his time with me as comfortable and stable as possible. He's at an age, where he wants more independence, so I have to accommodate that. He is very capable of taking himself to the mosque I just tell him which buses to catch.
"Caring for young asylum seekers in particular is not always easy, as the children have often fled their own countries because of war and persecution. They are vulnerable and confused and need a lot of care and understanding. I've had a great deal of support and training from Pathway Care and I'm glad I chose to become a foster carer," she added.
Mr Rooney, said: "Foster carers offer a vital service helping children and young people from difficult backgrounds to rebuild their lives for the better. We try to match the child to a foster carer with a similar cultural background, so the child can maintain a sense of their heritage and identity.
"We are looking for carers from all walks of life and we want to raise awareness that people from Asian and especially Asian Muslim backgrounds are eligible to be foster carers. The main motivation for becoming a foster carer must always be the desire to help vulnerable children. For these people a career in fostering offers many advantages such as flexibility to work from home, a competitive salary and a structured career path.
"It's a common misconception that fostering is carried out on a charitable or voluntary basis. It's not. It is a professional salaried career for skilled people who provide an invaluable service to society."
He added: "We want to raise awareness that people from Asian backgrounds are eligible to be foster carers, subject to passing the appropriate stringent checks, to ensure the safety of the young people they look after, which all foster carers regardless of their ethnic background also undergo."
Pathway Care provides all its foster carers with social worker support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and offers on-going training.
For more information or an informal chat about fostering please contact Pathway Care on tel: 02920 811 173; email: mail@pathwaycare.org.uk; or visit the website at: www.pathwaycare.org.uk
